Volume 2 — AURELIA AND THE SPIDER.

The muslin torn, from tears of grief In vain Aurelia sought relief; In sighs and tears she passed the day, The tattered robe neglected lay. When, busy at his spinning trade, A spider thus addressed the maid: “Turn, little girl, behold in me A stimulus to industry. This morning, e’er you left your room, The chambermaid’s relentless broom In one sad moment had destroyed, To build which, thousands were employ’d. By constant work a day or more, My little mansion may restore; And, if each tear that you have shed Had been a needleful of thread, And every sigh of sad despair, Had been a stitch with proper care, Closed would have been the luckless rent, Nor thus the day have been mispent.”