Charlotte’s Web: The classic tale of friendship for children ages 7+

by E.B. White

‘What do you mean, less than nothing?’ replied Wilbur. ‘I don’t think there is any such thing as less than nothing. Nothing is absolutely the limit of nothingness. It’s the lowest you can go. It’s the end of the line. How can something be less than nothing? If there were something that was less than nothing, then nothing would not be nothing, it would be something – even though it’s just a very little bit of something. But if nothing is nothing, then nothing has nothing that is less than it is.’

‘You have your meals brought to you in a pail. Nobody feeds me. I have to get my own living. I live by my wits. I have to be sharp and clever, lest I go hungry. I have to think things out, catch what I can, take what comes. And it just so happens, my friend, that what comes is flies and insects and bugs. And furthermore,’ said Charlotte, shaking one of her legs, ‘do you realize that if I didn’t catch bugs and eat them, bugs would increase and multiply and get so numerous that they’d destroy the earth, wipe out everything?’ ‘Really?’ said Wilbur. ‘I wouldn’t want that to happen. Perhaps your web is a good thing after all.’

‘I’ve got a new friend, all right. But what a gamble friendship is! Charlotte is fierce, brutal, scheming, bloodthirsty – everything I don’t like. How can I learn to like her, even though she is pretty and, of course, clever?’

Wilbur was merely suffering the doubts and fears that often go with finding a new friend. In good time he was to discover that he was mistaken about Charlotte. Underneath her rather bold and cruel exterior, she had a kind heart, and she was to prove loyal and true to the very end.

From the edge of the woods, the white-throated sparrow (which must come all the way from Boston) calls, ‘Oh, Peabody, Peabody, Peabody!’ On an apple bough, the phoebe teeters and wags its tail and says, ‘Phoebe, phoe-bee!’ The song sparrow, who knows how brief and lovely life is, says, ‘Sweet, sweet, sweet interlude; sweet, sweet, sweet interlude.’ If you enter the barn, the swallows swoop down from their nests and scold. ‘Cheeky, cheeky!’ they say.

‘Coxa, trochanter, femur, patella, tibia, metatarsus, and tarsus.’

‘They don’t catch anything. They just keep trotting back and forth across the bridge thinking there is something better on the other side. If they’d hang head down at the top of the thing and wait quietly, maybe something good would come along. But no – with men it’s rush, rush, rush, every minute. I’m glad I’m a sedentary spider.’

know a good thing when I see it, and my web is a good thing. I stay put and wait for what comes. Gives me a chance to think.’

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. Do you think you understand?’

Fords and Chevvies and Buick roadmasters and GMC pickups and Plymouths and Studebakers and Packards and De Sotos with gyromatic transmissions and Oldsmobiles with rocket engines and Jeep station wagons and Pontiacs. The

Charlotte climbed to a point at the top of the left-hand side of the web.

She climbed back up, moved over about an inch to the left, touched her spinnerets to the web, and then carried a line across to the right, forming the top of the T. She repeated this, making it double. Her eight legs were very busy helping. ‘Now for the E!’ Charlotte got so interested in her work, she began to talk to herself, as though to cheer herself on. If you had been sitting quietly in the barn cellar that evening, you would have heard something like this: ‘Now for the R! Up we go! Attach! Descend! Pay out line! Whoa! Attach! Good! Up you go! Repeat! Attach! Descend! Pay out line. Whoa, girl! Steady now! Attach! Climb! Attach! Over to the right! Pay out line! Attach! Now right and down and swing that loop and around and around! Now in to the left! Attach! Climb! Repeat! OK! Easy, keep those lines together! Now, then, out and down for the leg of the R! Pay out line! Whoa! Attach! Ascend! Repeat! Good girl!’ And so, talking to herself, the spider worked at her difficult task. When it was completed, she felt hungry. She ate a small bug that she had been saving. Then she slept. Next morning, Wilbur arose and stood beneath the web. He breathed the morning air into his lungs. Drops of dew, catching the sun, made the web stand out clearly. When Lurvy arrived with breakfast, there was the handsome pig, and over him, woven neatly in block letters, was the word TERRIFIC. Another miracle.

Wilbur, ‘I feel radiant.’

Wilbur sighed. It had been a busy day – his first day of being terrific. Dozens of people had visited his yard during the afternoon, and he had had to stand and pose, looking as terrific as he could. Now he was tired. Fern had arrived and seated herself quietly on her stool in the corner. ‘Tell me a story, Charlotte!’

It’s hard work keeping up appearances

So Charlotte told him about another cousin of hers who was an aeronaut. ‘What is an aeronaut?’ asked Wilbur. ‘A balloonist,’ said Charlotte. ‘My cousin used to stand on her head and let out enough thread to form a balloon. Then she’d let go and be lifted into the air and carried upwards on the warm wind.’

When the words appeared, everyone said they were a miracle. But nobody pointed out that the web itself is a miracle.’

anything,’ he replied. ‘But that proves nothing. It is quite possible that an animal has spoken civilly to me and that I didn’t catch the remark because I wasn’t paying attention. Children pay better attention than grown-ups. If Fern says that the animals in Zuckerman’s barn talk, I’m quite ready to believe her. Perhaps if people talked less, animals would talk more. People are incessant talkers – I can give you my word on that.’

‘Hmm. Remarkable. Well, I don’t think you have anything to worry about. Let Fern associate with her friends in the barn if she wants to. I would say, offhand, that spiders and pigs were fully as interesting as Henry Fussy. Yet I predict that the day will come when even Henry will drop some chance remark that catches Fern’s attention. It’s amazing how children change from year to year. How’s Avery?’ he asked, opening his eyes wide. ‘Oh, Avery,’ chuckled Mrs Arable. ‘Avery is always fine. Of course, he gets into poison ivy and gets stung by wasps and bees and brings frogs and snakes home and breaks everything he lays his hands on. He’s fine.’ ‘Good!’ said the doctor. Mrs Arable said goodbye and thanked Dr Dorian very much for his advice. She felt greatly relieved.

Oh the irony worried about fern the girl with the amazing imagination vocab and compassion yet Thinks the destructive boy she’s rearing is jus t fine

The song sparrow will return and sing, the frogs will awake, the warm wind will blow again. All these sights and sounds and smells will be yours to enjoy, Wilbur – this lovely world, these golden days …’

Nobody, of the hundreds of people that had visited the Fair, knew that a grey spider had played the most important part of all. No one was with her when she died.

to