Enid Blyton (10 page)

"Two smacks for a spider,

Two slaps on his nose.

Two whacks on his ankles,

Hi-tiddley-toze!"

"That
’
s Saucepan, singing his rude spider-song
agai
n," whispered Miss Muffet. "Oh—
look out!
There
’
s the spider!"

X

"There
’
s the spider! Here he comes!" cried
everyone.

And there the spider certainly was. He was
very large, had eight eyes to see with, and eight
hairy legs to walk with. He wore a blue and red
scarf round his neck, and he sneezed as he came.

"Wish-oo! Wish-oo! Bother this cold! No sooner
do I lose one cold than I get another!"

He suddenly saw the little company of six
people, and he stared with all his eight eyes. "What
do
you
want?" he said.

Moon-Face went forward boldly, looking far
braver than he felt.

"We
’
ve come to tell you to set our friend free,"
he said. "Open that webby door at once and let
him
out. We know he
’
s down there, because we
can hear him singing."

Out floated Saucepan
’
s voice. "Two smacks for
a spider . . ."

"There! He
’
s singing that rude song again!"
said the spider, looking most annoyed. "No, I
certainly shan
’
t let him go. He wants a lesson."

"I tell you, you
must
let him go!" said Moon-Face. "He doesn
’
t belong to your Land. He
belongs to ours. He
’
ll be most unhappy here."

"Serve him right,
" said the spider. “A-
wish-oo!
A-
wish-oo! Bother this cold."

"I hope you get hundreds of colds!" said
Moon-Face, crossly. "Are you going to let
Saucepan free, or shall we slash that door into
bits?"

"Try, if you like!" said the spider, taking out a
big red handkerchief from somewhere. "You
’
l
l
be
sorry, that
’
s all I can say."

"Anyone got a knife?" asked Moon-Face.
Nobody had. So Moon-Face marched to a nearby
hedge and cut out two or three stout sticks. He
gave one to
J
o, one to Watzisname, and another
to Fanny. He could see that Connie and Miss
Muffet wo
u
l
dn
’
t be much use, so he didn
’
t give
them a stick.

"Now—s
l
ash down the door!" cried Moon-
Face.
The spider didn
’
t say anything, but a horrid
smile came on its face. It sat down and watched.

Moon-Face ran to the webby door and slashed at
it with his stick.
Jo
and Watzisname slashed too,
and Fanny followed.

But the webby door stuck to their sticks, and
wound itself all round them. They tried to get it
off, but the web stuck to them too. Soon it was
floating about in long threads fastening itself
round their legs and arms.

The spider got up. Connie and Miss Muffet
were frightened and ran off as fast as they could.
They hid under a bush and watched. They saw
the spider push
Jo
, Moon-
Face, Fanny and
Watzisname into a heap together, and then roll
them up in grey web so that they were caught like
flies.

Then he bundled them all into his cave, and sat
down to spin another webby door.

"A-
wish-
oo!" sneezed the spider, suddenly.
Then he coughed. He certainly had a terrible cold.
He spied Connie and Miss Muffet under the bush
and called to them.

"You come over here too, and I
’
ll wrap you up
nice and cosy in my web!"

Both Connie and Miss Muffet gave a squeal and
ran back to Miss Muffet
’
s cottage as fast as ever
they could. When they got there they saw Bessie
coming along with J
ack and
J
ill.

"Hul
l
o, Miss Muffet!" called
Jack
. "Fancy,
because of Bessie
’
s help, I got down the hill for
the
first
time without
falling over and hurting my
head. Mother was very pleased, and she
’
s given
me a whole day off and
J
ill too. So we thought
we
’
d come and spend it with the other children,
and Moon-Face. Where are they?"

"Oh, they
’
ve been taken prisoner by Miss
Muffet
’
s spider!" said Connie. She told them all
about it, and Bessie stared in dismay. What!
J
o
and Fanny being kept prisoner by a horrid old
spider! Whatever could be done?

"And he had an awful cold," finished Connie.
"I never knew spiders could catch colds before.
He was coughing and sneezing just like we do."

"Sounds as if he ought to be in bed," said
J
i
l
l.
"Look out—here he comes!"

"A-wish-
oo!" said the spider, as he came by.
“A-wish-
oo! Bother this cold!"

"Why don
’
t you do something for it?" said
J
ill,
stepping boldly forward. She knew the spider quite
well, and was not afraid of him.

"Well, I
’
ve put a scarf on, haven
’
t I?" said the
Spider, sniffling.
"What more can I do?"

"You
’
d better put your feet in a mustard bath,"
s
aid
J
ack. "That
’
s what Mother makes us do if we
have a bad cold. And we have to go to bed too, and
drink hot lemon."

"That does sound nice and comforting," said
the spider. "But I
’
ve got no bed, and no one to
look after me—and no lemon."

"If Miss Muffet will lend you a bed, and squeeze
you a lemon,
J
ack and I will look after you," said
Jill. Miss Muffet stared at her in horror, but Jill
gave her a nudge. She had a reason for saying all
this. Miss Muffet swallowed hard and then
nodded.

