"Have you ever seen a million?" asked the child again. "I'd like to see a million for once. The whole room, clear up to the top, would be full of rolls of gold—no, I shouldn't like that. Tell me now, have you a little sister?"
"No, she's a year older than I."
"And is she beautiful too?"
Lilian did not wait for the answer; she beckoned to Roland to keep quiet, for just then a lady-bug ran over her hand. She placed the little creature on its back, saying,—
"Look, now it's kicking, it can't help itself—there, now, its little wings are under its back, and with them it has got up again, all by itself. Hi! it's off. 'Twill have a long story to tell when it gets home. Ah, it will say. There was a great animal that had five legs on its hand—my fingers must appear to it like legs, and when it eats supper to-night it eats with-—-"
"Tell me, aren't you hungry too? I'm hungry."
"What are you doing there?" suddenly called out a woman's loud voice. "Come into the house."
Lilian's aunt had made her appearance behind the children, and they had to go with her to the house.
Lilian saw Roland's frightened expression, and with the idea that he must certainly be thinking of the wicked woman in the story, who eats the children up in the wood, she said in a low tone,—
"Aunt won't do us any harm; instead, we'll get something very nice to-night, great pancakes and leeks. Don't you see a leek in her hand, which she has just cut? That's for the pancakes."