Atondido Stories
The Fall of the Spider Man
In olden times the Spider Man lived in the sky-country. He
dwelt in a bright little house all by himself, where he weaved
webs and long flimsy ladders by which people went back and
forth from the sky to the earth. The Star-people often went at
night to earth where they roamed about as fairies of light, doing
good deeds for women and little children, and they always went
back and forth on the ladder of the Spider Man. The Spider Man
had to work very hard, weaving his webs, and spinning the yarn
from which his ladders were made. One day when he had a
short breathing-time from his toil he looked down at the earth-
country and there he saw many of the earth-people playing at
games, or taking sweet sap from the maple trees, or gathering
berries on the rolling hills; but most of the men were lazily idling
and doing nothing. The women were all working, after the fash-
ion of Indians in those days; the men were working but little.
And Spider Man said to himself, "I should like to go to the earth-
country where men idle their time away. I would marry four
wives who would work for me while I would take life easy, for I
need a rest."
He was very tired of his work for he was kept at it day and
night always spinning and weaving his webs. But when he
asked for a rest he was not allowed to stop; he was only kicked
for his pains and called Sleepy Head, and Lazy-bones and other
harsh names, and told to work harder. Then he grew angry and
he resolved to punish the Star-people because they kept him so
hard at work. He thought that if he punished them and made
himself a nuisance, they would be glad to be rid of him. So he hit
upon a crafty plan. Each night when a Star-fairy was climbing
back to the sky-country, just as he came near the top of the lad-
der, the Spider Man would cut the strands and the fairy would
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