The Boy Who Broke the Webs

[Intro] A boy with boots and idle hands Tore down the webs across the lands He laughed to see the spiders run And called his cruelty only fun [Verse 1] He crushed the webs along the wall He'd catch the spiders, watch them fall "They're ugly things," he'd tell his friends "And ugly things meet ugly ends" His mother warned, his father sighed The spiders vanished where he'd stride No webs to catch the evening flies No silver threads 'neath morning skies [Pre-Chorus] Then late one night he heard a tune Thin as thread beneath the moon The Bone Piper stood in his room With spider-silk and gathering gloom [Chorus] He broke the webs for fun, for spite The Piper came for him that night Eight eyes were watching from the wall The small will rise, the cruel will fall You tore the threads that caught the light Now learn the dark from the spider's sight When the bone pipes play the weaver's tune The killer hangs beneath the moon [Verse 2] "Please, sir," he cried, "they're only small — They do not matter much at all." The Piper's smile was thin and white: "Then being small will serve you right." [Bridge] The Piper played, the room grew deep The boy shrank down and could not sleep All night he hung in silk spun tight A trembling fly beneath the light The spiders came and held their ground And never made a single sound They let him live to tell the tale — The small show mercy without fail [Breakdown] Thread by thread Eye by eye What is small Will still survive You broke the webs for idle fun Now thank the small — your thread's not done [Final Chorus] He broke the webs for fun, for spite The Piper came for him that night Eight eyes were watching from the wall The small will rise, the cruel will fall He mends the webs along the lane And never breaks a thread again When the bone pipes play, remember soon: The smallest threads hold up the world [Outro] They say he leaves a corner free In every room, for all to see A web unbroken, silver-spun — The boy who broke them harms not one