might better have spent a little of your time in a different way,"
Mrs. Ladybug remarked with a frown.

Betsy Butterfly looked up in surprise, withdrawing her long tongue from
the blossom in which she had just buried it.

"_Ugh!_" A shudder shook prim Mrs. Ladybug. "Please coil your tongue!"
she begged. "I can't bear the sight of it. But I must say that I ought
not to expect good manners in a person who goes about looking as untidy
as you do."

Betsy Butterfly laughed gaily.

"I didn't know you were such a joker!" she exclaimed.

"Oh, I'm not joking," Mrs. Ladybug said. "I mean every word I say."

"Then I wouldn't talk so much, if I were you," Betsy Butterfly advised
her with a merry twinkle in her eye. And before Mrs. Ladybug could say
another word Betsy Butterfly flew away and left her spluttering and
choking.

"She insulted me!" Mrs. Ladybug screamed, as soon as she was able to
speak. "She insulted me. And then she hurried off because she didn't
dare stay!"

But Mrs. Ladybug was mistaken about one thing. Betsy Butterfly knew that
she had just time to reach home before sunset. So that was why she left
so suddenly. For she never was willing to travel when the sun was not
shining.

"I'll see Betsy in the morning," Mrs. Ladybug promised herself savagely.
"I'll make it my business to follow her everywhere she goes, until I've
given her a good talking to."

VI

MRS. LADYBUG'S ADVICE

LITTLE did Betsy Butterfly guess what Mrs. Ladybug intended to say to
her. And if she had known what it was she would have been merely amused.
For Betsy was entirely too sweet-tempered to take offense at anybody's
fault-finding--least of all that of Mrs. Ladybug, who was really a
good-hearted soul, when she wasn't jealous. And when Betsy went to the
flower garden early the next morning she felt kindly towards the whole
world, not even excepting Johnnie Green, though he had tried to capture
her.

Well, Mrs. Ladybug was waiting for Betsy Butterfly among the flowers.
She had been in such haste to reach the garden early that she had not
stopped to have her breakfast. And like many people who have not drunk
their morning cup of coffee, she was in a very peevish mood.

"Now, Miss Pert, I want you to listen to me!" That was Mrs. Ladybug's
greeting to Betsy Butterfly on one of the most delightful days of the
whole summer. "It's my unpleasant duty--" said Mrs. Ladybug, who by that
time was enjoying herself thoroughly--"it's m