ite, fly! It is for your life!

He turns, flees! Too late! The rush of Tigrina's form is heard as she
springs upon the doomed chief. Her fangs are fastened in his throat. He
is borne down to the floor, and without a struggle and without a cry he
yields up his life. The enraged and hungry Pixinee drank up his blood,
and left the dry carcass hung against the wall by broken strands of
web-work, to moulder into dust with the silken ornaments of Aranea Hall.

Summer passed. Autumn came and hung her gaily colored banners upon the
trees and shrubbery of Hillside. The Brownies dwelt in peace upon the
lawn, and Governor Wille and Dido held the Mansion with happier hearts
than ever. The winds blew more and more keenly around the hills. The
Fall had well nigh merged into Winter. Thanksgiving day came. Great
preparations had been making at the Mansion, and now the family meeting
was being held. Gray-haired sires, strong men and matrons, and
fair-haired children, down to crowing baby Paul, all were there. How the
halls rang with merry-making! What a happy, hearty company sat down to
the Thanksgiving dinner!

[Illustration: FIG. 149.--A Dead Orbweaver Hanging by Broken Strands of
Web-work.]

It was a bright crisp day, and when dinner was over, all went out upon
the lawn and gathered around the great Rose Bush. There was a quadruple
wedding in Brownieland: Lieutenant MacWhirlie and Agatha, Adjutant
Blythe and Faith, Sergeant True and Sophia, Ensign Lawe and Grace, all
stood up together, and were joined in holy wedlock according to the
simple rites of the Brownies. Then, amid shouts of the children, cheers
of the older folk, and the wildest hurrahs of Brownie soldiers, sailors
and people all, the eight happy fairies rode away, escorted by a gaily
uniformed troop, to the Lone Aspen, where Madam Breeze had prepared for
them a grand reception. Fairy Dew and Dewpoint were there, and the four
sister Cloud Elves, and Whisk, Keener and Whirlit, and before the
merrymaking ended, even Elf Frost looked in, quite happy to be once more
free to roam abroad.

As the evening was fine, and the moon full, Commodore Rodney and Pipe
the Boatswain arranged to give the party a reception on the Emma and a
moonlight sail upon the lake. The sailors had beautifully decorated the
ship; fox-fire lanterns gleamed from every part of the forts, and shone
all along the shore. Our old friends Captain Ask, Help, Clearview, Mate
Angel, Howard, Hope, Rise, Shine, t