t liberty to fly away whenever he liked, because she had
no wish to male a slave of him.

Feeling very happy over this new friend, Nelly went on singing softly
as she walked, and presently she found a pretty caterpillar dressed in
brown fur, although the day was warm. He lay so still she thought him
dead, till he rolled himself into a ball as she touched him.

"I think you are either faint from the heat of this thick coat of
yours, or that you are going to make a cocoon of yourself, Mr. Fuzz,"
said Nelly.

"Now I want to see you turn into a butterfly, so I shall take you, and
if get lively again I will let you go. I shall play that you have given
out on a march, as the soldiers sometimes do, and been left behind for
the Sanitary people to see to."

In went sulky Mr. Fuzz, and on trundled the ambulance till a golden
green rose-beetle was discovered, lying on his back kicking as if in a
fit.

"Dear me, what shall I do for him?" thought Nelly. "He acts as baby did
when she was so ill, and mamma put her in a warm bath. I haven't got
my little tub here, or any hot water, and I'm afraid the beetle would
not like it if I had. Perhaps he has pain in his stomach; I'll turn
him over, and pat his back, as nurse does baby's when she cries for
pain like that."

She set the beetle on his legs, and did her best to comfort him; but he
was evidently in great distress, for he could not walk, and instead of
lifting his emerald overcoat, and spreading the wings that lay
underneath, be turned over again, and kicked more violently than
before. Not knowing what to do, Nelly put him into one of her soft
nests for Tony to cure if possible. She found no more patients in the
garden except a dead bee, which she wrapped in a leaf, and took home to
bury. When she came to the grove, it was so green and cool she longed
to sit and listen to the whisper of the pines, and watch the
larch-tassels wave in the wind. But, recollecting her charitable
errand, she went rustling along the pleasant path till she came to
another patient, over which she stood considering several minutes
before she could decide whether it was best to take it to her hospital,
because it was a little gray snake, with bruised tail. She knew it
would not hurt her, yet she was afraid of it; she thought it pretty,
yet could not like it: she pitied its pain, yet shrunk from helping it,
for it had a fiery eye, and a keep quivering tongue, that looked as if
longing to bite.