1. I feel sure that she did not know me, for she cried out, "Oh,
granny! here is a nasty fly on my bread and honey. I dare say that the
horrid thing has been crawling all over it!
2. "I wish a spider would come and catch it!" went on Rose, quite
crossly, "for I do not like to kill it myself!" And here she gave me a
little poke with a fork. But not hard enough to hurt me.
3. "Why, Rose, what is the matter?" said her granny. "I thought that
you were fond of the little, busy, useful flies that come to dance and
play in the house?"
4. "Well, I cannot see what good they do," said Rose, "getting into the
cream and sticking on to the bread and honey." Something had put little
Rose out of temper. But I felt sure it would not last long.
5. "I wish he would not get on to my plate," said she, bending down her
face to hide it, for she began to feel ashamed. "But I will not hurt
him."
6. And she took one of her granny's knitting needles in her hand. I
shook with fear when I saw this great spear coming; but Rose used it in
a most gentle and kind way.
7. She lifted my body out after setting my legs free, and though I felt
strained and tired after it, I left nothing behind me, no, not even any
of the brushes and combs on my feet.
8. "I will put him out into the garden," said she. But, as my wings had
got no honey on them, I saved her the trouble, by flying away.
9. If Rose had only known half the trouble I had in washing my feet
after the honey, she would have been ready to forgive me for tasting
her lunch.
10. "I am glad you did not go on feeling cross with the poor little
fly, Rose," said Mrs. Sutton. "We should miss them much if we had none,
for they help to keep our houses sweet and clean.
11. "No maid with her broom could get at all the tiny cracks and
corners where the flies go. The eyes of no woman in the world could see
what the fly can.
12. "Do you know that his round ball of eye is made up of many hundreds
of bits, and that each bit can see a new way?"
13. Rose clapped her hands. "Then can the fly see a hundred ways at
once?" said she. "Oh, how I wish I could do that!"
14. "You can move your eyes about," said her granny, "which does just
as well. The fly cannot move his. And you would not like to be born in
the kitchen sink, would you?"
15. "Is that where flies are born?" said Rose, drawing near to her
granny and looking into her face.
16. "Yes," said Mrs. Button, "the fly is born in a sink, or in any
place where dirty stuff is found. The young flies eat the dirty stuff
and get rid of it. I will tell you some day how the little things come
into the world."
* * * * *
_Write:_ After being set free from the honey the fly went off. He
cleaned his legs and went back to the old lady. She told Rose that
flies were of great use.
Questions: 1. What did Rose use to lift the fly up? 2. In
what way did she use the knitting-needle? 3. What did the
fly feel when he saw the knitting-needle coming? 4. What can
the fly do to keep a house clean? 5. What sort of eye has
the fly? 6. Tell me where flies are born?