Free Emily and The Spider by John Dony Page B

so
sorry”.
    She walked around the veranda, down the four
wooden steps arriving at the still body of her friend the
spider.
    “There must have been a terrible accident”
she said. As she did, she lowered the baby spidling onto its
mummy’s back.
    “Why isn’t mummy moving”? asked the baby
spider sadly.
    “I’m sorry, but I think that she is
dead”.
    The little spider started to cry. Emily held
out her hand and the spidling crawled slowly into the palm of her
hand.
    “Come with me” said Emily, “I have an
idea”.
    Emily held her hand close to her face and
smiled at the little creature. It smiled back.
    ‘Little Em’ walked back to her room,
carefully cradling the spider in her hand.
    “Where are we going”? asked the spider.
    “We are going to find you a name” Emily
replied.
    In ‘Little Em’s’ bedroom was a large wooden
bookcase, with each of its six shelves housing all manner of books.
Books about ancient Egypt, scary ghost stories, books about boats
and books about legends. However, that day she knew exactly the
book she wanted. It was a huge book about every animal in the
world.
    She placed the baby spider on her desk and
whispered “wait here a minute”.
    “Ok” came the little reply.
    Emily went back to the bookcase and lifted
out the book, using both hands. She carried it to her desk and
before she placed it down, she checked that the spidling hadn’t
moved. She didn’t want to squash the little thing.
    “Right” said ‘Little Em’ “lets find out what
you are”. She opened the book at the back and started to scan the
index.
    “V- Vultures, no…T – Tigers, no”. She looked
at the spidling, “I don’t like tigers, do you” she asked.
    The spidling looked back at her. “ I don’t
know, I have never seen one”.
    “Right, here we are S- Spiders, that’s what
you are. Here now, pages 167-185, wow, quite a lot
    you must have quite a big family…..Oh,
sorry”.
    The baby spider hadn’t heard though. She was
too busy looking at the picture on page 168.
    “That’s a Goliath spider. I don’t think that
you’re one of those”.
    “Me either” squeaked the spidling.
    As ‘Little Em’ flicked through the pages, one
picture caught her eye. Page 181, Bird Eating spiders!
    “Here you are”, said Emily excitedly. “That’s
you, a Bird Eating spider”.
    “Oh”, said the baby, “What’s a bird”?
    Emily flicked to another page to find a
suitable picture to show to the spider.
    “That’s a bird” She said, pointing to a
picture of a bird.
    “And I’m a Bird Eating spider” said the baby
spider cautiously.
    “Well, yes. But you can eat other stuff
too…., anyway, now we know what you are we can sort out a name for
you”.
    “What’s your name”? asked the spider.
    “My name is Emily, but my daddy calls me
‘Little Em’”.
    “That’s a nice name” said the little
spider.
    “Thank you. Now what shall we call you”?
    “How about Emily”? said the spidling.
    “I don’t think that would work” said ‘Little
Em’. Now let’s see, you are a Bird Eating spider, so how about
Beryl? No, I don’t like that. What about Bryony? No, that’s a bit
weird. I know” she said, and started to write down the first letter
of each word….Bird Eating Spider…..BES.
    “How’s that”? she exclaimed, holding up the
paper.
    “How’s what”? said the spider.
    “Your new name, of course”? said Emily.
    The little spider looked around the corner of
the paper. “I can’t read” she said.
    “Oh, sorry” said Emily “it says BES, for Bird
Eating Spider”. “And my best friend”.
    “Thank you” said Bes, “I like it”.

Chapter 7
– The Letter.
     
     
    That night, after tea, Emily took Bes a small
bowl of milk, which Bes promptly fell into and ‘Little Em’ had to
fish her out.
    “Well, that was pointless” she said. “We
better find you something else to eat”.
    “Ok” came the milky reply.
    After a few cookie crumbs Bes crawled on