"'I have really nothing of importance to tell;' and perhaps he was right, for he certainly had been very quiet all this time, although it may have been because he ate so much dinner.
"'I have lived a very uneventful life,' he went on, 'not having wandered further than the next village, where I live in a barn very comfortably. I have no learned tastes, like my bachelor brother; I do not care in the least whether the moon is green cheese or not,—as long as I stay on earth it need not trouble me; I am not a business mouse, like my city brother; I have never made a journey, like my father here; and all my children have lived to grow up, so that I have not the same misfortunes as my poor sister.
"'That is all I can say for myself; and, if it is agreeable to you all, I propose we go to bed, as some of us will have to make an early start in the morning,' he said, rising with a yawn of fatigue.
"They consented to this last arrangement, and thus Christmas Day closed on Grandpapa Mouse and his family."
Public favor was universally awarded the Caterpillar after this effort.
The Cricket next received a reward for all his patience and good humor, by having an opportunity of telling—
THE ENCHANTED BABY-HOUSE.
"Yes, it was a pleasant day, after all! The bright sunlight danced through the parted crimson curtains down upon the nursery floor, down upon curly heads nestled among the pillows, tinging the canary bird's golden feathers, as he ruffled himself upon the perch before skipping down to the dining-room of his cage for a stray seed or sip of water, and blinking straight into the eyes of little Milly, as she first opened them upon her sixth birthday. The other children were still napping; but Hannah, the nurse, thought of it, and came to kiss the pet who had first rested in her arms, a wee bundle of flannel, with a tiny red face. Nurse thought Milly a great deal prettier and bonnier, as she crept out of bed now to stand upon the warm hearth-rug in her white night-dress, warming her little pink toes at the blaze, than when she was only that little bundle of flannel on the day of her birth.