1. "What shall I look at next?" said Rose, who had a glass thing in her hand, next day. "Oh, this fly!"  
2. The lunch was on the table, and I was just making a hearty¹ meal on a pat of butter. I knew that Rose would not hurt me. So I stood quite still.[Pg 100]
 
3. "How very strange!" said the little girl. "He looks as big as a horse. His wings are like shining lace, and he has hairy brushes on his feet.
 
4. "Now he is cleaning his head with one of them. I am glad that flies are not really so big as he seems now.
 
5. "What a buzzing we should have, and what should we do when such huge things flew about the room or walked on the ceiling!
 
6. "There would be no room for us to move, and the house would be too small. Fancy having such a creature as this fly looks now jumping and prancing² over one's bread and jam!"
 
7. I was not pleased with this speech; I knew that my colour was rather dingy³, but I had always thought my shape to be light and graceful⁴, and this Rose had taken no notice of.
 
8. Neither had she so much as looked at my trunk, of which I am truly proud. So I flew away in a pet from under the glass, and settled on the loaf in the middle of the table, out of her reach.[Pg 101]
 
9. "But for you, dear grand-father, I should never have thought such tiny cre............