Dispute with a Peacock Butterfly. 43 



lect the food with which we feed them — and in that 

 way I am unselfishly useful, you must allow." 



"Perhaps; but after all, what do you gain by 

 working hard to rear a lot of things as useless as 

 yourself? I know there will be dozens of young 

 caterpillars — nasty things ! — crawling about some 

 day, that will all come out of the eggs I laid yester- 

 day. Do you suppose I'm proud of that ? Certainly 

 not." 



Buz suddenly remembered what the clover flower 

 had told her with regard to the use of bees in dis- 

 tributing pollen, and eagerly repeated it to the butter- 

 fly, who only said — 



" I sincerely hope you don't take any credit to 

 yourself for that. You surely are not proud of doing 

 what you couldn't help doing, however hard you 

 tried? " 



" I like to think I am useful, even if no praise is 

 due to me for doing so. My life would not be spent 

 in vain if I were useful even against my will, and I 

 still say that it is a higher and nobler one than yours. 

 I am convinced that the consciousness of being use- 

 fully employed " 



" I deny the usefulness to any one but yourself, 

 mind," put in the butterfly. 



" Makes life far happier," continued Buz, " than it 



