d a great deal to say; so, when his name was called, he marched
up, and, looking at the audience with his bright confiding eyes, told
his little story so earnestly that no one smiled at his crooked body,
because the "straight soul" shone through it beautifully.

"I've been watching dragonflies, and I read about them in Dan's book,
and I'll try and tell you what I remember. There's lots of them flying
round on the pond, all blue, with big eyes, and sort of lace wings,
very pretty. I caught one, and looked at him, and I think he was the
handsomest insect I ever saw. They catch littler creatures than they
are to eat, and have a queer kind of hook thing that folds up when they
ain't hunting. It likes the sunshine, and dances round all day. Let me
see! what else was there to tell about? Oh, I know! The eggs are laid in
the water, and go down to the bottom, and are hatched in the mud. Little
ugly things come out of 'em; I can't say the name, but they are brown,
and keep having new skins, and getting bigger and bigger. Only think! it
takes them two years to be a dragonfly! Now this is the curiousest part
of it, so you listen tight, for I don't believe you know it. When it is
ready it knows somehow, and the ugly, grubby thing climbs up out of the
water on a flag or a bulrush, and bursts open its back."

"Come, I don't believe that," said Tommy, who was not an observant boy,
and really thought Dick was "making up."

"It does burst open its back, don't it?" and Dick appealed to Mr. Bhaer,
who nodded a very decided affirmative, to the little speaker's great
satisfaction.

"Well, out comes the dragonfly, all whole, and he sits in the sun sort
of coming alive, you know; and he gets strong, and then he spreads his
pretty wings, and flies away up in the air, and never is a grub any
more. That's all I know; but I shall watch and try to see him do it, for
I think it's splendid to turn into a beautiful dragonfly, don't you?"

Dick had told his story well, and, when he described the flight of the
new-born insect, had waved his hands, and looked up as if he saw, and
wanted to follow it. Something in his face suggested to the minds of
the elder listeners the thought that some day little Dick would have his
wish, and after years of helplessness and pain would climb up into the
sun some happy day, and, leaving his poor little body behind him, find
a new lovely shape in a fairer world than this. Mrs. Jo drew him to her
side, and said, with