1. about this time i began to feel a chill in the air. i did not like this, for it made me feel drowsy. so i kept in the warmth of the drawing-room all day.

2. but i was shocked to see that many of my friends began to get quite unfit to run or fly about. their wings seemed heavy, and some of them crept into holes where they went to sleep.

3. one day i went down to the table and found one of the gayest flies i had ever known, lying on his back upon the cloth.

4. he was cold and stiff. nearly all the friends i had made that summer were dying or dead around me, or else they had crept into corners out of sight.

5. i knew that something must be done, or i too should one day be found lying on my back with my legs in the air, and thomas would sweep me away, as he did the other flies.[pg 104]

6. i made up my mind to choose the best place i could, and there seemed none better than the old red curtain from which i had first come out into that pleasant room.

7. i therefore ran about on the wall behind it for some time, looking for a proper hole. i found just the nook i wanted, where a bit of the wall paper was peeling off.

8. i had hardly crept into it when i was fast asleep. to my good sense and quickness i owe my life. if i had not been a clever fly, i should have died, i dare say, like the rest.

9. as it is, here i am, alive and merry. when i woke the next warm spring day, there was little rose and mr. and mrs. sutton sitting at breakfast just as they had done when first i saw them.

10. rose was perhaps a little taller, and the bald place on her grand-father's head may have been a wee bit wider.

11. but the jam was just as good, the honey and sugar as sweet, and the white cap just as clean and nice to sit on. the[pg 105] flowers in the garden, too, smell as fresh as ever—still i prefer the jam.

12. if i might say one word at parting, it would be this. do not forget that there is room in this big wide world for a poor little fly as well as for boys and girls.

13. and if you enjoy life and like a good game at play,—why, so do we! so let us have our harmless games and do our tiny bit of work for you in peace.

write: as soon as it felt cold the fly went to sleep. he did not wake up till the next spring. there is room in the world for flies as well as for boys and girls.

questions: 1. what did the fly now begin to feel? 2. what did he see on the table? 3. where did he hide himself? 4. when did he wake from his sleep? 5. what change did he see in rose? 6. what does the fly say as a parting word?