over the edge. The
man seemed dreadfully big. I watched him working. Then, slowly,
very slowly, carefully lifting one leg at a time, I crossed over
to the lamp. As long as I was covered by the bottle all went
well, but I had scarcely turned the corner, when the man looked
up and grabbed me. He lifted me by one of my legs, dangled me in
front of his huge eyes, and said: 'See what's here, just see
what's here.' And he grinned--the brute!--he grinned with his
whole face, as though it were a laughing matter."

Hannibal sighed, and little Maya kept quite still. Her head was
in a whirl.

"Have human beings such immense eyes?" she asked at last.

"Please think of _me_ in the position _I_ was in," cried
Hannibal, vexed. "Try to imagine how I felt. Who'd like to be
hanging by the leg in front of eyes twenty times as big as his
own body and a mouth full of gleaming teeth, each fully twice as
big as himself? Well, what do you think?"

"Awful! Perfectly awful!"

"Thank the Lord, my leg broke off. There's no telling what might
have happened if my leg had not broken off. I fell to the table,
and then I ran, I ran as fast as my remaining legs would take
me, and hid behind the bottle. There I stood and hurled threats
of violence at the man. They saved me, my threats did, the man
was afraid to run after me. I saw him lay my leg on the white
paper, and I watched how it wanted to escape--which it can't do
without me."

"Was it still moving?" asked Maya, prickling at the thought.

"Yes. Our legs always do move when they're pulled out. My leg
ran, but I not being there it didn't know where to run to, so it
merely flopped about aimlessly on the same spot, and the man
watched it, clutching at his nose and smiling--smiling, the
heartless wretch!--at my leg's sense of duty."

"Impossible," said the little bee, quite scared, "an offen leg
can't crawl."

"An offen leg? _What_ is an offen leg?"

"A leg that has come off," explained Maya, staring at him.
"Don't you know? At home we children used the word offen for
anything that had come off."

"You should drop your nursery slang when you're out in the world
and in the presence of cultured people," said Hannibal severely.
"But it _is_ true that our legs totter long after they have been
torn from our bodies."

"I can't believe it without proof."

"Do you think I'll tear one of my legs off to satisfy you?"
Hannibal's tone was ugly. "I see you're not a fit person to
associate with.