"Pick up our little green friend; there is a cart coming, and we will not have him run over. I think if we had a cabbage leaf to set him on, he would be quite happy, for he is one of that sort which feeds on cabbage leaves; but I will gather him a dock leaf; he will like it better than my hand.

"This caterpillar will not always be a caterpillar; if we take care of him, and watch him, we shall see him change one day into a chrysalis. The chrysalis is like a little hard close case, Charlie; it has no legs, and never eats; but it moves a little, which shows that it lives.

"When it has remained in this state in some sheltered place through the winter, another change will take place. In spring time a beautiful little creature -with white wings, with body, and legs, and eyes, and horns-will come out of its chrysalis case.

"So what was once a caterpillar, and crawled on the earth and plants, and ate cabbage leaves, will, in half an hour after it comes out and has had time

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THE CATERPILLAR.-PART I.

to stretch and dry its wings, be a pretty butterfly.

"With these wings it will rise in the air, and fly over the fields, and flutter from flower to flower; it will sip the honey, or gather honey dew from the trees in the bright warm sunshine, and will never eat cabbage leaves, or any other such caterpillar food any

THE CATERPILLAR.-PART II.

"WHEN I was fishing down by the river side yesterday," said Charlie, "I found a very curious large brown-andyellow caterpillar. The gardener was with me, so I asked him to measure it, and it was full five inches long.

"It quite surprised me to see what a hole it had made in the old willow-tree.

The gardener said he was very glad we had found it before more damage was done, for, as it was, it had eaten its way into the heart of the tree. He said he had met with such caterpillars before upon willow-trees."

"I dare say it was the goat-caterpillar. What did he do with it? did he kill it ?"

"No; he saved it for you. At first I tried to take it up in my hand, but the creature turned round fiercely and tried to bite, so I thought the best plan would be to brush it into my fishingcase and carry it into the house, which I did, and there shut it up in a box. Let us go in and look at it; I quite forgot it until now."

"We are only just in time, I see, for he has eaten his way half out of the box, though it is such a thick strong one. He wants to get away, and will gnaw his way out through the door next, if we do not secure him. I will put him into my tin box: he cannot eat his way out of that."

"O," said Charlie, "how foolish it

was of me to leave him in the wooden box and forget all about him! What an ugly angry look he has! Surely he will never turn into a pretty butterfly?"

"You are right," said Tom, "he will not turn into a butterfly; but he will become a moth one day, after his change into a chrysalis has taken place. Some chrysalises change into butterflies, some into moths, and some into other insects,-beetles, for instance,-according to their several natures.

"This goat-caterpillar is now fullgrown, and will very shortly begin to prepare for its change into the chrysalis statę. It takes this sort of caterpillar three years to reach its full size of five inches long.

"Supposing we carried him back to his hole in the willow-tree, he would soon begin his work. This he would do by coming within three or four inches of the mouth of the hole, and gnawing away the wood till he had made a cavity (or hollow place) large enough to hold the case of the chrysalis.

"You see, Charlie, how useful are these sharp teeth, with which a good Providence provided him, and you must not blame your prisoner for using them in self-defence. It was no wonder that he looked angry with you for disturbing him, and shutting him up as you did.

"Many caterpillars do not make any case at all, to cover and shelter the chrysalis. The goat-caterpillar, when it has made a cavity large enough, con structs of web and little bits of wood, a warm thick case, which outside is just like an oval ball of sawdust, but inside is as soft as satin.

"Inside this the caterpillar changes to a chrysalis. This change takes place about the month of April, and in two months after a large grey sober-looking moth walks out, leaving its case behind it in the hollow of the tree.

"Butterflies and moths differ in many ways; moths usually fly about at night, and do not make their appearance till evening draws on, while butterflies choose the day and love the sunshine."