The Tale of Betsy Butterfly | Page 4

Butterfly was
completely covered with dust, from head to foot!"
Mehitable Moth looked rather uncomfortable. She was somewhat dusty
herself. And she thought that Mrs. Ladybug might be giving her a sly
dig.
"Perhaps Betsy had been on a journey," she ventured.
"Ah! But there is no dust to-day, on account of the rain we had last

night," Mrs. Ladybug replied. "I'm convinced that the dust I saw on
Betsy Butterfly was weeks old."
"The idea!" Jennie Junebug exclaimed. "I should think she'd be
ashamed of herself. Did you tell her how untidy she looked?"
Mrs. Ladybug shook her head.
"No!" she answered. "But I've been thinking the matter over. And I
believe it's my duty to speak to her about it. I don't see what she's
thinking of, to go about looking like that!"
Miss Moth looked more uneasy than ever, especially when Mrs.
Ladybug said:
"Wouldn't you like to come with me while I look for Betsy?"
"I must go home now, thank you!" said Mehitable. And she hurried
away without another word.
But Jennie Junebug spoke up at once and said she would be delighted
to accompany Mrs. Ladybug.
"Really," Jennie confided to her companion, "it's a good thing to have
backs as hard and slippery as yours and mine. For the dust can't stick to
us as it does to some."
"There's no excuse for not keeping oneself neat," Mrs. Ladybug said
severely. "And I shall give Betsy Butterfly a piece of my mind."

V
NO JOKER
MUCH to Mrs. Ladybug's surprise, she did not find Betsy Butterfly in
the flower garden.

"It's too bad she's not here," Mrs. Ladybug remarked to her friend
Jennie Junebug, who accompanied her. "We'll have to look in the
meadow. And it may take a long time to find Betsy there."
Jennie Junebug yawned right in Mrs. Ladybug's face.
"Then I can't come with you," she said. "I'm getting terribly sleepy
again. And since I expect to be up all night, I'm going to take a nap."
Mrs. Ladybug looked at Jennie with great disapproval as that fat young
person crept under a leaf and went to sleep.
"Things have come to a pretty pass when ladies stay out all night!" she
muttered. "It was not that way when I was a girl. But times have
changed for the worse."
The longer Mrs. Ladybug stared at her sleeping friend, the more she
thought that she ought to wake her up. "If I rouse her she'll be so
drowsy to-night that she'll simply have to go to bed," Mrs. Ladybug
thought.
So she poked Jennie Junebug several times.
But Jennie Junebug only stirred slightly and murmured something in
her sleep.
And seeing that it was useless to try to awaken her Mrs. Ladybug set
out for the meadow alone.
The sun hung low in the west when Mrs. Ladybug found Betsy
Butterfly among a clump of milk-weed blossoms. But Mrs. Ladybug
did not care what time it was. She was satisfied when she saw that
Betsy was just as dusty as ever. For, to tell the truth, little Mrs.
Ladybug was so jealous of the beautiful Betsy that she wanted to say
something disagreeable to her.
"Hasn't this been a lovely day?" Betsy Butterfly cried happily, as soon
as she noticed Mrs. Ladybug. "I've enjoyed every moment of it. Ever

since I saw you in the flower garden this morning I've been here in the
meadow, flitting from one blossom to another."
"You might better have spent a little of your time in a different way,"
Mrs. Ladybug remarked with a frown.
Betsy Butterfly looked up in surprise, withdrawing her long tongue
from the blossom in which she had just buried it.
"Ugh!" A shudder shook prim Mrs. Ladybug. "Please coil your
tongue!" she begged. "I can't bear the sight of it. But I must say that I
ought not to expect good manners in a person who goes about looking
as untidy as you do."
Betsy Butterfly laughed gaily.
"I didn't know you were such a joker!" she exclaimed.
"Oh, I'm not joking," Mrs. Ladybug said. "I mean every word I say."
"Then I wouldn't talk so much, if I were you," Betsy Butterfly advised
her with a merry twinkle in her eye. And before Mrs. Ladybug could
say another word Betsy Butterfly flew away and left her spluttering and
choking.
"She insulted me!" Mrs. Ladybug screamed, as soon as she was able to
speak. "She insulted me. And then she hurried off because she didn't
dare stay!"
But Mrs. Ladybug was mistaken about one thing. Betsy Butterfly knew
that she had just time to reach home before sunset. So that was why she
left so suddenly. For she never was willing to travel when the sun was
not shining.
"I'll see