"You are welcome," said Billy, and for some reason he felt very happy.
As he and the grasshopper were walking along again, they saw a beautiful, big butterfly sitting on a tall, yellow poppy. It was quite still. So Billy said, "That butterfly is asleep! I'm going to put it in my hat and take it home!"
"He is not asleep!" contradicted the grasshopper. "He has just waked up! He is waiting for his wings to grow strong, so he can fly. Leave him here in the sunshine. He would be very unhappy if you took him into your house!" The grasshopper hopped way out of sight, for this was the very longest speech he had ever made.
"O, please come back, grasshopper!" called Billy, "and tell me, did the butterfly sleep on that flower?"
The grasshopper was beside Billy before he had finished speaking. "No, no!" he replied to Billy's question. "He slept in the little house that he made for himself before he went to sleep!" The grasshopper looked at an empty cocoon hanging from a twig of a tree.
"Is that his house?" asked Billy, looking at it very curiously, for he had never seen anything like it before. The grasshopper nodded his head and winked an eye.
Just then the butterfly began to move his beautiful yellow and black wings up and down, very, very slowly.
"Why don't you fly?" asked Billy, "I'm not going to take you home with me."
"Thank you for leaving me out in the sunshine," said the butterfly, "I want to fly up to the blue sky very much indeed and, if I wait and work my wings, they will grow stronger and then I shall be able to fly ever so high."