The Spider Weaver

Why did Old Man Sun save
the spider?
What natural feature of
our world is explained in the
story?
Underline words in lines 1–10
that describe the old man.
Circle passages that tell what
he wants. Box passages that
tell what he does.
• • • • • • Notes • • • • • •
92 Chapter 2 Characters: The People You’ll Meet
80
10
end of the web that was sticking out of the spider’s mouth,
and he lifted the spider high up into the sky, where the
snake couldn’t reach it at all.
The spider was very grateful to Old Man Sun for
saving him from the snake. So he used all the cotton that
was inside his body to weave beautiful fleecy clouds up
in the sky. That’s the reason, they say, why clouds are soft
and white like cotton, and also that is the reason why
both a spider and a cloud are called by the same name
in Japan—kumo.
“Fine Wind, Clear Morning,” hand-colored woodblock print
by Katsushika Hokusai, 1831.
The Grateful Statues
Once upon a time an old man and an old woman were living
in a country village in Japan. They were very poor and
spent every day weaving big hats out of straw. Whenever
they finished a number of hats, the old man would take
them to the nearest town to sell them.
One day the old man said to the old woman: “New
Year’s is the day after tomorrow. How I wish we had some
rice cakes to eat on New Year’s Day! Even one or two little
cakes would be enough. Without some rice cakes we can’t
even celebrate New Year’s.”