Miss Elliot's Girls / Stories of Beasts, Birds, and Butterflies

have any; and I think you are real mean, M

droom with the parlor, where the little girls were assembled, and caught a glimpse of an energetic figur

e, and Fan marched up to her and says, 'I'll take my seat if you please'; and I said, 'It's no more your seat than it is Nellie's,' We don't have any particular seats, you know we don't, Auntie, but sit just as it happens. Well, she de

mbers, certainly not for so small a difference as the choice of a seat. We must have Fanny back, if I give up my seat

t among the flowers, taking a sip now and then from a honey-cup, or resting on a leaf or twig,

vorite has always been the Swallow-tailed? Perhaps it was because he was my first love. I was no older than you, Nellie, when, half curious and half disgusted, I held at arm's length on a bit of fennel-stalk, and dropped in an old ribb

g to do with worms," said Eliza Jones. "

arned what wonderful things they can do; and now, I ass

asked. "I've always wanted to know j

rflies,' as a dear little boy once defined my favorite occupation, and telling th

k the sooner the story will begin. Good-by, Mr. Swallow-tail,-I wo

e to the open door. Roy beckoned to his sister, and they held a whispered conference during whi

ly, half laughing, bu

d. "I tell them it's ridiculous for boys to attend a s

soap and water they had given them, and both had on clean collars. Sammy dived in his trowsers

ood his ground, though all the girls laughed, and even Mis

put it to vote. As many of you as are in favor of admitting Samuel Ray and Roy Tyler to the meeting

and was

nced. "Walk in, boys. One more chai

e was speaking the door opened and in walked Lavina Tibbs, be

ty accept some gingerbread for luncheon?" She set the plate on the ta

it ain't good I don't know how to

nk-and-white china plates, and napkins with pink borders to correspond. The plates had belonged to Miss Ruth's grandmother, and were very valuable; but Ruth Elliot believed that nothing was too good to be used, and that the feast would be more enjoyable for being daintily served. But when all were helped, she still appeared to think some thing was wanting, a

ck, shall I, Auntie? and she may have an

Mollie loved best to hear, "and be quic

ng toward the parsonage, already repenting o

and Sam Ray and Roy Tyler are there, and auntie is going to tell us about swallow-tailed butt

ed no urging, but he

id. "She has told me all about it, and I think

t her off this time! It was my fault as well as h

are sorry

take any seat, or I'll stand up all the afternoon, if you'll only let me g

ed their share on the piazza-steps, without plate or napkin. Under the circumstances, however, they behaved very well; for, though Roy took rather large mouthfuls, and Sammy licked his fingers when he thought no one was looking, these were small delinquencies, and you will be gl

OW-TAILED

and I spent a summer with Aunt Susan, who live

er to take to prayer-meeting-all the old ladies in Vernon took dill or fennel to eveni

e matter?'

een worm,' said I. '

sh him!' said Char

might bite you. Oh, dear, I hate worm

to turn into butterfl

res that summer, and had heard all we said,

of a bright leafy green, with black-velvet rings dotted with orange at even distances along his body. He lay at full length on a fennel-stalk, and seemed to be asleep; b

said Charlie, and ran off to play;

ow do you know this kind

, so as he could breathe, and give him plenty of fresh fennel to eat, in a week (or less time if he's full

pocket-knife; and after a little hesitation I picked the fennel-stalk with the worm on it, and laid it carefully in the box, making sure that the cover

wn, and, forgetting my aversion, sat by the open box and watched

I said; 'he is almost handsome for a wo

meant to keep a worm too. So he searched the fennel-bush and

ther,' said he; 'that fellow was a

; for, though for several days they made no attempt to get away, and seemed to do nothing but eat and sleep, one morning I found my largest and handsomest worm in a very disturbed and restless condition. He was making frantic efforts

lf to the box by the tip of his tail and by a loop of fine silk passing round the upper part of his body. There he hung motionless two, three, almost four, days. The green and orange and black faded little by little, his body

afternoon,' said Tim,' and

of his skin.' By the time she had got on her glasses and was ready to witness this wonderful sight, it was over. A heap

m and make the split in his back bigger and bigger till it burst open

turned gray and hard and the other worms, one by one, went through the sam

clinging to the netting, a beautiful creature like the one we saw on the honeysuckle this afternoon, with a slender black body and wings spotted with yellow and scarlet and love

istinct individuals (the worm, the chrysalis, and the butterfly) could be one and the same creature, and how from a low-born worm t

r talk a while and then re

ody, that it may be fashioned

m the day I took the green worm from the fennel-bush in Aunt Susan's garden I date my introduction to a delightful study which I have followed all my life as I have found oppor

you are

ney heat for warm spring weather, hatched himself out of sea

thing! Tell us

lay and brought it to me for investigation; and, behold! when I opened it there was a full-grown swallow-tail, who, waking too soon from his winter's nap, left the so

g a flight to the ceiling, where, I am sorry to say, he bruised his delicate wings; but he seemed to learn wisdom by experience, for after a while he contented himself with a lower flight. Every day my bed was wheeled close to the window, and I amus

im till spring; but one cold night the furnace fire went out, and in the m

t butterflies! Will you please tell us ab

id every body made a fuss over. Ce-ce

promptly. "Yes, do, Aunt

sight of the interested faces of her audience; but in fact she was not in the

CROPIA

name was Joshua Wheeler,-left his work to bring to the house and put into my hand a queer-looking pod-shaped package firmly fastene

leaves-an', thinks I, there's some kind of a crittur stored away inside, an' Miss Ruth she's crazy arter bugs an'

ctor, don't I know it?' Josh used to reply when my father urged him to break off a habit that was making a shaky old man

y to help me. With the point of a needle I carefully picked away the outer layer till I came to loose silken fibers that evidently were the covering of an inside case. W

till one bright day in June I heard a faint scratching inside the brown case. It grew louder and louder every moment. Evidently my tenant was bestirring himself and, with intervals of rest, was scraping and t

amp and disagreeable, with his fat chunky body and short legs, like an exaggerated bumble-bee, only not at all pretty. He was shaky on his legs and half tumbled from his box

own bug!' said my brother Charlie,

n't a bug. I'm sure I

ent and vexation, for I had expected

n to show-a dull red, a dash of white, a wavy band of gray, with patches of soft brown that began to look downy like feathers. Every moment these colors gr

ay and red? how the great white patches took distinct form, and some were dashed with red and bordered with black, and others eye-shaped with crescents of pale blue? It must h

e night; and Aunt Susan, who was on a visit, stood peering through her spectacles, too much absorbed to notice black Dinah taking a nap in her work-basket and the kitt

. Why, he's as big as a full-grown bat, measures full seven inches across from wing to wing. Wal, now, I'd gin consider'ble to know what's b