Well, they guessed all kinds of queer things. Joe-Boy said:
"Maybe Mr. Jaybird hung it there for a nut."

And Charlotte Anne said: "S'pose it was a snake egg?"

But the kindergarten teacher only shook her head and laughed,
because you know Mr. Jaybird planted nuts in the ground, he did
not swing them on trees, and everybody knows snake eggs are smooth
and white, and not brown and woolly like the cradle the princess was
sleeping in. So the kindergarten teacher said, "Well, I'll tell you this
much the princess that sleeps in this cradle will fly when she wakes up,
for she has most beautiful wings."

"Oh, a butterfly, a butterfly!" said all the children. "We know it
is a butterfly!"

"You have almost guessed," said the kindergarten teacher, "but
not quite. This cradle is almost too large for a butterfly's cradle, but
the pretty moth that sleeps inside is so much like a butterfly you can
hardly tell them apart. She will be very much larger than a butterfly,
too, and instead of flying in the bright sunlight, she will like best to
fly in the moonlight, or late in the afternoon, when she flits from flower
to flower, searching for the sweet nectar juice, she likes so well to drink.
But the queerest part of all is, that this pretty princess, sound asleep in
her cocoon cradle, thinks she is still a creeping caterpillar — she does
not know when she wakes up and crawls out of her cradle that she is
to be a moth with beautiful golden brown wings — that was God's
secret — so don't you know she will be full of joy and so surprised when
she wakes and finds out she doesn't have to crawl low on the ground anv
more like the little worm, but fly up, up, high like the birds — won't it
be such a happy surprise? Last summer when she was only a tiny baby
caterpillar, she lived in the elm tree at Billy Sander's house. The tree
was kind to her, and gave her all the tender leaves she wanted to eat.



LITTLE FOLKS' LAND 197

She ate so many, her pretty green coat would split right down the back,
and she would have to have a new and larger one. By ard by she
grew very tired and very sleepy, and the kind elm tree said, "It is time
for you to go to sleep now, and you must spin a cocoon cradle as I
have seen other caterpillars do. Wrap yourself snugly within as you
spin, and I will hide you among my branches through the long winter
months while you sleep and rest."

So the caterpillar spun a silken thread from her mouth, and fastened
it to the end of a strong twig where there were two leaves to help cover
her cocoon cradle, and as she spun she wrapped the silken thread round
and round her body, until she was covered up so close, you could not
see her mouth nor tiny feet, and the two elm leaves hid the pretty
cocoon cradle from sight, so that not even the birds could tell it was
swinging there, and that is just as I found her in the old elm tree. I
have brought her here to be our princess, and we will take good care
of her and watch for the day when God shall wake her up. Then we
will watch her fly away, that she may enjoy her beautiful wings."

"And we will sing to her every day," said Joe-Boy.

"Yes, and we will sing to her right now," said the kindergarten
teacher. So they hung the pretty cocoon cradle back in the sunny win-
dow, and as the sang, Joe-Boy played that he was the little creeping
caterpillar, on the old elm tree, spinning a cocoon cradle just as the
princess had done, and by and by he got so very still — as still as still
could be — that the other children knew he must have finished his cradle
and was fast asleep. So he slept, and slept, until the kindergarten
teacher sent a sunbeam to touch him gently on the head, and change him
back to a real little boy. Did you ever play you were sleeping in a
cocoon cradle? Well, as vou slept, did you play you were changing
into a beautiful moth with golden brown wings, and when you waked up,
you could fly and fly and fly ? Let's play that now.

^ Bluette's Babies

Tuesday

THE next morning when the children came to kindergarten, they
wanted to know, the verj^ first thing, if the princess had waked
up yet.
"No, not yet," said the kindergarten teacher; "I am sure it is too
cool for her now. When she wakes she will want to find the weather



198 LITTLE FOLKS' LAND

very warm and flowers in bloom and especially plenty of leaves on the
trees, for I believe she will go back to see the old elm tree. If she
should lav anv pnras for her baby caterpillars to come out of, why, she
will lay them on the elm leaves, I feel very sure, because she will
remember how she liked them when she was a caterpillar, and of course
her babies will like the same kind of leaves. No, no, it is too early
for our princess to wake just yet, but if you will find a golden key and ,
lock your lips, I will tell you a story about a pretty butterfly — how
will that do?" '

You know these children were always ready for a story, so they
locked their lips and folded their hands and sat as still as still could
be, so everybody could hear, and then the kindergarten teacher began.

