“I saw you as soon as you came,” she said.
“I suppose you will stay to the meeting. I’m to be chair-spider.”
“Chair-spider?” repeated Ruth, slightly confused by those eight bright eyes. “And please, what meeting?”
“Why, our meeting, of course. Mrs. Cobweb Weaver says men always have a chairman at their meetings, so why shouldn’t spiders have a chair-spider, I’d like to know?”
“I suppose they should,” agreed Ruth.
“Of course we should. Considering you are a human creature, with only two eyes, two legs, and no spinnerets, you really show a great deal of sense. Now sit down on the crotch of that little tree, then you will be near me and can hear all I say. What’s that thing you are carrying?”
“Why, it’s Belinda, my doll,” explained Ruth. “I tell her everything. I think she will like your—your—meeting.”
“Well, I don’t care whether she does or not,” said Madame Spider. “Now our friends are arriving, and as you can see, with even two eyes, they are all shapes and sizes. Long legged, short legged, plump, thin, grave and gay. All colours too—quite enough to satisfy any taste, I should say.”
Ruth looked about her in wide-eyed astonishment.
“I never knew there were so many kinds of spiders,” she said at last, “or that they had such lovely colours. I thought spiders were mostly grayish or brownish.”