ow by the wonderful invention of
his Maker, Joe Gregory, though dead, yet was allowed to save his brother's
life and so proclaim the wonder of God to sinful man. And no doubt all
right-thinking people believed him.

Anyway, Amos set great store upon the electric torch ever after and it
hangs above his mantelshelf to this day. And henceforth he always took off
his hat to a fox whenever he seed one; for he was a very grateful sort of
man and never forgot a kindness.

No. XIII

'SPIDER'

Surely few things be sillier than the way we let human nature surprise us.
For my part 'tis only the expected that ever astonishes me, for men and
women have grown so terrible tricky and jumpy and irregular nowadays,
along of better education and one thing and another, that you didn't ought
to expect anything but the unexpected from 'em. And I never do.

So when Jenny Pardoe took Nicky White I dare say I was the only party in
Little Silver that didn't raise an upstore and cackle about it, because to
the common mind it was a proper shock, while to me, in my far-seeing way,
I knew that, just because it was the last thing on earth you might have
thought Jenny would do, it might be looked for pretty confident. She could
have had the pick of the basket, for there was a good few snug men took by
her nice figure and blue eyes and fine plucky nature; but no: she turned
'em all down and fell in love with Nicky White, or 'Spider,' as the man
was called by all that knew him, that being the only possible name for the
creature.

Under-sized, excitable and small-minded was 'Spider.' He had breadth and
strength of body, but no more intellects than please God he wanted. He was
so black as if he'd been soaked in a peat bog--black hair, black eyes,
black moustache and black beard. A short, noisy man with long arms and
hair so thick as soot on 'em. He owned Beech Cot on Merripit Hill when his
mother died, and there he took Jenny after they was wed; and the people
called 'em Beauty and the Beast.

Not that there was anything right-down beastly about Nicky but his spidery
appearance. He would be kind to childer and never picked a quarrel with
nobody--too cowardly for that; but he was ugly as they make 'em and a
sulky fashion of man. He had a silly, sensitive nature and a suspicious
bent of mind. Such a man, with a wife as pretty as a June morning, was
like to put a bit of a strain upon her; and he did, no doubt; for Nicky
found himself cruel je