"There's a little creature bound fast to it," said another.
The boat came quite close to our beetle's ship, and the young girls fished him out of the water. One of them drew a small pair of scissors from her pocket, and cut the woollen thread, without hurting the beetle; and when she stepped on shore, she put him down on the grass.
"Creep, creep—fly, fly—if thou canst," she said. "Liberty is a splendid thing."
And the beetle flew up, and straight through the open window of a great building; there he sank down, tired and exhausted, exactly on the mane of the emperor's favourite horse, who stood in the stable when he was at home, and the beetle also. The beetle clung fast to the mane, and sat there a short time to recover himself.
"Here I'm sitting on the emperor's favourite horse—sitting on him just like the emperor himself!" he cried. "But what was I saying? Yes, now I remember. That's a good thought, and quite correct. The smith asked me why the golden shoes were given to the horse. Now I'm quite clear about the answer. They were given to the horse on my account."
And now the beetle was in a good temper again.
"Travelling expands the mind rarely," said he.
The sun's rays came streaming into the stable, and shone upon him, and made the place lively and bright.
"The world is not so bad, upon the whole," said the beetle; "but one must know how to take things as they come."