"Hasn"t this been a lovely day?" Betsy b.u.t.terfly cried happily, as soon as she noticed Mrs. Ladybug. "I"ve enjoyed every moment of it. Ever since I saw you in the flower garden this morning I"ve been here in the meadow, flitting from one blossom to another."
"You might better have spent a little of your time in a different way,"
Mrs. Ladybug remarked with a frown.
Betsy b.u.t.terfly 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 b.u.t.terfly 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 b.u.t.terfly advised her with a merry twinkle in her eye. And before Mrs. Ladybug could say another word Betsy b.u.t.terfly 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 b.u.t.terfly 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 b.u.t.terfly 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 b.u.t.terfly 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 b.u.t.terfly 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 my unpleasant duty to tell you that people are talking about you. They say that you"re going about _covered with dust_! And as a friend, I advise you to give yourself a thorough brushing each morning, and as often thereafter as may be necessary."
Betsy b.u.t.terfly had listened in amazement to Mrs. Ladybug"s words. And she had hard work not to laugh, too, because she thought Mrs. Ladybug"s advice decidedly funny.
"Thank you very much!" Betsy said most politely. "I"ll remember what you"ve told me."
Somehow Mrs. Ladybug thought that Betsy meant she would follow her advice. And she looked quite pleased.
"I shall expect a great improvement in your appearance the next time I see you," she announced. And with the manner of a person who has just done somebody a good turn she hurried away to get the breakfast that was waiting for her, somewhere.
Then Betsy b.u.t.terfly enjoyed a good laugh.
"How ridiculous!" she said to herself. "But I won"t tell Mrs. Ladybug of her mistake, because she might feel upset if I did." And you can see, just by that, how kind-hearted Betsy was. She did not even tell her own family about the joke, for fear of hurting Mrs. Ladybug"s feelings.
But jealous little Mrs. Ladybug had no such misgivings. _She_ went out of her way to explain to people that if they noticed a change in Betsy b.u.t.terfly"s appearance, they might thank _her_ for it.... "I told Betsy that she ought to brush the dust off herself," she informed her friends.
Naturally she was displeased when she met Betsy that very afternoon and saw that the dust still lay thick on her wings.
"I believe you actually want to be untidy!" Mrs. Ladybug cried. "And if you aren"t going to brush that dust off, I shall do it myself!" And grasping a small Indian paint-brush, the weight of which she could scarcely stagger under, Mrs. Ladybug advanced upon Betsy b.u.t.terfly with a determined look in her eye.
"Oh, don"t do that!" cried Betsy.
"It"s my painful duty to give you a thorough dusting," Mrs. Ladybug declared.
VII
b.u.t.tERFLY BILL
NOW, a crowd had gathered quickly around Betsy b.u.t.terfly and Mrs.
Ladybug; for the field people are quick to notice anything unusual.
And a sprightly young cousin of Betsy"s known as b.u.t.terfly Bill said to Mrs. Ladybug, with a wink at everybody else:
"I suppose you"ll dust the rest of us, too?"
"Only those that need it!" replied Mrs. Ladybug.
"Then you"ll have your hands full," b.u.t.terfly Bill told her. "Maybe you haven"t noticed that every member of the b.u.t.terfly family in Pleasant Valley is covered with dust just as Betsy is."
Mrs. Ladybug looked surprised.
"Is that so?" she said faintly.
"It certainly is!" Bill cried. "Maybe you never knew that the dust is what gives us our--_ahem_--our beautiful colors," he added proudly. "And I warn you that if you so much as touch my lovely cousin with that brush you"ll have every one of us fellows in your hair."
Of course poor Mrs. Ladybug was quite bald. But she knew what b.u.t.terfly Bill meant. And she was so upset that she promptly let the paint-brush fall to the ground.
Then Betsy"s cousin nodded approvingly.
"Now you"d better hurry home," he told Mrs. Ladybug. "There"s a rumor around the meadow that your house is on fire. And they say your children are in great danger."
Little Mrs. Ladybug at once fell to weeping.
"It"s that horrid Freddie Firefly!" she shrieked. "I"ve told him to keep away from my home. I"ve told him that he would set it to blazing with that light of his. But he"s forever sneaking around my house as soon as my back is turned."
"There, there! Don"t be frightened!" Betsy b.u.t.terfly said to her soothingly. "It"s only a rumor, you know."