This ceremony over, the Caterpillar proceeded:—
THE DISAPPOINTED CATERPILLAR.
"I have had no occasion to stroll farther away than the garden of this house. I am sadly puzzled for something to talk about. The Wasp has anticipated me, even, in a description of butterflies,—a state I am in hopes of attaining some time, when you will not be able to recognize me. My world has been limited, so far; yet I have seen some wonderful things, too. Did any of you ever see a humming-bird?"
"Yes," said the Cricket, Spider, and Wasp in a breath.
"Did any of you ever converse with one?"
"I did not suppose they ever stopped buzzing about long enough to speak," remarked the Spider.
"I have talked with one," said the Caterpillar triumphantly. "When I was just hatched, some week or more ago, I crawled for the first time out of the soft, warm bed my good mother had made me in the curve of a leaf. I stretched myself upon the leaf which had been my cradle, to enjoy the warm sunlight, and looked about upon the various forms of life and beauty to be seen on a summer morning. The buttercups and daisies laughed up at me from the grass, the insects floated about on gauzy wings, while the birds darted from branch to branch in merry sport.
"Close beside my leaf couch was a knot, or natural excrescence in the branch; and this tiny cavity held a nest, lined with fibres from mullein leaves and fern-down, containing two pearly eggs no larger than peas.