Charlotte’s Web Chapter 9 – Wilbur’s Boast
Routines are established in the barn. Wilbur naps and Charlotte repairs her web (even though spider webs are strong) from the daily damage caused by flies being caught.
“First, you have to go somewhere high and then attach your spinneret and hurl yourself out into space, leaving a dragline as you go.” she explains.
Wilbur goes to the top of the manure pile and tries to start a web but when by hurling himself off the pile. He lands face first with no web for his effort.
Even after he attaches a bit of string given to him by Templeton, to his tail, he still can’t start a web.
Wilbur becomes dejected at his poor web building skills.
“Cheer up” rallies Charlotte, “the farmer brings you three big meals a day, you don’t need a web to catch your food.”
Charlotte comforts Wilbur by telling him that although he could try, in the end it’s spiders who make the best webs. She tells him about the Queensborough bridge, a large man-made web that took 8 years to build. “They don’t even catch anything on the bridge,” she tells him, “they just trot back and forth looking for something better on the other side.”
Wilbur decides to take a nap. He listens to the barn noises and smells Lurvey outside under the tree with his pipe. He is content but then he thinks of his conversation with the goose and he suddenly realizes that he doesn’t want to die.
Wilbur asks if Charlotte was serious when she said that she would come up with a plan to save him.
“I was never more serious in my life. I am not going to let you die Wilbur.”
But Charlotte needs to think more about her plan and tells Wilbur that the way he can help her is to try and build himself up. “I want you to get plenty of sleep, and stop worrying, Never hurry and never worry. Chew your food thoroughly and eat every bit of it, except you must leave just enough for Templeton. Gain weight and stay well – that’s the way you can help. Keep fit and don’t lose your nerve.”
Wilbur accepts her advice and after getting up to eat the last bit of mashed potatoes in his trough, he, Fern, and Charlotte say Good night to each other.
Chapter 9 Lessons Learned
Charlotte can make a web and although Wilbur tries, he can’t.
Lesson Learned – We all have individual gifts, it’s up to us to use those gifts in order to make our and other lives better. If you were born a weaver then weave.
The Queensborough bride, a manmade web, seems pointless as no food ever gets caught. People just go back and forth on it all day.
Lesson Learned –Sometimes a web is not a web.
Wilbur is afraid of dying.
Lesson Learned –When faced with mortality, it’s okay to be afraid.
Charlotte comforts Wilbur by telling him that she is working on a plan. “I will not let you die” She tells him.
Lesson Learned –Hope is the ultimate slayer of all darkness.
Charlotte isn’t a mother but she sure could be one.
Bonus Lesson – When things seem a little overwhelming, it’s best to:
- Get plenty of sleep
- Stop worrying
- Never hurry and never worry
- Chew your food thoroughly
- Eat every bit of it – don’t be wasteful
- Share food and good times with friends.
- Gain weight
- Stay well
- Keep fit
- Don’t lose your nerve
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Wendy Thomas writes about the lessons learned while raising children and chickens in New Hampshire. Contact her at [email protected]
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