The Spider and the King

In the thirteenth century, there was a disagreement between Scottish leaders about which of them should be king. England’s King Edward I stepped in and took the honor for himself, stripping Scotland of its crown, its royal regalia, and even the sacred Stone of Scone on which the kings of Scotland had always been crowned. The latter he placed in Westminster Abbey in London. The outraged Scots secretly crowned Robert Bruce their king, but they seemed no match for the English army.

Scottish troops were scattered, living in the mountains, living on eels and salmon and deer, and under constant attack from their enemy. Robert Bruce himself was wounded, and his capture seemed imminent. The English had even captured one of his bloodhounds and were using it to search for him. After madly careening through the Scottish woods, exhausted, frightened, and bleeding, Bruce suddenly came to a stream.

Plunging in, he waded alongside the bank until hoisting himself onto the limb of a tree. There he stayed, and the dog lost the scent. Bruce spent the ensuing winter hidden away in a hovel in the mountains, keeping himself alive on a bag of old potatoes. One cold, gray afternoon, he felt almost hopeless, spirits badly draining.

But he noticed a spider trying to weave a web in the corner of the window. The creature was having a hard time of it, because the wind kept blowing away his threads. Time after time, the spider gave another effort until finally the thread held.

Suzanne Chazin, “The Ultimate Key to Success,” Reader!s Digest, April 1992, 21-26.