"Once-upon-a-time there was a beautiful swallowtail butterfly.
Here name was Bluette, because of the shades of blue on her wings,
and she had slept through the long winter months, just as our Princess
sleeps now, though their cradles were of a different kind. Bluette
waked in June, and she was very happy when she flitted over tne stone
wall into the old garden, where many flowers grew.

" 'Come to us, Bluette,' the roses said, 'we love you so.'

" 'Come to us, Bluette,' said the lilies white, 'dip down into our
cups, and get you something sweet.'

" 'Come to us, Bluette,' said the smiling pinks, 'we will let you
kiss our baby buds.'

"'And don't forget us, Bluette,' said the gay nasturtiums; 'we
love you, too.'

"So Bluette would flit by to see them all, and sometimes she would
carry their golden powder across to other flowers, because that was
the way she helped them, you know. But one bright morning when
the flowers called, Bluette did not stop, but flew quickly over the old
stone wall into the orchard and flitted in and out among the trees.

" 'Good morning, Bluette,' said the apple tree; 'see, I have shaken
off my pretty pink blossoms, and have my baby seeds wrapped up in
tiny green apples — they are my babies, Bluette; aren't they the dearest
ones in all the world?'

" 'Everyone thinks their babies are the dearest,' said Bluette ; *I
am out hunting a place to lay my eggs, and then I'll have some babies,
too — the dearest in all the world.'

"So Bluette fltted on through the orchard, and darted over the



LITTLE FOLKS' LAND 199

fence, and flitted through the sun-lit woods, until at last she came to a
tall sassafras bush, and there she stopped.

" 'I have come to ask you to take care of my eggs for me,' said
Bluette. 'I shall have to go away when I lay them, and can not watch
until they are hatched.'

" 'I am always glad to help,' said the sassafras bush, 'but wouldn't
it be best to lay them in the garden on the celery or parsley stalks?'

" 'No, no,' said Bluette, 'that w^ould be a fine place for most of the
swallowtail butterflies, but I would rather leave ?ny eggs with you, if
you will promise to care for them.'

" 'I will do the best that I can,' said the sassafras bush, 'though
I have never cared for any babies except my own. Just lay them there
on my leaves, and perhaps you had better lay them on the under side,
where the rain will not wash them away. I'm sure I could not pick
them up if they fall.'

" 'Oh, I'll fix that,' said gay Bluette. 'See, I'll glue them down,
and they will stay right where I place them until the babies are hatched.'

" 'And what must I do when the babies are hatched ?' said the
sassafras bush. 'If you are far away, I should know just how to care
for them.'

" 'Oh,' laughed Bluette, 'you nttd not worry about them in the
least! IVIy babies will care for themselves, if you will only give them
enough leaves to eat — and I shall thank you ever so much.'

" 'Very well,' said the sassafras bush. 'If it's leaves they like to eat,
I have plenty to spare, and they may eat as much as they please.'

"Then pretty Bluette laid some wee, wee, wee eggs — very tiny,
indeed — on the sassafras leaves, and away she flitted over the heads of
nodding grasses."

"And did the babies really hatch out?" asked Joe-Boy.

"To be sure they did!" said the kindergarten teacher, "but then,
that's another story to be told some other day."

Of course, there was a merry butterfly game after that, when some
of the children were flowers and some were sassafras bushes and one
was Bluette flitting here and there. And before they went home that
day, ever\'one had made a clay leaf, showing the tiny, tiny eggs like
what Bluette had laid.



200 LITTLE FOLKS' LAND

Bluette's Babies

Wednesday

NOW the sassafras bush had never seen any butterfly babies,
though she had heard about them, and even knew that different
butterflies chose different kinds of plants to lay their eggs on.

"Anyway, I am very glad that Bluette chose me," said the sassafras
bush, for I shall watch those eggs and soon know for myself just how
a butterfly baby looks. I suppose, of course, they will be tiny dark blue
butterflies, just like their mother," she said.

"I know chickens come out of eggs, and always favor their mother.
And I know birds come out of eggs, too, for I have hidden their nests
among my leaves, and I have seen the eggs and the baby birds and they
favor their mother, so of course Bluette's babies will look like her/'

But, dear me, as you must know, that sassafras bush was very
much mistaken, for when Bluette's eggs hatched out only a few days
later, guess what came out of them?

"Worms! worms!" said the sassafras bush, "so sure as I am alive,
those little crawling things are worms! — who would have believed it!"

