| "Will you walk into my parlor?" said the spider
to the fly; but the cunning little insect only winked the other eye and he knowingly retorted in a buzz so low and sweet: "Well, not upon your half-tone, I have learned to watch my feet. I have a load of small-pox on my silken little wings, my legs are lined with typhus germs and other deadly things. I am taking some bacilli to a house across the way and you must not try to stop me, for I have no time to play." Once more the spider pleaded in accents soft and low: "Won't you step into my parlor and rest be- fore you go ? My web is lined with gossamer of tex- ture fine and rare and you'll find some lovely microbes if you will enter there. I have a nice collec- tion I am saving just for you, and I want to seal our friendship with a B. Coli or two." "With all my heart," replied the fly and straight- way walked inside and the spider got his dinner and was fully satisfied. |
Verdigris Valley Verse
Albert Stroud
(Coffeyville, Kansas: The Journal Press. 1917)
Page 103
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