1. About this time I began to feel a chill1 in the air. I did not like this, for it made me feel drowsy2. So I kept in the warmth of the drawing-room all day.
2. But I was shocked to see that many of my friends began to get quite unfit to run or fly about. Their wings seemed heavy, and some of them crept3 into holes where they went to sleep.
3. One day I went down to the table and found one of the gayest4 flies I had ever known, lying on his back upon the cloth.
4. He was cold and stiff5. Nearly all the friends I had made that summer were dying6 or dead around me, or else they had crept into corners out of sight.
5. I knew that something must be done, or I too should one day be found lying on my back with my legs in the air, and Thomas would sweep me away, as he did the other flies.[Pg 104]
6. I made up my mind to choose the best place I could, and there seemed none better than the old red curtain from which I had first come out into that pleasant room.
7. I therefore ran about on the wall behind............