cover hat and flint alike,
would have sat beside them patiently till nightfall, would have done
anything to make certain of his prize. But this collector was only a boy.
With youthful recklessness he raised the brim a hair's-breadth off the
flint, and, in a moment, the Emperor was fifty feet above him.

It had been a near thing. Higher he soared, and higher, exulting in his
freedom, and, as he soared, he sighted the Princess. She sat on an oak
pinnacle outlined against the sky. Who was she? Whence had she come? On
her wings was the broad white ribbon of butterfly royalty.

[Illustration: SHE TURNED HER BACK ON HIM.]

The Emperor alighted within a foot of her. For the first time in his life
he felt humble. As he opened his wings to show their beauty, she turned
her back on him; as he closed them again, she sought another tree. But
the Emperor was not so easily baffled. He followed in hot haste, and once
more settled on a neighbouring leaf. The Princess drooped her upper wings,
as if she was asleep. But she was not. The Emperor crept along the leaves
a little closer.

[Illustration: THE EMPEROR ONCE MORE SETTLED ON A NEIGHBOURING LEAF.]

[Illustration: THE EMPEROR CREPT ALONG THE LEAVES A LITTLE CLOSER.]

It was the strangest courtship imaginable, for it was all on one side.
From tree to tree they went, the Emperor flashing his purple in the
sunshine, the Princess, to all appearance, unconscious of her suitor's
presence. Yet he tried every allurement he could think of. He circled
round her, changing from purple to violet, from violet to velvet black. He
soared above her skywards until he was a mere speck in the blue. He showed
her the broad ribbon that he also wore. He even uncurled his slender
saffron proboscis, and toasted his divinity in the sap of the oak-leaf.

[Illustration: HE SHOWED HER THE BROAD, WHITE RIBBON THAT HE ALSO WORE.]

What made her change her mind at the eleventh tree? What had he said to
her? I cannot tell you, but I can tell you this. From that tree they rose
together, circling round each other. Higher they went and higher, until
the oakwood shrunk to a copse beneath them; higher and higher, until the
sea was their horizon; higher and higher, until they passed from sight.

[Illustration: HE EVEN UNCURLED HIS SAFFRON PROBOSCIS, AND TOASTED HER IN
THE SAP OF THE OAK-LEAF.]

[Illustration]

THE HARVEST MOUSE

Once upon a time, and not so very long ago either, the Harvest Mouse was