He had tried and tried, but couldn’t succeed, and so he became quite sad.
He flung himself down in low despair, as grieved as man could be;
And after a while as he pondered there, “I’ll give it all up,” said he.
Now just at the moment a spider dropped, with its silken cobweb clew,
And the king in the midst of his thinking stopped to see what the spider would do.
’Twas a long way up to the ceiling dome, and it hung by a rope so fine,
That how it would get to its cobweb home, King Bruce could not divine.
It soon began to cling and crawl straight up with strong endeavor,
But down it came, with a slipping sprawl, as near to the ground as ever.
Up, up it ran, not a second it stayed, to utter the least complaint,