Leese Webster

Leese Webster is a spider born in a throne room in a deserted palace. She explores a bit and settles in a bedroom of a princess long ago. Bored with the design her family has always woven (efficient though it is), she starts to copy designs and images from an old painting and carpet in the room. Her weavings become larger and more intricate until she has created a whole tapestry against one wall. Cleaning ladies coming in to turn the old palace into a museum almost destroy it by accident. But soon the Authorities are called and the room is renamed the Room of the Silver Weavings, which are framed in glass to protect them. No one notices Leese and one day a cleaning lady shoos her out the window -- to the great outdoors she's never seen show more before, where she discovers how to weave true beauty. Meanwhile tourists continue to admire her previous attempts in the Palace Museum. show less

Living in one's favorite author's hometown often leads to the serendipitous discovery of long out-of-print gems like this lovely little story about a spider living in an abandoned castle.