"All right! He can have my spare-room bed
—
but he is not to wander about my house and eat
my curds and whey."

"I won
’
t, I promise I won
’
t," said the spider,
gratefully. "I
’
ll be very good indeed. Thank you,
Miss Muffet. Perhaps I won
’
t frighten you any
more after this
!
"

"What about a bath to put his feet in?" said
J
ill.
"You haven
’
t a big enough one, Miss Muffet. You
see, a spider has eight feet, not two."

"I
’
ve got a big bath in my cave," said the spider.
"I
’
ll go and get it."

"Certainly not," said
Jack
. "You mustn
’
t go
about in the open air any more, with that dreadful
cold. You get into bed at once.
I
’
ll
fetch your
bath."

"But—but
—
there
’
s a webby door over my cave—and you can
’
t possibly get through it—and
besides, there are prisoners there," said the spider.

"Well, tell me how to undo the door without
getting caught up in that nasty webby stuff," said
J
ack. "Then I can get your bath and bring it."

"Have you got a nice big cotton-reel, Miss
Muffet?" asked the spider. "You have? Good! Give
it to
J
ack and he can take it with him. You
’
ll
find
the end of the web-thread just by the handle of the
webby door,
J
ack. Take hold of it and pull. Wind
it round the reel and the web will all unravel
nicely. You will be able
to pull the
door undone
just like people pull a woollen jersey undone
!
"

"Well, I never!" said
J
ill, in surprise. "That
’
s
something to know, anyway. Is that the reel, Miss
Muffet? Right! W
e
’
ll go. We
’
ll leave you to see
the spider into bed, and squeeze him a
l
emon,
and
put a kettle on to boil. Then, when we come back
with the bath, we can put mustard into a hot bath
of water, and make the spider put his feet into it.
Then his cold will soon be better."

The spider looked very happy at being cared for
like this. He looked gratefully at the children out
of his eight eyes.

Connie,
Jack
and
J
ill and Bessie set of
f. The
spider called after them. "Hi! What about my
prisoners? I don
’
t want them to escape. You
’
l
l
find them all bound up in web. Leave them like
that, and put a stone or something over the mouth
of my cave, will you?"

"We
’
ll fi
nd a nice big stone," promised
J
ack.
"Now hurry up and get into bed."

Soon the four of them got to the spider
’
s cave
and saw the webby door. Behind it they could hear
Moon-Face
groaning and grumbling, and
Saucepan humming one of his songs.

"Look—
there
’
s the end of the web, sticking out
just there!" said Connie, pointing to the middle
of the door.

"Who
’
s there?" called
Jo
, from below.

"Me, Connie," said Connie, "and Bessie too,
and
J
ack
and
J
ill, come to rescue you. W
e
’
re going
to undo the door."

J
ack pulled at the web-
end, and a thread
unravelled from the webby door. He wound it
round and round the reel. Soon the door began to
fall to pieces as all the thread it was made of was
wound round the big cotton-reel. Then the children
could see inside the cave. They saw Moon-Face,
Watzisname, Saucepan,
J
o and Fanny all in a heap
together, bound tightly by the sticky spider-thread.

They went into the cave, but
J
o called out to
them in warning: "Don
’
t come near us or you
’
ll
be all messed up in this horrid sticky web."

"I
’
m just going to f
ind the end of the web that
is binding you so tightly, and unravel it," said
Jack
. "Then you
’
ll be free."

He found the end of the thread, and soon he was
unravelling it like wool, and the four prisoners
rolled over and over on the floor as their bonds
were pulled away. And at last they were free!

"Oooh! Thank you," said
J
o, sitting up. "I feel
better now that sticky stuff is off. What a lot you
’
ve
got on that cotton-reel,
J
ack!"

"Perhaps you would like to take it home and
give it to Silky, as a little present," said
Jack
. "I
know she often makes dresses, doesn
’
t she?"

"Oh yes, she
’
d love it," said
J
o, taking it. "Come
on—let
’
s get out of here and go home. I
’
m tired of
Nursery Rhyme Land."

"We promised the spider we
’
d block up the
door of his cave so that you couldn
’
t escape," said
J
ack, with a grin. "You get out first, and we
’
ll put
a stone here after!"

So they did. Then, taking the spider
’
s big bath
on his shoulder,
Jack
led the way back. "Don
’
t go
near the window in case the spider sees you," he
said to Moon-Face and the others. "I
’
l
l
just fetch
little Miss Muffet out to say
goodbye
to you, then
you can go."

He went in with the bath. Miss
Muffet
had the
kettle boiling and poured the water into it, adding
a packet of yellow mustard. She stirred it up and
called to the spider: "Come along—it
’
s ready!"

He got out of bed and put his feet into it, all
eight of them. Then he suddenly looked up. "I can
hear my prisoners whispering together!" he said.
"They must have escaped. I must go after them!"