Gold Beauty 



127 



feel so uncomfortable that she would stop 

 eating for a while and take to watching the 

 high-flyers. And here she often found 

 puzzling things too, for she often saw one 

 of her own class carried off by some jaunty 

 high-flyer, and she wondered why it was 

 done. None of the creepers ever came 

 back to tell her, and she often felt aggrieved 

 because none ever carried her up right 

 amidst the songs. But one day when she 

 had taken a longer journey than usual and 

 had, in fact, almost reached the little brook 

 that ran along under the apple trees, and 

 which was separated from the garden by a 

 wide space of green grass, she saw a sight 

 that explained this mystery and filled her 

 heart witl> terror. 



She was reclining on a broad grass blade, 

 enjoying the sunlight, and taking pleasure 

 from the sound of the little brook that was 

 rippling over the pebbles, when she saw a 

 high-flyer sailing rapidly toward her and 

 bearing along with it one of her creeper 

 friends. 



Gold Beauty thrilled with excitement, for 

 she thought her time had come, and she 

 was also going to be caught up and taken 

 to the treetops. But she remained instead, 

 quite unseen, owing perhaps to the color of 

 her dress which was the same shade as the 

 grass blade, and the high-flyer, who seemed 

 in this case to be a low-flyer too, dropped 

 right down in the grass, and the curious 

 watcher saw her enter her home, which for 

 some strange reason she had built right 

 down there, and feed her hungry babies 

 with the poor creeper, which they devoured 

 with the greatest relish. 



Gold Beauty looked on while her heart 

 swelled with pity. Cruel, cruel, high-fly- 

 ers, she thought, not to know that the poor 

 creepers did not like to be eaten. She 

 shuddered at the sight and then moved 

 quickly away, for she did not doubt her 

 turn would come next if the heartless 

 mother saw her. 



After this Gold Beauty's worship of the 



high-flyers was mixed with a little distrust 

 and she took care to keep out of their way. 

 But one day the thought came to her that 

 perhaps she had judged her old idols too 

 harshly, for it was just possible, she thought, 

 that all high-flyers, did not eat creepers. 



Perhaps it was only those that preferred 

 the ground for their homes instead of the 

 breezy treetops, that were so cruel as to 

 feed their children upon innocent living 

 beings. Filled with this idea Gold Beauty 

 immediately considered it her duty to jour- 

 ney among the treetops and see if it were 

 true. 



Accordingly she set forth one beautiful 

 day when the air was soft and the old gar- 

 den seemed full of peace, and made her 

 way to the cherry trees that threw their 

 long arms quite over the garden wall. 



To climb such heights was tedious work 

 to a slow-moving creature like herself, but 

 she pressed on, and moved from branch to 

 branch, and tree to tree with the utmost 

 patience. But, alas! all that she saw only 

 confirmed her in the belief that the high- 

 flyers one and all looked upon creepers as 

 things only fit to feed their own petted 

 darlings on, for everywhere she went, and' 

 every home she visited showed the same 

 thing — a group of hungry children waiting 

 eagerly for their mothers to bring them 

 hapless creepers for their food. 



This all affected Gold Beauty's spirits 

 so that even her appetite began to suffer, 

 and the last place she visited, which con- 

 tained six ferocious babies, was too great 

 a strain upon her nerves, for she quite 

 gave up, and, a shower coming down at 

 the same time, she made a little pavilion 

 for herself of a leaf and abandoned herself 

 to the most gloomy views of life. 



A short time after this, however, she be- 

 came a little more cheerful, for she sud- 

 denly found that she had stopped growing. 

 She knew that this had happened by her 

 complete loss of appetite, and in her joy at 

 knowing that she had ceased to be a slave 



