104. THE BEETLE.

what’s the use of that, if nobody knows it? The world does
not deserve to be made acquainted with my history, for it ought
to have given me golden shoes, when the Emperor’s horse was
shod, and I stretched out my feet to be shod too. If I had re-
ceived golden shoes, I should have become an ornament to the
stable. Now the stable has lost me, and the world has lost me.
It is all over!”

But all was not over yet. A boat, in which there were a few
young girls, came rowing up.

“ Look, yonder is an old wooden shoe sailing along,” said one
of the girls.

“ There’s a little creature bound fast to it,” said another.

The boat came quite close to the Beetle’s ship, and the young
girls fishes him out of the water. One of them drew a small pair
of scissors from her pocket, and cut the woollen thread, without
hurting the Beetle ; and when she stepped on shore, she put him
down on the grass.

“ Creep, creep—fly, fly—if thou canst,” she said. “ Liberty is
a splendid thing.”

And the Beetle flew up, and straight through the open window
of agreat building ; there he sank down, tired and exhausted,
exactly on the mane of the Emperor’s favourite horse, who stood
in the stable when he was at home, and the Beetle also. The
Beetle clung fast to the mane, end sat there a short time to re-
cover himself.

“ Here I’m sitting on the Empeyor’s favourite horse—sitting
on him just like the Emperor himself!” he cried. “ But what
was I saying? Yes, now I remember. That’s a good thought,
and quite correct. The smith asked me why the golden shoes
were given to the horse. Now I’m quite clear about the answer.
They were given to the horse on my account.”

And now the Beetle was in a good temper again.

“Travelling expands the mind rarely,” said he.

The sun’s rays came streaming into the stable, and shone
upon him, and made the place lively and bright.

“The world is not so bad upon the whole,” said the Beetle ;
‘hut one must know how to take things as they come.”