FRISBY THE SPIDER by Barbara Sheppard

One day Grannie B decided to go into town and as she climbed into the driving seat of her car she noticed a spider’s web on the wing mirror, so she got out of the car again to remove it. As she put out her hand to wipe the cobweb away she saw a spider coming out from the back of the wing mirror. ‘’Oh no,’’ she thought, ‘’I don’t think that it’s fair that I should destroy that spider’s lovely cobweb; it must have taken him all night to make it. It’s a work of art,’’ she said out loud.

Then Grannie B got back into the car and backed out of the driveway. As she drove along the road she could see the spider out of the corner of her eye and was pleased to see him moving inside the cobweb. ‘’How nice,’’ said Grannie B.

The spider was very relieved that Grannie B had not disturbed his web. ‘’It’s taken me a long time to make it and I feel like having a good rest now,’’ he said.

Grannie B did her shopping and came back to the car and saw the web was still there and she noticed how cleverly the spider had spun it. ‘’Hello again Mr. Spider,’’ she said cheerily and made her way back home to have a nice cup of tea.

This continued for quite a few days and Grannie B was always surprised to see the web still intact each time she went out in the car. One day there was a terrific thunderstorm and the rain poured down heavily making great puddles in the road. She looked out of her window watching the rain lashing down on her car. ‘’Poor spider,’’ she thought, ‘’this heavy rain will have washed the spider’s cobweb completely away.’’ After a while the rain stopped and the sun was shining down making rainbows in the puddles.

Grannie B was curious to see what had happened to the cobweb and went outside to the car and was most surprised to see the spider in the middle of the cobweb which was still all in one piece. ‘’That’s amazing, ‘’ she thought to herself. ‘’I know, I’m going to call you Frisby because you keep coming back,’’ laughed Grannie B. Then the spider saw that he had caught a nice big fly that was stuck on to his web. ‘’Now I know what I’m going to have for my dinner – that fly looks very juicy,’’ thought Frisby.

A couple of weeks went by and the spider’s web was still attached to the wing mirror. Grannie B was quite used to seeing it now and never missed a chance to look and smile and always said hello to Frisby and she telephoned her grandchildren to tell them the story of the spider and his cobweb.

One day Grannie B went to her club to meet her friends. Now this day turned out to be very windy with the wind howling around the car and as she sat in the driver’s seat she glanced in the direction of Frisby’s cobweb and she saw it was still there. As she motored along the road she looked at the web and saw it was being blown in and out in the high wind – just like the sails on a boat – and the spider was clinging to the web with all his might. The wind was so strong and the web was blown hard against the wing mirror and then back again. Grannie B stopped the car and gazed in wonder at the sheer strength of the web – no amount of gusty wind was going to destroy this wonderful piece of spidery architecture!

On a fine autumn morning, Grannie B went out to her car to say hello to Frisby. But – what a disappointment, there was no sign of the web and she looked all around but could find no trace of the plucky little spider. ‘’I suppose he got tired of that cobweb and wanted to find another home. This time somewhere more sheltered from the wind and rain now that the colder days are coming,’’ thought Grannie B.

She realized what a nice experience it had been to have had the company of that brave spider and to have been so close to one of nature’s very clever insects. She hoped Frisby would find a nice new home when he makes his next beautiful cobweb.

So children – let me give you something to look for. When you wake up in the morning and if the sun is shining brightly in the sky, go into your garden and look for a spider’s web and you will be thrilled by the beauty of it – especially if there has been heavy dew during the early hours.

There you will see on the spider’s web lots of tiny glistening dewdrops, each droplet shining like silver in the sunlight making such lovely colours of the rainbow.

Perhaps you could ask you mummy or daddy to take a photograph of it and then you could make a picture and hang it in your bedroom. And – if you are very lucky – you might even get a photograph of a spider sitting in the middle of the cobweb! Wow…!