from the
portrait.

"It certainly is," Freddie Firefly assured him. "It was made by a friend
of mine, who once painted a famous picture of old Mr. Crow."

While Freddie danced along the top of the fence, Dusty Moth carried the
picture into the shade of an apple tree, out of the moonlight, so that
he might see it more clearly.

A few moments later Freddie Firefly was both surprised and alarmed to
hear a cry of anguish from the direction of the apple tree.

"What's the matter?" he called. "There's nothing wrong, I hope?"

But Dusty Moth made no reply.

XXI

A STRANGE CHANGE

RECEIVING no answer to his question, Freddie Firefly skipped down from
the fence and sought the shade of the apple tree, where he found Dusty
Moth staring fixedly at Betsy Butterfly's picture.

Dusty's face wore a most curious look; he seemed at once angry,
sorrowful and amazed. And not till Freddie Firefly asked again what
_was_ the trouble did Dusty Moth say a word.

Then he pointed scornfully toward the portrait that Jimmy Rabbit had
made earlier in the summer.

"So that's the charming Betsy Butterfly, eh?" he roared. "That's the
beauty I've heard so much about! I can tell you right now that if I had
any idea she looked like this I never would have lost my appetite over
her!"

"You astonish me!" Freddie Firefly exclaimed. "Have you forgotten how
anxious you were to meet the lady?"

"Meet her!" Dusty Moth howled. "I promise you I'd never go out of my way
to meet anybody that looked as she does--though I might go a long
distance to avoid her."

Freddie Firefly glanced toward the picture. But it had fallen face
downward upon the ground. And he did not take the trouble to raise it.

"Well, you think Betsy Butterfly is beautiful, don't you?" he asked.

"Indeed I don't! I think she's hideous," Dusty Moth shouted. "Never in
all my life have I been so deceived in a person."

"I don't understand how you can say that," Freddie Firefly told him.
"But I suppose your idea of beauty may be different from mine--and from
many other people's, too. Anyhow, I hope you'll get your appetite back
again."

"I don't know about that," said Dusty Moth. "Just now I don't feel as if
I ever wanted to taste food again." A shudder passed over him. And he
covered his eyes, as if to shut some terrible image from his memory.

"I must leave you now," said Freddie Firefly. "And please don't forget
what you promised me. You remember that you said that