[CHAP. V.]
"If chance a mouse came in her sight,
"She finely counterfeits a fright,
"So sweetly screams if it come near her,
"It ravishes all hearts to hear her."
SWIFT.
The next day the Bee had taken home two or three loads before his friend made his appearance, who, when he came, expressed his surprise at finding him where he was. "I have been in such a beautiful conservatory," said he, "and surely I saw you there, almost buried in the heart of a flower; and so intent were you upon your labour, that you would not even answer me when I called; there must certainly have been something very attractive to have kept you there so long, but how you got here before me is what I most wonder at."
"I don't understand you," returned the Bee, "I have been in no conservatory, the utmost of my flights to-day have been from the hive to this place."
"And have you really been no where else?" said the Butterfly in astonishment; "why I never saw anything so like you in my life; I concluded that you were so buried in the flower that you did not hear my call, or was unwilling to move, lest you should alarm some ladies and gentlemen who were very near you."
"I think I can tell what has deceived you," returned the Bee, "you have seen a Bee-Orchis, as they are called, a flower which bears both the form and resemblance of our species. And so you really took it for me?"
"If it was not yourself," replied the Butterfly, "and you wish to see your own likeness, pray come with me, and behold it; for never did I see one Bee so like another, as that flower is like you."