* * * * * At last we came to a round black road That tunnelled through the woods and showed, Or so we thought, a good clear way Back to the upper lands of day; Great silken cables overhead In many a mighty mesh were spread Netting the rounded arch, no doubt To keep the weight of leafage out. And, as the tunnel narrowed down So thick and close the cords had grown No leaf could through their meshes stray, And the faint moonlight died away; Only a strange grey glimmer shone To guide our weary footsteps on, Until, tired out, we stood before The end, a great grey silken door. Then from out a weird old wicket, overgrown with shaggy hair Like a weird and wicked eyebrow round a weird and wicked eye, Two great eyeballs and a beard For one ghastly moment peered At our faces with a sudden stealthy stare: Then the door was opened wide, And a hideous hermit cried With a shy and soothing smile from out his lair, _Won’t you walk into my parlour? I can make you cosy there!_ And we couldn’t quite remember where we’d heard that phrase before, As the great grey-bearded ogre stood beside his open door; But an echo seemed to answer from a land beyond the sky-- _Won’t you walk into my parlour? said the spider to the fly!_ Then we looked a little closer at the ogre as he stood With his great red eyeballs glowing like two torches in a wood, And his mighty speckled belly and his dreadful clutching claws, And his nose--a horny parrot’s beak, his whiskers and his jaws; Yet he seemed so sympathetic, and we saw two tears descend, As he murmured, “I’m so ugly, but I’ve lost my dearest friend! I tell you most lymphatic’ly, I’ve yearnings in my soul,”-- And right along his parrot’s beak we saw the tear-drops roll; He’s an _arrant sentimentalist_, we heard a distant sigh, _Won’t you weep upon my bosom? said the spider to the fly._ “If you’d dreamed my dreams of beauty, if you’d seen my works of art, If you’d felt the cruel hunger that is gnawing at my heart, And the grief that never leaves me and the love I can’t forget, (For I loved with all the letters in the Chinese alphabet!) Oh, you’d all come in to comfort me: you ought to help the weak; And I’m full of melting moments; and--I--know--the--thing--you--seek!” And the haunting echo answered, _Well, I’m sure you ought to try; There’s a duty to one’s neighbour, said the spider to the fly._ So we walked into his parlour Though a gleam was in his eye; And it _was_ the prettiest parlour That ever we did spy!