And Joe-Boy was almost as surprised as the sassafras bush had been,
and sa were Charlotte Anne and the other children — they were so sur-
prised they did not know what to do, and they wanted to know what
the sassafras bush did.

"Well, Bluette's babies were not worms, even if the sassafras bush
did think so," said the kindergarten teacher. "They were caterpillars, as
all baby butterflies are, and though the sassafras bush was very much
surprised, she decided to take care of the babies anyway, because she
had promised Bluette, and promises should be kept, you know — at least
that's what the sassafras bush thought — so she did her best to care for
Bluette's queer babies."

"Help yourselves to my leaves, little ones," she said, "but whatever
you do, don't fall on the ground. I promised your mother to care for
you, though I wish she were here to glue you down, I am not used
to babies who are always crawling about. My babies stay right where
I place them and never do they think of moving unless a breeze swings
them."

But Bluette's babies did not wait for the breezes to swing them- —
at least, not then — and when the sassafras bush told them to help them-



LITTLE FOLKS' LAND 201

selves to her tender leaves they all began tumbling and scrambling over
one another, hunting the leaves they liked best, and they ate so many
and got so fat, why, one day they popped their coats right down the back,
and it tickled the sassafras bush so, she shook her slender brown twigs
in laughter.

"Dear me, little ones," she said, "don't be greedy there are leaves
enough for all ! — and who will mend your coats, now, that they are
torn?"

"But the sassafras bush needn't have worried about those torn
coats, because every one of Bluette's babies had a new one right under-
neath, even newer and brighter than the ones they had ripped, and a
better fit, too. Anj'way they kept on eating day after day, and at night
curled up in little wads on the leaves and went to sleep. At sunrise the
next morning, they were always as hungry as ever, and went straight to
eating leaves again, and then the first thing you knew, why, they had
gotten too big and fat for their coats again, and ripped them open right
down the back, and the sassafras bush was very much astonished to see
more new coats right underneath for every one. But, do you know,
they went right straight to eating again?

"Look here, little ones, listen to me," said the sassafras bush, shak-
ing them gently on her leaves. "You must not, must not eat so much!
The first thing I know, you will split those new coats open, too, and
how do I know you will have any more? Your mother might be back
here any day and I want her to find you neat and clean — do you hear?"

I do not know whether Bluette's babies understood or not, but
anyway they soon stopped eating and curled up for a nap, and the
sassafras bush drew a long sigh and was happy.

"How large and fine they are growing," she said, "and the blue
spots on their fresh green coats makes me think of the blue on their
mother's wings — how I wish she could see them now, pretty Bluette!"

Bluette's Smallest Baby

Thursday

WHEN Bluette's babies waked up the next morning they did
what they always did — ate! They seemed as hungry as
ever, and by and by one caterpillar said to another cater-
pillar:

"Let's crawl down to the ground and hunt for another sassafras
bush."



202 LITTLE FOLKS' LAND

So the largest baby started first, and crawled from the leaves to
the trunk of the bush and the other babies followed close behind.

"Come back, little ones," said the sassafras bush, quickly; "do not
run away. Your mother asked me to take care of you, and how can I
if you crawl away?"

But Bluette's babies did not seem to hear, for down the trunk they
crawled, one behind the other, until the ground was reached, and through
the grass they hurried, never stopping a single minute, while the sassafras
bush kept calling, "Come back, little ones, come back!"

One of Bluette's babies heard — the very smallest one — and crawling
back up the branches said: "I will stay with you, dear sassafrash bush.
You have taken good care of me, and I love you; I should like to stay
always."

"Thank you, little one," said the sassafras bush; "I promised Bluette
I would care for you all, and I am sure I have done my best. I am
sorry the others have left me, for when Bluette comes back she will miss
them, and think I did not keep my promise."

"But I shall be here to tell her," said the baby, "and then she will
know. Tell me about my mother; do I look like her?"

"No, no, no," said the sassafras bush, "not the least little bit!
Why, your mother was the most beautiful butterfly I ever saw! She
could fly like a bird, and the blue on her scalloped wings was dark and
rich — you would think her a stray sunbeam floating through the air.
The flowers and the ferns and the grasses all loved her because she was
kind and always ready to help."

"Oh, I wish I had wings like my mother's," said the baby cater-
pillar. "Do you think I ever will?"

"I am afraid not," said the sassafras bush, gently; "I have never
seen a worm with wings, though it does seem strange to me that all of
Bluette's babies should be without wings, and look so little like her.
I have never understood it, and have wondered and wondered."

