The reason he was so afraid was, that his nurse, when he was a very little fellow, had told him very often, that if he did not go to sleep, she would catch a spider and put it on him. Now this was very wicked indeed in the nurse, and when his Mother found out that she had been telling Harry this, she was very angry, and sent her directly out of the house.
Harry's Mother had tried very hard to cure him of his foolish fears about spiders; but he did not get over them, and they often made him miserable.
One day Harry went with his Mother to visit a friend. This lady had a little daughter about two years old, a very pretty and good-humored child. She was sitting on the carpet when Harry came in, playing with a little woolly dog and making it bark. She knew Harry, for he had been there before with his Mother. So she held the dog out to him and said, "Tum here, Henny." She could not speak plain, and what she said sounded very funny.
Harry sat down on the carpet by her, and took the dog, and made it say, "bow wow wow!"
Little Mary laughed and clapped her hands, and said, "Do it aden, Henny."
So Harry pressed the spring again, and made the dog say, "bow wow wow," when just as he was going to give it back to little Mary, she stooped down, and cried, "Look, look, Henny, what a pretty little 'pider, only see the little 'pider."
Harry threw down the dog, and began to scream with all his might. He ran to his Mother and hid his face on her shoulder, and cried, "Take it away! Oh take it away!"
All this time little Mary had been looking at him with surprise. She did not cry, for she was not afraid of the poor spider. It was of the kind that children call a 'daddy long-legs,' and Mary thought it was very funny to see it straddling over the carpet, trying to get away as fast as it could.
"Oh Harry! for shame," said his Mother; "why, which is the biggest—the spider or you? Only see—little Mary is laughing at you."
Henry raised his head from his Mother's shoulder, and looked at Mary. He stopped crying, and began to feel ashamed. He saw the spider crawling over little Mary's frock, and she sat quite still, and let it go just where it wanted to go. His Mother said to him, "Go, Harry, and count the long legs of the spider, and see if you can find his mouth—it cannot hurt you."