THE PUDDLE PIXIES - CHAPTER 9 - THE PUDDLE SPIDERS

Hidden away in the silky soft mud at the very edge of puddles where the water laps the land, live thousands of friendly little creatures with big bright eyes and long spindly legs. They spend their days swimming and skimming across the puddles, doing no-one any harm, and are generally un-noticed, except by the Seaside Birdies, who are quite fond of swooping down and carrying them off for their supper. These are the Puddle Spiders.

One dull November morning, the Puddle spiders were taking their usual exercise back and forth across the puddle, or resting in the soft mud at the edge of the water, discussing the weather and wondering if the gathering rainclouds meant they were in for a storm later (they all enjoyed a good storm!), when all of a sudden Terry Puddle Spider pricked up her antennae. She said to her best friend Cyril : ‘I am sure I heard someone crying – and it came from overhead!’ Terry and Cyril popped out their big eyes as far as they would go, and peered upwards.

Sure enough, there in the tall grass above them, clinging on for dear life, was a very small Puddle Pixie, and she was crying miserably. ‘What’s the matter, little Puddle Pixie?’ called Terry, ‘and what are you doing up there?’ ‘Please help me’ sobbed the little Pixie, whose name was Sarah Jane. ‘I don’t really know how I got here. One minute I was having a little splash about at the edge of our puddle, waiting for Mum to call me in for breakfast, then the next minute I was being carried through the air in the beak of a huge seaside birdie. Then he sneezed, and dropped me, and I ended up here and now I’m stuck’.

‘Don’t worry’, said Terry. ‘If you just jump down into the puddle, you will come to no harm and we will help you get out’.‘No I am too scared’,said Sarah Jane. ‘I haven’t learnt to swim yet and I am afraid I might drown.’ ‘Well’ said Terry, hold on tight. I have an idea.’ And she called to Cyril and all the other Puddle Spiders who were out and about that misty morning. Over they all came, and went into a muddy puddle huddle, whispering excitedly together, looking around and pointing in various directions with their long forelegs.

Eventually Terry came out from the huddle and walked back to the blade of grass where the unfortunate pixie was still clinging on for dear life. The spider looked up and called out : ‘Now listen very carefully. As well as swimming, the other thing us Puddle Spiders are very good at is spinning webs. My friends and I are going to make our webs between that blade of grass over there’ – and she pointed to a sturdy looking green spike just to the right of Sarah Jane – ‘and that one there’ pointing to a yellowish one near where the group of spiders stood. ‘It won’t take us long. Then when I shout 'JUMP', Jump!’.

The other spiders were already speeding this way and that, weaving a net of delicate cobwebs strengthened with silken cords. Soon Terry called out: ‘It is finished!’ And there, between the two clumps of rough grass, stretched out just below where Sarah Jane was hanging on fearfully, was a beautiful lacy net made of the finest spider silk. But Sarah Jane was not convinced. ‘The threads are so fine, how can the web be strong enough to hold me?’she cried. ‘My dear child’, said Terry gently. ‘Us spiders have been spinning webs since the beginning of time, if not before. The threads spun by just ONE spider can become a web strong enough to hold a whole family of spiders and their spiderlings, and all their belongings too. And when we all work together for a good purpose, the result is a web which is not only very beautiful but so strong it cannot be broken. Just jump when I say the word, and I promise you will be safe.’

With that, she called out: ‘Ready – Steady - JUMP!!!!!!’

With a mighty leap, eyes closed, the little puddle pixie leaped bravely off of the blade of grass, and landed right in the middle of the web. For several moments she bounced up and down, then the bounces grew lower, til at last all was still. ‘You can climb right off now’, said Terry.

When there was still no sign of movement from the pixie, Terry stood on her long back legs and peered over the edge of the web. She heard a gentle regular sighing noise, and realised it came from Sarah Jane, who was lying sound asleep at the centre of the net, a sweet smile on her face.

Very carefully, so as not to disturb the sleepy pixie, Terry and Cyril took the web down from its moorings, and wrapped it right round the pixie, so that she wouldn’t get cold this chilly winter’s day. The spiders carried her to the shelter of a large rock, and sat with her to await her family, who they were sure would soon be out looking for her.

Sure enough, presently they heard a voice calling out : ‘Sarah Jane, Sarah Jane, where are you?’ All the Puddle Spiders shouted together : ‘Over here, over here’ And eventually they spied a very worried looking Puddle Pixie Mummy who soon spotted her little pixie girl and ran over to where she lay, sleeping with a contented look on her face. She took Sarah Jane in her arms, weeping for joy that her precious child was safe and sound. Happy that the little pixie would soon be back home, the Puddle Spiders crept away back to the puddle.

Later that day, Sarah Jane’s Mummy was amazed when she heard Sarah Jane’s story. Next day, she took Sarah Jane back to the puddle where she had been found, carrying a large wicker basket over her arm. They walked to the muddy edge of the water, but there were no Puddle Spiders to be seen, for they are rather shy and modest creatures, and prefer to spend their time quietly hidden away.

However, when they heard themselves being called by name, Terry and Cyril recognised their new friends’ voices and all the spiders began creeping out of their hiding places. From behind rocks and stones, from amongst clumps of grass and under fallen twigs they came, and of course from their very secret places at the bottom of the muddy puddle, out they all trooped, glad to greet their puddle pixie pals.

Sarah Jane’s Mum spoke : ‘I can never thank you enough for your kindness to my precious daughter’ shesaid, ‘But I hope you will enjoy this gift’. She opened the basket, and the eager spiders saw that it contained hundreds of tiny sugar-coated seeds, sweets, berries and delicious looking tint pixie cakes; all the things they loved best to eat. The Mummy Pixie continued : ‘I will make sure that everyone knows of the good kind hearts of the Puddle Spiders, and from now on all Pixie Folk will make sure they are not harming any of our friends when they are walking near puddles, and always treat them with respect and courtesy’.

Mummy Pixie was as good as her word. Everywhere she went, she told the tale of the kind and gentle Puddle Spiders, so that little people all over the Pixie World came to understand that, although they might look a little scary, the puddle spiders are kind and caring creatures, who, like most Puddle Pixies too, just want to be friendly and helpful to their neighbours, and go about their business in peace.

Sarah Jane never forgot her big adventure, and from that day on she slept feeling safe and warm and dreamed happy dreams with the beautiful lacy web spread out on her little bed.