Page:Fairies I have met.djvu/87

THE BIG SPIDER'S DIAMONDS Suddenly a little sun-fairy began to clap his hands.

"I've got an idea," he cried.

As his ideas were generally full of mischief and very interesting, all the other fairies stopped talking.

"It's a lovely idea," he went on, chuckling. "This is what we'll do. We'll wait till that silly old Spider goes to sleep or is busy, and then we'll rush down—quick as quick—and steal his diamonds!"

Then all the sun-fairies laughed and clapped their hands so loudly that the hole in the black cloud grew a good deal larger. They thought it was a grand idea.

They had not long to wait. Presently the Spider became rather tired of admiring his diamonds all by himself, so he set to work to send out invitations for a fly-party. He asked all the flies in the neighbourhood to come and see how nice his web looked when it was hung with diamonds. As soon as the sun-fairies saw that he was busy they took each other's hands, and with a little run and a big jump they all burst through the hole in the black cloud. Then they flew softly down to the garden where the Big Spider lived.

"How nice and warm it is getting!" thought the Spider.

Presently he said to himself—

"My diamonds must be sparkling beautifully in this sunshine. I'll just take a look at them."

He turned round, expecting to see the pattern of his web delicately outlined in sparks of light. You will not be surprised to hear that he saw nothing of the kind. He saw his web, it is true, looking like filmy lace against the green 73