116 STORIES OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS 



lies on it, and touched here and there with bark- 

 brown edges and brilliant eye-spots like the mark- 

 ings on a flower petal. Except for his stout, 

 furry body, lie was more graceful than any of the 

 day butterflies. 



"How could Ruby-throat ever call a beauti- 

 ful thing like this, a ' flying worm' ? " thought 

 Tommy- Anne ; but she only said : " You are 

 very good to come for me, and I shall be delighted 

 to go ; but please, is the Land of Nod a long way 

 off? Because in the evening I may only go about 

 the garden and a little way up the hill yonder, 

 and then, only when it is moonlight, and this 

 moon is so young that I think it will soon have 

 to go to bed." 



" Tommy- Anne," replied the Moon Moth, " the 

 Land of Nod is both far and near, for it is wherever 

 the Flower Market is held." 



" Do the poor flowers never sleep, then ? " 



" Surely they do. Those who have done their 

 work by day close their lids and fold their hands, 

 sleeping as peacefully as you yourself ; but there 

 are other blossoms who only begin their labours 

 as Gheezis disappears, and we are their messengers, 

 we moths, the heavy-bodied flyers of the shady 

 hours and of the night, for it takes the moths' long 

 tongues to reach the honeyed hearts of the deeply 



