"I didn"t know there was such meanness and wickedness in the world," she thought. "The deep night of death is upon me.
Good-by, dear bright sun. Good-by, my dear friend-bees. Why did I leave you? A happy life to you. I must die."
The spider sat wary, a little to one side. She was still afraid of Maya"s sting.
"Well?" she jeered. "How are you feeling, little girl?"
Maya was too proud to answer the false creature. She merely said, after a while when she felt she couldn"t bear any more:
"Please kill me right away."
"Really!" said the spider, tying a few torn threads together.
"Really! Do you take me to be as big a dunce as yourself? You"re going to die anyhow, if you"re kept hanging long enough, and that"s the time for me to suck the blood out of you--when you can"t sting. Too bad, though, that you can"t see how dreadfully you"ve damaged my lovely web. Then you"d realize that you deserve to die."
She dropped down to the ground, laid the end of the newly spun thread about a stone, and pulled it in tight. Then she ran up again, caught hold of the thread by which little enmeshed Maya hung, and dragged her captive along.
"You"re going into the shade, my dear," she said, "so that you shall not dry up out here in the sunshine. Besides, hanging here you"re like a scarecrow, you"ll frighten away other nice little mortals who don"t watch where they"re going. And sometimes the sparrows come and rob my web.-- To let you know with whom you"re dealing, my name is Thekla, of the family of cross-spiders. You needn"t tell me your name. It makes no difference. You"re a fat bit, and you"ll taste just as tender and juicy by any name."
So little Maya hung in the shade of the blackberry vine, close to the ground, completely at the mercy of the cruel spider, who intended her to die by slow starvation. Hanging with her little head downward--a fearful position to be in--she soon felt she would not last many more minutes. She whimpered softly, and her cries for help grew feebler and feebler. Who was there to hear?
Her folk at home knew nothing of this catastrophe, so _they_ couldn"t come hurrying to her rescue.
Suddenly down, in the gra.s.s, she heard some one growling:
"Make way! _I"m_ coming."
Maya"s agonized heart began to beat stormily. She recognized the voice of Bobbie, the dung-beetle.
"Bobbie," she called, as loud as she could, "Bobbie, dear Bobbie!"
"Make way! _I"m_ coming."
"But I"m not in your way, Bobbie," cried Maya. "Oh dear, I"m hanging over your head. The spider has caught me."
"Who are you?" asked Bobbie. "So many people know me. You know they do, don"t you?"
"I am Maya--Maya, the bee. Oh please, please help me!"
"Maya? Maya?-- Ah, now I remember. You made my acquaintance several weeks ago.-- The deuce! You _are_ in a bad way, if I must say so myself. You certainly do need my help. As I happen to have a few moments" time, I won"t refuse."
"Oh, Bobbie, can you tear these threads?"
"Tear those threads! Do you mean to insult me?" Bobbie slapped the muscles of his arm. "Look, little girl. Hard as steel. No match for _that_ in strength. I can do more than smash a few cobwebs. You"ll see something that"ll make you open your eyes."
Bobbie crawled up on the leaf, caught hold of the thread by which Maya was hanging, clung to it, then let go of the leaf.
The thread broke, and they both fell to the ground.
"That"s only the beginning," said Bobbie.-- "But Maya, you"re trembling. My dear child, you poor little girl, how pale you are! Now who would be so afraid of death? You must look death calmly in the face as I do. So. I"ll unwrap you now."
Maya could not utter a syllable. Bright tears of joy ran down her cheeks. She was to be free again, fly again in the sunshine, wherever she wished. She was to live.
But then she saw the spider coming down the blackberry vine.
"Bobbie," she screamed, "the spider"s coming."
Bobbie went on unperturbed, merely laughing to himself. He really was an extraordinarily strong insect.
"She"ll think twice before she comes nearer," he said.
But there! The vile voice rasped above them:
"Robbers! Help! I"m being robbed. You fat lump, what are you doing with my prey?"
"Don"t excite yourself, madam," said Bobbie. "I have a right, haven"t I, to talk to my friend. If you say another word to displease me, I"ll tear your whole web to shreds. Well? Why so silent all of a sudden?"
"I am defeated," said the spider.
"That has nothing to do with the case," observed Bobbie. "Now you"d better be getting away from here."
The spider cast a look at Bobbie full of hate and venom; but glancing up at her web she reconsidered, and turned away slowly, furious, scolding and growling under her breath. Fangs and stings were of no avail. They wouldn"t even leave a mark on armor such as Bobbie wore. With violent denunciations against the injustice in the world, the spider hid herself away inside a withered leaf, from which she could spy out and watch over her web.
Meanwhile Bobbie finished the unwrapping of Maya. He tore the network and released her legs and wings. The rest she could do herself. She preened herself happily. But she had to go slow, because she was still weak from fright.
"You must forget what you have been through," said Bobbie. "Then you"ll stop trembling. Now see if you can fly. Try."
Maya lifted herself with a little buzz. Her wings worked splendidly, and to her intense joy she felt that no part of her body had been injured. She flew slowly up to the jasmine flowers, drank avidly of their abundant scented honey-juice, and returned to Bobbie, who had left the blackberry vines and was sitting in the gra.s.s.
"I thank you with my whole heart and soul," said Maya, deeply moved and happy in her regained freedom.
"Thanks are in place," observed Bobbie. "But that"s the way I always am--always doing something for other people. Now fly away. I"d advise you to lay your head on your pillow early to-night. Have you far to go?"
"No," said Maya. "Only a short way. I live at the edge of the beech-woods. Good-by, Bobbie, I"ll never forget you, never, never, so long as I live. Good-by."
[Ill.u.s.tration]
[Ill.u.s.tration]
CHAPTER VIII
THE BUG AND THE b.u.t.tERFLY
Her adventure with the spider gave Maya something to think about. She made up her mind to be more cautious in the future, not to rush into things so recklessly. Ca.s.sandra"s prudent warnings about the greatest dangers that threaten the bees, were enough to give one pause; and there were all sorts of other possibilities, and the world was such a big place--oh, there was a good deal to make a little bee stop and think.
It was in the evening particularly, when twilight fell and the little bee was all by herself, that one consideration after another stirred her mind. But the next morning, if the sun shone, she usually forgot half the things that had bothered her the night before, and allowed her eagerness for experiences to drive her out again into the gay whirl of life.
One day she met a very curious creature. It was angular and flat as a pancake, but had a rather neat design on its sheath; and whether its sheath were wings or what, you couldn"t really tell.
The odd little monster sat absolutely still on the shaded leaf of a raspberry bush, its eyes half closed, apparently sunk in meditation. The scent of the raspberries spread around it deliciously. Maya wanted to find out what sort of an animal it was. She flew to the next-door leaf and said how-do-you-do. The stranger made no reply.