the butterflies, the poor butterflies that have gone out of fashion in these days, played, i am ashamed to say, a large part in my life during my childhood, as did also the flies, beetles and lady-bugs and all the insects that are found upon flowers and in the grass. although it gave me a great deal of pain to kill them, i was making a collection of them, and i was almost always seen with a butterfly net in my hand. those flying about in our yard, that had strayed our way from the country, were not very beautiful it must be confessed, but i had the garden and woods of limoise which all the summer long was a hunting-ground ever full of surprises and wonders.

but the caricatures by topffer upon this subject made me thoughtful; and when lucette one day caught me with several butterflies in my hat, and in her incomparably mocking voice called me, “mr. cryptogram,” i was much humiliated.