The spider instantly descended again to the edge of the water, and shot out a thread, which it fixed to the cup at one end, while the other end floating in the air, also became fixed to the brim of the saucer. It first pulled this thread with its fore-feet, as if to ascertain its strength, then passed swiftly along it, spinning another floating thread as it went, lest the first should not be sufficiently secure to ensure its safety, and arriving safely on the brim of the saucer, descended the other side, and once more scampered off. “Well done, you clever creature,” Matilda exclaimed; “how I wish I could sometimes escape from the school-room as cleverly.” Leila glanced towards Mrs. Roberts half afraid. But Mrs. Roberts only smiled. “You are a sad girl, Matilda,” she said; “there is much folly bound up in your little heart, but I don’t despair of you; the time will come, and I trust ere long, when you will not find the school-room such an imprisonment.” Matilda looked gratefully at Mrs. Roberts, and sudden in all her impulses, she jumped up, and kissed her hand; then turning round, she said,--“But, Leila, you have expressed no surprise at all those wonderful things! I do believe you knew about them before, though you did not say a word.” “Yes,” Leila answered, quietly; “papa told me a good deal about spiders in the island.” “Out with it, then,” Matilda said, impatiently; “do, Leila, tell us every thing you know; how odd you are; when I know any thing I am dying to tell it. What more did your papa say about them?” “He showed me a water-spider, sailing in its curious little raft, and watching for its prey; and a mason-spider, living in a beautiful nest, lined with a sort of orange-coloured silk, which it had spun itself, and with a little door to its nest with a spring hinge, which shuts of itself when the spider goes in. And he did a curious thing about the eggs of the wolf-spider; he took away the bag of eggs, and then the little spider carried off the bag belonging to the large spider; and they had such a fight about it.” “Oh! do tell us more about that,” Matilda said, eagerly. “I should like so to hear about the fight; and so the little spider carried off the bag of eggs belonging to the big spider--that was most excellent!” “And most just,” Selina observed. “Now, Selina, that is so like you; how can you expect a spider to have a sense of justice, and it is natural for spiders to fight, I dare say; indeed it is natural for other people also sometimes, and just because they have a sense of justice. But, Leila, do tell us all about it.” Leila coloured; “Mrs. Roberts could explain it much better,” she said.