nd uncovered, stood out in the sun, and two of
the flower-pots were covered with netting.

"I couldn't keep them, boys," Miss Ruth said; "they were in such haste
to be gone. Only Greeny is above ground."

Greeny was in his flower-pot. He was creeping slowly round and round,
now and then stretching his long neck over the edge, but not trying to
get out. Soon he began to burrow. Straight down, head first, he went
into the ground. Now he was half under, now three quarters, now only the
end of his tail and the tip of his horn could be seen. When he was quite
gone, Sammy drew a long breath and Roy said, "I swanny!"

"How long will he have to stay down there?"

"All winter, Roy."

"Poor fellow!"

"Happy fellow! _I_ say. Why, he has done being a worm. His creeping days
are over. He has only to lie snug and quiet under the ground a while;
then wake and come up to the sunshine some bright morning with a new
body and a pair of lovely wings to spread and fly away with."

"Why, it's like--it's like"--

"What is it like, Sammy?"

"Ain't it like _folks_, Miss Ruth?" Grandma sings:--

'I'll take my wings and fly away
In the morning,'

"Yes," she said; "it _is_ like folks." Then glancing at her crutch,
repeated, smiling: "In the morning."

When the woodbine in the porch had turned red, and the maples in the
door-yard yellow, the flower-pots were removed to the warm cellar, and
one winter evening Sammy Ray wrote Greeny's epitaph:--

"A poor green worm, here I lie;
But by-and-by
I shall fly,
Ever so high,
Into the sky."

He came often in the spring to ask if any thing had happened, and one
day Miss Ruth took from a box and laid in his hand a shining brown
chrysalis, with a curved handle.

"What a funny little brown jug!" said Sammy.

"Greeny is inside; close your hand gently and see if you feel him."

"How cold!" said the boy; and then: "Oh! oh! he _is_ alive, for he
kicks!"

In June Greeny and Blacky came out of their shells, but no one saw them
do it, for it was in the night; but Sly-boots was more obliging. One
morning Miss Ruth heard a rustling, and lo! what looked like a great
bug, with long, slender legs, was climbing to the top of the box. Soon
he hung by his feet to the netting, rested motionless a while, and then
slowly, slowly unfolded his wings to the sun. They were brown and white
and pink, beautifully shaded, and his body was covered with rings of
brown satin. Blacky