ing a little skip into the air.
"Here! Catch hold of my hand, and I'll help you along. The g'ass is
rather thick down that way."

I couldn't help laughing at his having so entirely forgotten what a big
creature he was talking to.

"No, not yet, Bruno," I said; "we must consider what's the right thing
to do first. You see we've got quite a business before us."

"Yes, let's consider," said Bruno, putting his thumb into his mouth
again, and sitting down upon a stuffed mouse.

"What do you keep that mouse for?" I said. "You should bury it, or
throw it into the lake."

"Why, it's to measure with!" cried Bruno. "How ever would you do a
garden without one? We make each bed th'ee mouses and a half long, and
two mouses wide."

I stopped him, as he was dragging it off by the tail to show me how it
was used, for I was half afraid the "eerie" feeling might go off before
we had finished the garden, and in that case I should see no more of
him or Sylvie.

"I think the best way will be for _you_ to weed the beds, while _I_
sort out these pebbles, ready to mark the walks with."

"That's it!" cried Bruno. "And I'll tell you about the caterpillars
while we work."

"Ah, let's hear about the caterpillars," I said, as I drew the pebbles
together into a heap, and began dividing them into colors.

And Bruno went on in a low, rapid tone, more as if he were talking to
himself. "Yesterday I saw two little caterpillars, when I was sitting
by the brook, just where you go into the wood. They were quite g'een,
and they had yellow eyes, and they didn't see _me_. And one of them
had got a moth's wing to carry--a g'eat b'own moth's wing, you know,
all d'y, with feathers. So he couldn't want it to eat, I should
think--perhaps he meant to make a cloak for the winter?"

"Perhaps," I said, for Bruno had twisted up the last word into a sort
of question, and was looking at me for an answer.

One word was quite enough for the little fellow, and he went on,
merrily:

"Well, and so he didn't want the other caterpillar to see the moth's
wing, you know; so what must he do but t'y to carry it with all his
left legs, and he t'ied to walk on the other set. Of course, he toppled
over after that."

"After what?" I said, catching at the last word, for, to tell the
truth, I hadn't been attending much.

"He toppled over," Bruno repeated, very gravely, "and if _you_ ever saw
a caterpillar topple over, you'd know it's a serious thing, and not sit
g'inn