A Spider was quietly spinning her web in her own space. It was beside the sleeping space of Nokomis, the grandmother.
Each Day, Nokomis watched the spider at work, quietly spinning away. One day as she was watching her, her grandson came in “Nokomis-iya!” he shouted, glancing at the spider. He stomped over to the spider, picked up a shoe and went to hit it.
“No-keegwa,” the old lady whispered, “don’t hurt her.”
The old lady smiled, but did not answer. When the boy left, the spider went to the old woman and thanked her for saving her life. She said to her, “For many days you have watched me spin and weave my web. You have admired my work. In return for saving my life, I will give you a gift,” she smiled her special spider smile and moved away, spinning as she went.
Soon the moon glistened on a magical silvery web moving gently in the window. “See how I spin?” she said. “See and learn, for each web will snare bad dreams. Only good dreams will go through the small hole. This is my gift to you. Use it so that only good dreams will be remembered. The bad dreams will become hopelessly entangled in the web.
