Page:The House Without Windows.djvu/113

 funny if Mother came out and found me not here!"

"And thinkthe birds, the butterflies, the flowers! Look, I'd dress you like this, with ferns and flowers and butterflies. And what fun we could have! We would dance and sing and chase each other amongst the fluttering leaves."

"Oo, I could never catch you."

"No, but I could catch you, and that would be as much fun."

"But Mother doesn't like me to eat leaves, and berries all the time make one sick."

"But we would not have berries all the time. We would dig up sweet white roots and wash them clean; and m-m! they are good, little sister Fleuriss. We would have honey. The bees gather honey from the flowers, which they would share with us."

"Bees sting," said Fleuriss, shrinking away; "they sting, and they hurt, Eepersip."

"Oh, but the bees love us all so they don't sting us," answered Eepersip. "It's only the people that try to hurt them that they sting. We wouldn't hurt them."

"Oh, Eepersip! the leaves and butterflies, andand honeym-m! But I oughtn't, really," she said, backing off toward the house.

"Oh, come," said Eepersip, "come, don't go