And all above them was the clear heaven, and Mount
Skycrack rising into it, with its endless ladders of spiderwebs,
glittering like cords made of moonbeams. And up the moonbeams went,
crawling, and scrambling, and racing, a huge army of huge spiders.
"At length they reached all but the very summit, where they stopped.
Tricksey-Wee and Buffy-Bob could see above them a great globe of feathers,
that finished off the mountain like an ornamental knob.
"'How shall we drive her off?' said Buffy.
"'We'll soon manage that,' said the grandfather spider. 'Come on, you,
down there.'
"Up rushed the whole army, past the children, over the edge of the nest,
on to the she-eagle, and buried themselves in her feathers. In a moment
she became very restless, and went picking about with her beak. All at
once she spread out her wings, with a sound like a whirlwind, and flew off
to bathe in the sea; and then the spiders began to drop from her in all
directions on their gossamer wings. The children had to hold fast to keep
the wind of the eagle's flight from blowing them off.
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