ld with knowledge.

"Oh," she said after a pause, grieving and pale, "if only one
could speak of these things openly. I had a brother who gave
promise of a splendid future, only, I'm sorry to say, he was a
little reckless and dreadfully curious. A boy once threw a net
over him, a net fastened to a long pole.-- Who would dream of a
thing like that? Tell me. Would you?"

"No," said the little bee, "never. I should never have thought
of such a thing."

The dragon-fly looked at her.

"A black cord was tied round his waist between his wings, so
that he could fly, but not fly away, not escape. Each time my
brother thought he had got his liberty, he would be jerked back
horribly within the boy's reach."

Maya shook her head.

"You don't dare even think of it," she whispered.

"If a day passes when I don't think of it," said the dragon-fly,
"I am sure to dream of it. One misfortune followed another. My
brother soon died." Miss Loveydear heaved a deep sigh.

"What did he die of?" asked Maya, in genuine sympathy.

Miss Loveydear could not reply at once. Great tears welled up
and rolled down her cheeks.

"He was stuck in a pocket," she sobbed. "No one can stand being
stuck in a pocket."

"But what is a pocket?" Maya could hardly take in so many new
and awful things all at once.

"A pocket," Miss Loveydear explained, "is a store-room that men
have in their outer hide.-- And what else do you think was in
the pocket when my brother was stuck into it? Oh, the dreadful
company in which my poor brother had to draw his last breath!
You'll never guess!"

"No," said Maya, all in a quiver, "no, I don't think I
can.-- Honey, perhaps?"

"Not likely," observed Miss Loveydear with an air of mingled
importance and distress. "You'll seldom find honey in the
pockets of human beings. I'll tell you.-- A frog was in the
pocket, and a pen-knife, and a carrot. Well?"

"Horrible," whispered Maya.-- "What _is_ a pen-knife?"

"A pen-knife, in a way, is a human being's sting, an artificial
one. They are denied a sting by nature, so they try to imitate
it.-- The frog, thank goodness, was nearing his end. One eye was
gone, one leg was broken, and his lower jaw was dislocated. Yet,
for all that, the moment my brother was stuck in the pocket he
hissed at him out of his crooked mouth:

"'As soon as I am well, I will swallow you.'

"With his remaining eye he glared at my brother, and in the
half-light of the prison you can imagine what