Page 146 - Adventures in shadow-land

The Frog laughed at this, and told Eva to go
and get it. She did not know that the jackdaw,
being fond of dress, and a thief, had stolen the

piece of Aster’s coat for that purpose. However,
she found it out soon enough, and when Eva

went to look for it,“ behold \ a great spider had
spun a web around it,—a web so strong that she

could not break it. And after trying a long time,
she was nearly in despair, when she saw a little
gray mouse come out of a hole, and, climbing up

to the web, gnaw and bite at It with its sharp
teeth till it cut it all through; and then it brought

and laid in her hand the same piece of velvet
which had been torn out of Aster’s coat. Then
the little mouse said to her:

“ You saved me from being drowned, and I am
not ungrateful/' And then it crept back into its

hole.
But when the Green Frog saw what Eva had,

she was very angry, and determined to give her
something which was harder to do than anything
she had yet tried. So for the third week Eva’s

work Was to wash and keep the shawl clean which
the Frog wore when she went out. And the first