Famous Stories

The Story Of Regulus
On the other side of the sea from Rome there was once a gre...

The Blind Men And The Elephant
There were once six blind men who stood by the road-side ev...

The Miller Of The Dee
Once upon a time there lived on the banks of the River Dee ...

The Kingdoms
There was once a king of Prussia whose name was Frederick W...

Androclus And The Lion
In Rome there was once a poor slave whose name was An'dro-c...

The Ungrateful Guest
Among the soldiers of King Philip there was a poor man who ...

Arnold Winkelried
A great army was marching into Swit-zer-land. If it should ...

Other Wise Men Of Gotham
One day, news was brought to Gotham that the king was comin...

Mignon
Here is the story of Mignon as I remember having read it in...

The Ungrateful Soldier
Here is another story of the bat-tle-field, and it is much ...

The Brave Three Hundred
All Greece was in danger. A mighty army, led by the great K...

The Inchcape Rock
In the North Sea there is a great rock called the Inch-cape...

Maximilian And The Goose Boy
One summer day King Max-i-mil'ian of Ba-va'ri-a was walking...

The Sons Of William The Conqueror
There was once a great king of England who was called Wil-l...

Bruce And The Spider
There was once a king of Scot-land whose name was Robert Br...

The Black Douglas
In Scotland, in the time of King Robert Bruce, there lived ...

The Barmecide Feast
There was once a rich old man who was called the Bar-me-cid...

Antonio Canova
A good many years ago there lived in Italy a little boy who...

The Story Of Cincinnatus
There was a man named Cin-cin-na'tus who lived on a little ...

Alexander And Bucephalus
One day King Philip bought a fine horse called Bu-ceph'a-lu...

BRUCE AND THE SPIDER

There was once a king of Scot-land whose name was Robert Bruce. He had
need to be both brave and wise, for the times in which he lived were
wild and rude. The King of England was at war with him, and had led a
great army into Scotland to drive him out of the land.

Battle after battle had been fought. Six times had Bruce led his brave
little army against his foes; and six times had his men been beaten,
and driven into flight. At last his army was scat-tered, and he was
forced to hide himself in the woods and in lonely places among the
moun-tains.

One rainy day, Bruce lay on the ground under a rude shed, lis-ten-ing
to the patter of the drops on the roof above him. He was tired and
sick at heart, and ready to give up all hope. It seemed to him that
there was no use for him to try to do anything more.

As he lay thinking, he saw a spider over his head, making ready to
weave her web. He watched her as she toiled slowly and with great
care. Six times she tried to throw her frail thread from one beam to
another, and six times it fell short.

"Poor thing!" said Bruce: "you, too, know what it is to fail."

But the spider did not lose hope with the sixth failure. With still
more care, she made ready to try for the seventh time. Bruce almost
forgot his own troubles as he watched her swing herself out upon the
slender line. Would she fail again? No! The thread was carried safely
to the beam, and fas-tened there.

"I, too, will try a seventh time!" cried Bruce.

He arose and called his men together. He told them of his plans, and
sent them out with mes-sa-ges of cheer to his dis-heart-ened people.
Soon there was an army of brave Scotch-men around him. Another battle
was fought, and the King of England was glad to go back into his own
country.

I have heard it said, that, after that day, no one by the name of
Bruce would ever hurt a spider. The lesson which the little crea-ture
had taught the king was never for-got-ten.





Next: THE BLACK DOUGLAS
Previous: A STORY OF ROBIN HOOD

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