AURELIA AND THE SPIDER.
Reading edition
AURELIA AND THE SPIDER.
The muslin torn, from tears of grief
In vain Aurelia sought relief;
In sighs and plaints she pass'd the day;
The tatter'd frock neglected lay:
While busied at the weaving trade,
A spider heard the sighing maid
And kindly stopping in a trice,
Thus offer'd (gratis) her advice:
"Turn, little girl! behold in me
A stimulus to industry
Compare your woes, my dear, with mine,
Then tell me who should most repine:
This morning, ere you left your room,
The chambermaid's remorseless broom
In one sad moment that destroy'd,
To build which thousands were employ'd!
The shock was great; but as my life
I saved in the relentless strife,
I knew lamenting was in vain,
So patient went to work again.
By constant work, a day or more,
My little mansion did restore:
And if each tear which you have shed
Had been a needle-full of thread,
If every sigh of sad despair
Had been a stitch of proper care,
Closed would have been the luckless rent,
Nor thus the day have been misspent."
