MOORLAND IDYLLS. 



orange tips ; she, coquetting and curvetting, 

 dancing coyly through the air, now pre- 

 tending to fly away, now affecting disdain, 

 now returning to his side, now darting 

 off on light wings just as he thought he 

 had captivated that capricious small heart 

 of hers. So they continued for ten minutes 

 their dainty aerial minuet ; and when last I 

 caught sight of them they were still circling 

 undecided above the sprays of wild rose in 

 the hedgerow by the valley. 



A familiar country sight. And yet, great 

 heavens, what a miracle ! For bethink you 

 that that orange-tip was born and bred 

 a small green-and- white caterpillar. He 

 did not know, as you and I do, that his 

 father and mother were orange-tip butter- 

 flies. He never saw or knew them. They 

 were dead and gone before he emerged from 

 the egg ; and when he came out into the 

 world, he met none of his own kind, save, 

 it may be, some other small green-and-white 

 caterpillars. His sole business in life was 



70 



