"
"And they did it, too," said Dorothy. "I wonder who
it was."
"It's a spider-web, I'm quite sure," returned Ozma,
"but it must be the work of enormous spiders."
"Quite right!" cried a voice behind them. Turning
quickly around they beheld a huge purple spider sitting
not two yards away and regarding them with its small
bright eyes.
Then there crawled from the bushes a dozen more great
purple spiders, which saluted the first one and said:
"The web is finished, O King, and the strangers are
our prisoners."
Dorothy did not like the looks of these spiders at
all. They had big heads, sharp claws, small eyes and
fuzzy hair all over their purple bodies.
"They look wicked," she whispered to Ozma. "What
shall we do?"
Ozma gazed upon the spiders with a serious face.
"What is your object in making us prisoners?" she
inquired.
"We need someone to keep house for us," answered the
Spider King. "There is sweeping and dusting to be done,
and polishing and washing of dishes, and that is work
my people dislike to do. So we decided that if any
strangers came our way we would capture them and make
them our servants."
"I am Princess Ozma, Ruler of all Oz," said the girl
with dignity.
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