“I am very sorry,” said Jules, “that Jacques did not hear your account of venomous creatures; he would have understood that caterpillars’ green entrails are not venom. I will tell him all these things; and if I find another beautiful sphinx caterpillar I will not crush it.”
CHAPTER XXXII
THE NETTLE
AFTER dinner, while their uncle read under the chestnut tree, the children scattered in the garden. Claire attended to her cuttings, Jules watered his vases, and Emile——Ah, giddy-pate, what should happen to him but another misfortune! A large butterfly was flying over the weeds that grow at the foot of the wall. Oh, what a magnificent butterfly! On the upper side its wings are red, fringed with black, with big blue eyes; underneath they are brown with wavy lines. It alights. Good. Emile makes himself small, approaches softly on tip-toe, puts out his hand, and, all at once, the butterfly is gone. But mark what follows. Emile draws his hand back quickly; it smarts, is red. The pain increases and becomes so bad that the poor boy runs to his uncle, his eyes swollen with tears.
“A venomous creature has stung me!” he cries. “See my hand, Uncle! It smarts—oh, how it smarts! Some viper has bitten me!”
At this word viper, Uncle Paul started. He rose and looked at the injured hand. A smile came to his lips.
“Impossible, my little friend; there is no viper in the garden. What foolishness have you been committing? Where have you been?”
“I ran after a butterfly, and when I put out my hand to catch it on the weeds at the foot of the wall, something stung me. See!”
“It is nothing, my poor Emile; go and dip your hand into the cool water of the fountain, and the pain will go away.”
