Dick and His Cat and Other Tales Part 10

6. THE FLY'S EYE.

1. I feel sure that she did not know me, for she cried out, "Oh, granny! here is a nasty fly on my bread and honey. I dare say that the horrid thing has been crawling all over it!

2. "I wish a spider would come and catch it!" went on Rose, quite crossly, "for I do not like to kill it myself!" And here she gave me a little poke with a fork. But not hard enough to hurt me.

3. "Why, Rose, what is the matter?" said her granny. "I thought that you were fond of the little, busy, useful flies that come to dance and play in the house?"

4. "Well, I cannot see what good they do," said Rose, "getting into the cream and sticking on to the bread and honey." Something had put little Rose out of temper. But I felt sure it would not last long.

5. "I wish he would not get on to my plate," said she, bending down her face to hide it, for she began to feel ashamed. "But I will not hurt him."

6. And she took one of her granny's knitting needles in her hand. I shook with fear when I saw this great spear coming; but Rose used it in a most gentle and kind way.

7. She lifted my body out after setting my legs free, and though I felt strained and tired after it, I left nothing behind me, no, not even any of the brushes and combs on my feet.

8. "I will put him out into the garden," said she. But, as my wings had got no honey on them, I saved her the trouble, by flying away.

9. If Rose had only known half the trouble I had in was.h.i.+ng my feet after the honey, she would have been ready to forgive me for tasting her lunch.

10. "I am glad you did not go on feeling cross with the poor little fly, Rose," said Mrs. Sutton. "We should miss them much if we had none, for they help to keep our houses sweet and clean.

11. "No maid with her broom could get at all the tiny cracks and corners where the flies go. The eyes of no woman in the world could see what the fly can.

12. "Do you know that his round ball of eye is made up of many hundreds of bits, and that each bit can see a new way?"

13. Rose clapped her hands. "Then can the fly see a hundred ways at once?" said she. "Oh, how I wish I could do that!"

14. "You can move your eyes about," said her granny, "which does just as well. The fly cannot move his. And you would not like to be born in the kitchen sink, would you?"

15. "Is that where flies are born?" said Rose, drawing near to her granny and looking into her face.

16. "Yes," said Mrs. b.u.t.ton, "the fly is born in a sink, or in any place where dirty stuff is found. The young flies eat the dirty stuff and get rid of it. I will tell you some day how the little things come into the world."

_Write:_ After being set free from the honey the fly went off. He cleaned his legs and went back to the old lady. She told Rose that flies were of great use.

Questions: 1. What did Rose use to lift the fly up? 2. In what way did she use the knitting-needle? 3. What did the fly feel when he saw the knitting-needle coming? 4. What can the fly do to keep a house clean? 5. What sort of eye has the fly? 6. Tell me where flies are born?

7. BABY FLIES.

1. "Could you not tell me now?" said Rose, for she wanted to hear about the little flies. And I too felt very glad to hear more about my childhood. So I sat still to listen.

2. "Perhaps you think that the child of a fly looks just like itself; only smaller," said Mrs. Sutton. "But the house-fly lays a great many little eggs.

3. "She finds some old dirty rubbish, like rotten cabbage or stuff that is left by careless cooks lying about. In this she puts her eggs, and then she dies. Little grubs are born from them.

4. "They begin to eat as soon as they are born, and very soon they turn into flies, after going to sleep for a while first in a kind of little hard skin or sh.e.l.l. They change into flies while they are inside this sh.e.l.l."

5. "What do the flies do when they cannot find any dirty rubbish?" said Rose.

"Then they go to look for it in other places," said her granny. "So you see, if we do not wish to have flies in our houses we must have no rubbish."

6. "Then the flies are little servants to us, granny?"

"Yes, to be sure."

"I wish I could see a baby-fly," said Rose.

7. "You would not think it at all pretty," said Mrs. Sutton. "It is a whitish maggot. But some ugly looking things are very useful to us."

"I like pretty things best," said Rose.

8. "Well, the fly is pretty enough when he is grown up. He has to wait, you see." I was pleased to hear the kind old lady say this, and I nodded my head and washed my face with my feet.

9. "And so it is your birthday on Monday, Rose," went on her granny.

"And I suppose it is time to be thinking about the party and the fun we are to have?"

10. Rose looked up, beaming with delight at these words. Though she had not been born as a grub in a sink, I thought that she looked pretty too.

11. "We must get Miss Bush to write the letters for us, Rose, and ask the little girls, and boys to come and spend the day with you. Run now and see if she will be so good as to do it now."

"Oh, very well," said Rose. And she went out with a skip.

_Write:_ A house-fly is born in the sink. The egg from which it comes is laid in dirt and rubbish. The grub which creeps out eats up the dirty stuff.

Questions: 1. Where does the house-fly lay its eggs? 2. What are the young flies like at first? 3. What do they do as soon as they are born? 4. What do they eat? 6. If we do not wish to have many flies, what must we do? 6. What treat was Rose going to have?

8. SAVED AGAIN.

1. I heard a little girl say, "Oh, Rose, there is a fly in your gla.s.s of wine."

"Poor thing!" said the little girl next her, "take it out!"

"No, no!" said her brother; "let it alone. Let us see how he swims."

2. All this time I felt very bad. I was drowning, yet this boy could look on and talk like that.

3. Something seemed to take away all my breath and strength. I heard the boy say, "If I fell into a pond I could not swim so well."

4. "Why, no," said Rose, "the fly has not a coat and trousers, as you have. But I do not think it is fun to see him drowning, so I will take him out." And she pushed the handle of a spoon with care under me.

[Ill.u.s.tration]