Felix fled,
The spider spun a heavy web
Out of her silken thread.

So fast she spun, so faithfully,
That when the soldiers came
To pause beside the ruined wall
And shout the Bishop's name.

They found a silken curtain there
Wherethrough they could not see;
And "Ho!" they said, "he is not here,
Look, look! it cannot be;

"No one has passed this spider's web
For many and many a day,
See, men, how it is thick and strong;"
And so they went away.

And this is how Saint Felix fared
To 'scape the threatened doom,
Saved by a little spider's web,
Spun from her wondrous loom.

For when the soldiers all had passed
It luckily befell,
Among the ruins of the walls
He found a half-dug well.

And there he hid for many months,
Safe from the eager eyes
Of all those cruel soldier-men
And money-seeking spies.

And on the eve when this thing happed,
It chanced a Christian dame
Was passing by the ruined wall
Calling her Bishop's name.

For well she knew he must be hid,
And came to bring him food;
And so he answered from the well,
Saint Felix, old and good.

And for the many weary months
She came there, day by day,
All stealthily to bring him bread,
So no one guessed the way.

And when at last the peace was made,
Saint Felix left his well.
What welcome of his folk he had
There are no words to tell!

SAINT FRONTO'S CAMELS

THIS is a story of Egypt. In the midst of a great yellow sea of sand was
a tiny green island of an oasis. Everywhere else the sunlight burned on
sand and rocks and low, bare hills to the west. But here there was shade
under the palm-trees, and a spring of cool, clear water. It seemed a
pleasant place, but the men who were living here were far from happy.
There was grumbling and discontent; there were sulky looks and frowns.
Yet these men were trying to be holy hermits, to live beautiful lives
and forget how to be selfish. But it is hard to be good when one is
starving.

There were seventy of them in this lonely camp in the desert,--se