The Tiny Spider

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THE TINY SPIDER
	Webster was a tentative name for the tiny spider. The original notes for this story cover only a few pages of one of Bill Peet's many notepads. The notes are mostly sketches, some of which are included here. These notes, in quotes, are far from being a finished story, but they will give one an idea of what the earliest stages of story development look like. (Words in italics are by Bill Peet, Jr.)
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"It was a spring day on the farm. The grass was green and the sun was warm. A tiny red spider with bright green eyes crawled along the fence rail looking for a place to build his web. He was a brand new spider starting out to build his first web."

He first built his web in the farmer's wood pile. "But the farmer's wife carried the wood to her stove, stuffed paper under it and lit a match. The tiny spider raced ahead of the flames, and leapt out of a crack in the stove door just in time."


The tiny spider made his next web in a large metal tub used for washing clothes. When the clothes were washed, he was "caught up in a bubble and floated out of the tub. The bubble burst and he dropped to the ground. A hungry rooster spied him and tried to peck him up in his beak, but the little spider was too quick. He zigzagged quick as lightening 'till he reached the tall grass where he was safe."


Webster chose to build his next web in the top of one of the farmer's boots. The farmer put on his boots and the little spider was trapped in the toe of the boot. "Lucky for him the farmer didn't stub his toe that day or that would have been the end of him."


He found a horse collar in the barn. The farmer put the collar on a horse and took the horse to a field to work. "Early the next morning he found himself suddenly sitting on a horse's nose! There was no way for a spider to get off a horse, at least when he's way out in a field and he spent the whole day crawling around on the horse's back looking for a way to get off."


The tiny spider also built webs in a drain pipe, a water pump handle, over a mouse hole, across the door to the chicken house, and on the back of cat. You can see why these were not good places for a spider's web.



Webster built another web between the spokes of a wagon wheel.
"The farmer loaded the wagon with corn, hitched the up the horse. He clung to his web for all he was worth. But the whirling wheel made him dizzy and he finally tumbled off into the dusty road. He was so dizzy he couldn't walk, so he sat for a bit 'till he could see straight. The road was surrounded by deep woods."

***

Here the story stops. Maybe he thought it was too simple or maybe he could not think of an ending he liked. Only my father knows why he never finished the story.

But you can write and illustrate your own ending to the story.

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