Robert the Bruce and the Spider - Scotland- Never stop trying

This is a story from Scotland.  Long, long ago, about 700 years ago, the King of England, Edward I was King of Scotland.  The people in Scotland however wanted to have their own ruler, a Scot King.  One of them, Robert the Bruce declared himself King of Scotland.  King Edward I did not like that because he felt that HE was the true King of Scotland.  So he sent a big army to fight Robert the Bruce.  They had many battles and King Edward’s army defeated Robert the Bruce army several times.

Poor Robert, he managed to escape and was living on a cold and lonely small island called Rachrin.  He had hardly any food and he lived in a small hut.  It was cold, cold, so bitterly cold and Robert was feeling very sad. 

There was a little fire in the centre of the hut that kept him just slightly warm but there was a bad draft.  A cold breeze kept coming through the cracks in the window.  His bed was not very warm either because it was just some straw on the ground. 

Robert was thinking.  He had fought so many battles with King Edward and lost them all.  A lot of people had died in the battles.  He had spent a lot of money on fighting the war.  But what was the point?  It seemed like the enemy was too strong.  He thought that maybe he should give up and stop fighting.  But that made him sad because Robert loved his dear Scotland very much.  He did not want an Englishman as the King.  He was sure that if he became King of Scotland, he could take good care of his Scots people.

So he sat watching the fire. Suddenly he saw a little movement near the door.  It was a little spider.  It has strung a silvery thread from a beam above his head and was trying to swing itself across to the next beam so that it could build a web.  It failed the first time.  So it tried again and failed.  It tried again and again. 

Watching it Robert felt that he was like the spider, trying again and again to do a very hard job.  Silly spider, he thought, what is the use of trying so hard.  But the spider did not stop.  It tried again and again.  It did not give up hope.  Robert was interested by this time.  And he thought, “If that little spider does not give up hope, maybe I should not give up hope either.  I must try more, I must try harder”.  Then he thought “if that spider succeeds this time, I will not give up my struggle”.  Then he sat up to watch the spiders work.  The spider swung itself one last time.  It swung wide and pooof – it had crossed the space between the beams and had crossed over to the other beam.  Now it had this thin thin bridge which it could use to string a lot of fine threads which together formed a strong web.  Robert saw this and smiled.  He got up and decided to continue his fight.

He did fight a long time, for eight long years and finally won the war.  He became King of Scotland.  He was a very good King and took care of all his people.  His people were so happy that they started calling Robert Bruce as 'Good King Robert'.  Thats what they still call him.  Scotland was a peaceful, prosperous and free as long as 'The Good King Robert' was King of his dear country.