Children's Column. THE SPIDER'S ORATION.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Issue 33, 7 January 1899, Page 4

Children's Column. THE SPIDER'S ORATION.

Come, children, who fancy we spiffers are fools, And view the lace houses we build without tools. I'm just about finishing on« at the lattice: Come quick, and I'll operate for you, all gratis. And where do you think are my shuttle and loom ? You see no machinery here in the room, No silk thread, nor cotton, and yet you all see This wonderful fabric is woven by me. It's all in my little round abdomen here ; No steam apparatus to burst, never fear ! It's haid to explain to yon just how I do it. Look bharp, and perhaps your bright eyes will 6ee through it. The costume Cinderella wore at her first ball Was wrought by an ancestor, robe-, veil and all ; With hues of the rainbow the fabric was blended, She captured the prince, but you know how it ended. What would a fine l»dj not give to posoess A spider web drnporv oYr a silk dress I The weaver, if human, would wm a great name, While artisan spiders no merit may claim For the unobtrusive and .skilful and wt^e. We try to relieve you of troublesome flics — We're hunted and scouted with duster and broom, And all our fine tapestiy swept from the room. When questions " What spiders were made for ?" arise Some wiseacre answers, "They're Made to catch flies !" " And what were flies made for ?" he answers again. " To feed hungi j spiders, I'm sure this 1* plain." Now this is chop logic, or reason in rings. Observe how I amputate this beetle's wings : There ! done like as M.D., with minus x tool. Now have I not proved you the spider's no fool ? I've shown him a Weaver, the best in the nation, An architect planning his own habitation. A maker of traps to catch fishes with wings, A surgeon accomplishing wonderful things, A skilled decorator of mansion and cot, A plain, honest worker content with hit lot, And last, you'll admit, little children — t know it : I've proved him an orator, scholar and poet.