I
How and where little Cacinella was born, no one knows. It happened one
sunny day in spring. Little Cacinella looked around and said, "Very
nice." She stretched her tiny wings, rubbed one little thin leg against
the other, looked around again and said:
"How very, very nice! How warm the sun! How blue the sky! How green the
grass! How very, very nice! and all this is mine!"
Rubbing one little leg against the other once more, little Cacinella
began to fly. She flew and looked around and rejoiced. Beneath her, the
grass was green, and hidden in its bosom, was a crimson flower.
"Little Cacinella, come to me," called the flower.
Cacinella came down to the ground, climbed into the flower and sipped
its sweet nectar.
"How kind you are, little flower," said Cacinella, rubbing her mouth
with one of her little thin legs.
"Yes, I may be kind, but I cannot walk," complained the flower.
"Still, the world is lovely," said little Cacinella, "and it is all
mine, too."
She had hardly finished, when a hairy drone flew down upon the flower
with a loud buzz.
"Buzz! Buzz! Who dares to get into my flower? Buzz! Buzz! Who dares to
sip my sweet nectar? Buzz! Buzz! Oh, you nasty little Cacinella, get
away from here! Buzz! Buzz! Get away or I'll sting you to death."
"I say, what does this mean?" piped little Cacinella. "Everything is
mine."
"Buzz! Buzz! No, it's mine."
Little Cacinella was barely able to escape from the angry drone. She
crept into the grass, licked her thin little legs, sticky with flower
nectar, and said angrily:
"How rude that drone was! It's quite amazing! He even tried to sting
me to death! Why, aren't they all mine, the sun and the grass and the
flower!"
"No, pardon me. They are all mine," said a fuzzy Caterpillar, crawling
along a blade of grass. Little Cacinella realized that a caterpillar
cannot fly, so she grew bold.
"Pardon me, Mr. Caterpillar. You are mistaken. I do not interfere with
your crawling. Don't argue with me."
"Very well. Pray don't touch my grass. To tell you the truth, I don't
like it. So many of you fly about here. You are all such light-minded
creatures; while I, Caterpillar, am a serious person. To be frank,
everything is mine. I crawl along a blade of grass and I eat it up. I
get into a flower and I eat that up. Good day."
[Illustration]