Golden Cobwebs

December 8, 2020

Golden Cobwebs
(An Old Tale Retold in Verse)
by Rowena Bennett

This story comes from the book Treasury of Christmas Stories by Ann McGovern. These are not my words…

“The Christmas tree stood by the parlor door,
But the parlor door was locked.
Even the children could not get inside
Even though they knocked.
For a Christmas tree must wait, folks say,
And not be seen till Christmas Day.
But the cat had seen the Christmas tree
As she prowled the house by night,
And the dog had seen the Christmas tree
By the moon’s enchanting light;
And a little mouse beside her hole
Had looked at it with eyes of coal.
Even the spiders hoped to see
The secret, silent Christmas tree.

“They planned, one day, to creep and crawl
Out of their cracks and up the wall
To get the highest view of all.
But just that day with mop and broom
The housemaid swept them from the room
And so the spiders could not see
The secret, silent Christmas tree.

“The fairies heard the spiders weep,
All on a winter’s night,
Although their cries made softer sounds
Than moth wings make in flight.
The fairies said: “Each living thing
That creeps, or crawls, or flaps a wing
Shall share the birthday of the King.

“They took the spiders to the tree
And, since they were too small
To see as far as the cat or mouse,
The fairies let them crawl
along each twig and bending branch
To look at every ball
And silver star and popcorn string;
And when they had seen everything
They thanked the fairies and went back
Each one to sleep inside his crack.

“But, oh, the tree when they were gone
Was very sad to look upon!
Its branches were more gray than green
And little webs hung in between
That dulled the lights and all the sheen.

“The fairies shook their heads and sighed,
For in their wisdom, ever wide,
They knew no housewife cared to see
Dull cobwebs on a Christmas tree,
They knew the children, too, would weep
To waken from their yuletide sleep
And glimpse a tree all bearded gray
That would not shine on Christmas Day…

“And so the turned the webs to gold
By waiving fairy wands, I’m told;
And that is why there’ll always be
Bright cobwebs on a Christmas tree.”

Rowena Bennet:

• Author: Rowena Bennett Author Record # 168508
• Legal Name: Bennett, Rowena Bastin
• Birthplace: Merchantville, New Jersey, USA
• Birthdate: 29 July 1896
• Deathdate: 7 March 1981
• Language: English
• Note: Writer of plays, poems, and stories, mainly children’s drama and poetry
  (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?168508)
  
  poems:
  Witch Cat (1949)
• The Second-Hand Shop (1950)
• The Witch of Willowby Wood (1950)
• The Witch of Willowby Wood (excerpt) (1950)

Can’t find any images.

Hope you have a great day!
Thanks for stopping by!!

Should I decorate my tree like this next year?
My son says “heck No!!”
Oh, tinsel serves as a replacement
in case you were wondering
And there is a legend about The Christmas Spider
which I will share, another day
And there are different versions of this tale…

take care
stay safe
much love