124 WHAT DAISY SAW ONE NIGHT.

“Crick crr-r-rick!” said he in a loud rasping way. The

sound did not come out of his mouth at all: he talked by
rubbing. his legs against his sides, so that he could talk with
aut .. his mouth full, which was very con-
venient for him; but as he was only
able to repeat his own name over and
over again, his conversation was, per-
haps, a trifle dull, and wanted variety.
On her other side was an empty
/_ stool, which was being kept for
someone.
“The moth is late,’ said the
_ fairy, who was sitting on it in the
meantime. “He has a trunkful of
honey to bring, and I suppose he has
not been able to find it easily to-
night.”

Daisy was glad to hear of honey, for she liked it very
much, and as yet no one had offered her anything, although
all the company present were gobbling. They seemed to bring
out their food from under the table.

Opposite to her sat a frog, a dormouse, and a great blue-
back beetle. The dormouse was clasping a nut between his
fore-paws, while he ground out a neat little round hole in the
shell so that he might scoop the kernel with his long front
teeth. The frog was staring up at the sky, looking as. if he
had never danced a hornpipe in all his life, and waiting till a
fly should settle on his nose, when he would snap it up in
half no time—gulp it down, and pretend that nothing had
happened. The beetle was cramming something into his
mouth with both his front pincers (for like pincers they looked
more than feet) in an. unmannerly and greedy way. He