"Well, I wish I did have wings, anyway," said the baby, and then
he crawled away to the edge of a leaf and began eating little scallops
in it. For many days he stayed on the sassafras bush alone, growing
larger and plumper each day, and then all at once Bluette's baby cater-
pillar grew tired and sleepy, and did not feel like eating any more. His
coat was no longer bright green, but was a rich yellow, and there were
eyespots of black in buff rings, and a tiny pair of orange colored horns.



LITTLE FOLKS' LAND 203

which he kept hidden. "This is the prettiest coat you have worn yet,"
said the sassafras bush, "but if you do not feel like eating, t am afraid
you are sick."

"No, I am not sick, but I am too sleepy to stay awake another
minute," said Bluette's baby caterpillar; "I feel as if I could sleep for-
ever."

Then, the next thing the sassafras bush knew, why, Bluette's baby
had spun a silken girdle like the letter V around his body and fastened
it tightly to a twig, and noivhere could you see his tiny feet, nor his
pretty orange horns as he swung in the slender chrysalis cradle which
his coat had seemed to change to.

"Well," said the sassafras bush, "now, wasn't that a sight! Bluette's
babies are the most wonderful babies that ever I saw. Why, they
seem to have everything they need right inside of them — their coats
wear out or get too small and split open ; but there is another one under-
neath, all ready. They get sleepy, and want a cradle, and these same
wonderful coats seem to change somehow into a cradle and they swing
themselves up in it by a strong silken cord — as safe and as snug as you
please! Well! Well! Well! I'd just like to know where those
other run-a-way babies swung themselves!"

Where do you suppose they did ?

The Surprise of the Sassafras Bush

Friday

WELL, I can not tell you just what became of Bluette's other
babies, but I know they must have grown too sleepy to eat,
too, and when they had found a pleasant place swung them-
selves up by a silken girdle and slept in their chrysalis cradles, just as
the one on the sassafras bush did — because that is about the way all
butterfly babies do. I am glad the sassafras bush found out Bluette's
babies were not worms, too. \lr. Jaybird 'cold her that. One day he
was flying by hunting acorns, and the sassafras bush called to him to
come see what a queer cradle Bluette's baby was sleeping in.

"Why, to be sure," said Mr. Jaybird, "I knew Bluette myself — a
most beautiful swallowtail butterfly — her eggs hatch into caterpillars,
and the caterpillars change into chrysalids — that is the queer cradle you
see hanging there."



204 LITTLE FOLKS' LAND

"Well, well," said the sassafras bush, "how very strange! And
how long will it be before this caterpillar baby wakes up?" ,

"Oh, well," said Mr. Jaybird, "I'm sure I can not tell. Some of
them sleep longer than others, but I think the butterflies like Bluette
wake early in June. And when Bluette's caterpillar wakes up, you will
find he is no longer a caterpillar, but something else very like his
mother."

"What!" said the sassafras bush, "why, butterfly babies are the most
wonderful things I ever heard of! Pray, if this baby of Bluette's isn't
a caterpillar when he wakes up, what will he be?"

"Why, a butterfly like his mother, to be sure," said Mr. Jaybird;
"a blue swallowtail! Really, it is very wonderful, and I have often
thought they must feel something like a fairy to go to sleep a creeping,
crawling caterpillar and wake up with a pair of beautiful silken wings,
to go waltzing through the air."

"Well," said the sassafras bush, "I grow more and more surprised!
And so that is the beginning of all butterflies?"

"That's it," said Mr. Jaybird, "and now I must be going." So
away he flew.

By and by the days grew cold, and the sassafrash bush dropped her
crimson leaves one by one to the ground, and went to sleep herself, for
the cold winter months, holding Bluette's baby snug among her twigs.
And they slept and they slept and they slept. When the spring came,
the sassafras bush was the first to wake and dressed herself in a robe of
yellow blossoms. Then she peeped over, and was glad to see that
Bluette's baby was still safe and lay sleeping in his chrysalis cradle. She
watched him swinging there through the early spring months and then
decked herself in fresh, green leaves, but still Bluette's baby slept on,
and the sassafras bush said: "I am afraid Mr. Jaybird was mistaken,
and this caterpillar baby will never wake up."

