reason he felt very happy.

As he and the grasshopper were walking along again, they saw a
beautiful, big butterfly sitting on a tall, yellow poppy. It was quite
still. So Billy said, "That butterfly is asleep! I'm going to put it in
my hat and take it home!"

"He is not asleep!" contradicted the grasshopper. "He has just waked up!
He is waiting for his wings to grow strong, so he can fly. Leave him
here in the sunshine. He would be very unhappy if you took him into your
house!" The grasshopper hopped way out of sight, for this was the very
longest speech he had ever made.

"O, please come back, grasshopper!" called Billy, "and tell me, did the
butterfly sleep on that flower?"

The grasshopper was beside Billy before he had finished speaking. "No,
no!" he replied to Billy's question. "He slept in the little house that
he made for himself before he went to sleep!" The grasshopper looked at
an empty cocoon hanging from a twig of a tree.

"Is that his house?" asked Billy, looking at it very curiously, for he
had never seen anything like it before. The grasshopper nodded his head
and winked an eye.

Just then the butterfly began to move his beautiful yellow and black
wings up and down, very, very slowly.

"Why don't you fly?" asked Billy, "I'm not going to take you home with
me."

"Thank you for leaving me out in the sunshine," said the butterfly,
"I want to fly up to the blue sky very much indeed and, if I wait and
work my wings, they will grow stronger and then I shall be able to fly
ever so high."

[Illustration: "Why don't you fly?"]

Billy sat down on a stone and the grasshopper perched on a blade of
grass.

"Did you know how to fly before you went to sleep?" asked Billy.

"O dear no!" replied the butterfly. "I was only a caterpillar and had to
creep along the earth or on cabbage leaves."

"Only a caterpillar!" gasped Billy. "Then where did you get those
wings?"

"They grew in the night," answered the butterfly, "while I was asleep."

At this the grasshopper began to laugh. He laughed so hard, he had to
hold his sides.

"Why are you laughing, Grasshopper?" asked Billy indignantly.

The grasshopper did not answer him, but said, "Butterfly, do you know
how long you slept in that little house you made for yourself when you
were a caterpillar?"

"How long?" asked the butterfly, who had been working his wings up and
down all this time.

"Many days and many nights, all through the cold winter. The