"How they eat!" said Sammy; "they make their great jaws go like a couple
of old tobacco-chewers."
"Yes; and if they lived on bread and butter 't would cost a lot to feed
'em, wouldn't it?" said Roy.
"Look at my woodbine worm, boys," Miss Ruth said, as she lifted the
cover of another box. "Isn't he a beauty? See the delicate green, shaded
to white, on his back, and that row of spots down his sides looking like
buttons! I call him Sly-boots, because he has a trick of hiding under
the leaves. He used to have a horn on his tail like the tobacco worms."
"Where that spot is, that looks like an eye?"
"Yes; and one day he ate nothing and hid himself away, and looked so
strangely that I thought he was going to die; but the next morning he
appeared in this beautiful new coat."
"How funny! Say, what is he going to turn into?"
But Miss Ruth was busy house-cleaning. First she turned out her tenants.
They were at breakfast; but they took their food with them, and did not
mind. Then she tipped their house upside down, and brushed out every
stick and stem and bit of leaf, spread thick brown paper on the floor,
and put back Greeny and Blacky snug and comfortable.
The next time Sammy and Roy met at the parsonage, three flower-pots of
moist sand stood in a row under the bench.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25