But he did. Yes, yes, for it happened early one June morning, and
the dear sassafras bush was the first one to know about it. You see, it
began to grow warm in the chrysalis cradle, and one morning Bluette's
baby stretched and stretched his tiny self and said, "How warm it is!
Somehow I feel hungry again, but I don't feel like a caterpillar any more,
and I dori't feel like eating leaves exactly. It seems to me something sweet
like honey would taste fine, and I feel as if — oh, I feel as if I were out



LITTLE FOLKS' LAND 205

of this cradle, I could fly away up high, high in the sky ! I just believe
I'll try!"

So, he pushed right out of that chrysalis cradle, and only guess!
Yes, sir, he had a pair of wings! And they were dark rich blue, just
like his mother's. And the sassafras bush was so surprised, she did not
know what to do! And Bluette's baby was so proud because he was a
butterfly like his mother, that just as soon as his wings were dry and
strong he fluttered all over the sassafras bush and kissed the leaves, and
then flitted through the orchard and over the stone wall into the old
garden where the flowers bloomed and they nodded and called to him,
just as they had called to Bluette the summer before, and he was glad
• to taste their sweet nectar juice.

"See, mother," said a little child who was playing in the garden;
"see, there is the first blue swallowtail I have seen this summer. What
a pretty, pretty butterfly!"

"Oh, oh, I wish our Princess would wake up right now," said
Joe-Boy, "so we can see if she can fly, too, and if she looks like Bluette."

Of course you know the Princess will know how to fly, when she
wakes up, but then she will not look so very much like Bluette because
she will be larger and have brown wings — anyway, moths and butter-
flies are not just exactly alike, are they? To be sure, they're not; any-
body with sharp eyes can tell that fact — could you?

Program for Seventeenth Week — Life History of the Butterfly.

The Princess

Monday

Circle talk J songs and games: Are you tired of hearing of things that
grow and change? I don't believe you are, for ive keep growing
and changing, don't we? and so, of course, we love to talk about
other things that grow and change. (Show cocoon and ask chil-
dren to find and bring one like it next day.) Today we will have
a story of something that grew and changed. We have talked
about it before and it isn't a flower.

Game: "The Caterpillar."

Gift period: Model Cocoon.

Occupation: Drawing, crayons. Cocoon. Preserve for butterfly book.



206 LITTLE FOLKS' LAND

Bluette's Eggs

Tuesday

I v;-onder how many of our children have bright eyes for finding a
cocoon? How many have been brought this morning? (Compare
chrysalis and cocoon. Instrumental lullaby. Houser.)

Game: Dramatize story.

Gift period: Modeling, leaf and eggs.

Occupation: Folding, butterfly ("Bluette"). Instrumental music.
Grieg's Butterfly.

Bluette's Babies

Wednesday

Circle talk, songs and games: Show sassafras and elm leaves, and com-
pare.

Game: Dramatize story.

Gift period: Free cutting. Leaves of sassafras bush for decoration of
book cover.

Occupation: Drawing, crayons. Picture of Bluette's babies.

Bluette's Smallest Baby

Thursday

Circle talk, songs and games: Compare again chrysalis and cocoon.

Do you know what sleeps in cocoon? Do you know what sleeps

in chrysalis?
Game: To instrumental music. (To stress difference between chrysalis

and cocoon.) A group of children fly as moths and butterflies.

Kindergarten teacher: "We will play that these butterflies and

moths can talk to me. Now (touching some child) are j'ou a

butterfly or a moth? Where do you sleep? When do you like

best to fly?"
Gift period: Modeling. Chrysalis and cocoon.
Occupation: Drawing — ^Water color. Bluette's smallest baby in his

changed coat of yellow, orange colored horns, etc.



LITTLE FOLKS' LAND 207

The Surprise of the Sassafras Bush

Friday
Circle talk, songs and games: Show pictures.
Game and song: "The Caterpillar."

Gift period: Modeling. Series of leaf, eggs, twigg, cocoon, chrysalis, etc.
Occupation: Parquetry, right-angled triangle. Bluette's baby butterfly.



208 ^ LITTLE FOLKS' LAND

Eighteenth Week — Vegetable and Flower Study

The Children's Garden

Monday
OTHER GIPSY knew all about the Princess and Bluette,



M



too — why, she even knew that the Princess was not a butterfly,
and that her wings were to be golden brown, and that once
upon a time she had been a caterpillar, and had lived on Billy Sanders'
elm tree. Now, how do you suppose she knew all of that? To be sure,
Joe-Boy was the very one who told her. Every night when Mother
Gipsy tucked him away in his pretty white bed they would have the
cosiest talks about things that had happened through the day, and
Joe-Boy had told her over and over again about Bluette and the Princess.