tured close. Once she had caught the
glimmer of red near a brook, and thinking it was a bed of
flowers had flown down. She found a human being fast asleep
among the brookside blossoms. It had golden hair and a pink face
and wore a red dress. It was dreadfully large, of course, but
still it looked so good and sweet that Maya thrilled, and tears
came to her eyes. She lost all sense of her whereabouts; she
could do nothing but gaze and gaze upon the slumbering presence.
All the horrid things she had ever heard against man seemed
utterly impossible. Lies they must have been--mean lies that
she had been told against creatures as charming as this one
asleep in the shade of the whispering birch-trees.

After a while a mosquito came and buzzed greetings.

"Look!" cried Maya, hot with excitement and delight. "Look, just
look at that human being there. How good, how beautiful! Doesn't
it fill you with enthusiasm?"

The mosquito gave Maya a surprised stare, then turned slowly
round to glance at the object of her admiration.

"Yes, it _is_ good. I just tasted it. I stung it. Look, my body
is shining red with its blood."

Maya had to press her hand to her heart, so startled was she by
the mosquito's daring.

"Will it die?" she cried. "Where did you wound it? How could
you? How could you screw up your courage to sting it? And how
vile! Why, you're a beast of prey!"

The mosquito tittered.

"Why, it's only a very little human being," it answered in its
high, thin voice. "It's the size called girl--the size at which
the legs are covered half way up with a separate colored casing.
My sting, of course, goes through the casing but usually doesn't
reach the skin.-- Your ignorance is really stupendous. Do you
actually think that human beings are good? I haven't come across
one who willingly let me take the tiniest drop of his blood."

"I don't know very much about human beings, I admit," said Maya
humbly.

"But of all the insects you bees have most to do with human
beings. That's a well-known fact."

"I left our kingdom," Maya confessed timidly. "I didn't like it.
I wanted to learn about the outside world."

"Well, well, what do you think of that!" The mosquito drew a
step nearer. "How do you like your free-lancing? I must say,
I admire you for your independence. I for one would never
consent to serve human beings."

"But they serve us too!" said Maya, who couldn't bear a slight
to be put upon her people.

"Maybe.-- To