Saint Guido 



round his cap, which was a little higher, and was 

 so tinted by the sun that the butterfly was inclined 

 to settle on it. Guido put up his hand to catch the 

 butterfly, forgetting his secret in his desire to touch 

 it. The butterfly was too quick with a snap of his 

 wings disdainfully mocking the idea of catching him, 

 away he went. Guido nearly stepped on a humble- 

 bee buzz-zz! the bee was so alarmed he actually 

 crept up Guide's knickers to the knee, and even then 

 knocked himself against a wheat-ear when he started 

 to fly. Guido kept quite still while the humble-bee 

 was on his knee, knowing that he should not be stung 

 if he did not move. He knew, too, that humble-bees 

 have stings though people often say they have not, 

 and the reason people think they do not possess them 

 is because humble-bees are so good-natured and never 

 sting unless they are very much provoked. 



Next he picked a corn buttercup ; the flowers were 

 much smaller than the great buttercups which grew 

 in the meadows, and these were not golden but 

 coloured like brass. His foot caught in a creeper, 

 and he nearly tumbled it was a bine of bindweed 

 which went twisting round and round two stalks of 

 wheat in a spiral, binding them together as if some 

 one had wound string about them. There was one 

 ear of wheat which had black specks on it, and another 

 which had so much black that the grains seemed 

 changed and gone leaving nothing but blackness. He 

 touched it and it stained his hands like a dark powder, 

 and then he saw that it was not perfectly black as 

 charcoal is, it was a little red. Something was burn- 

 ing up the corn there just as if fire had been set to the 

 ears. Guido went on and found another place where 

 there was hardly any wheat at all, and those stalks 

 that grew were so short they only came above his knee. 



7 



