The chief part of the mouth of the butterfly is a tube, called a trunk. Did you ever notice the big trunk of an elephant? The butterfly’s trunk is small. It is coiled up like a watch-spring when it is not in use. The butterfly can unroll it. It is so slim he can thrust it into the longest and narrowest flower cups. Really this trunk is made of two pieces with little points upon them. These two parts lie together and seem one. Between them the honey is drawn up. You must know that butterflies live chiefly on honey. It is not likely that they take much other kind of food, but they are fond of water. Have you seen them in damp places? When the fine trunk of the butterfly is curled up it is kept safe by two hairy pieces which grow on the front of the head. The butterfly has six legs that grow from the chest part of its body. But the butterfly is not a walking insect. Bees, wasps, ants, and beetles, you know, walk a great deal. Butterflies rarely use their legs for anything but standing when they eat or rest. They move only by flying. The wings are made of two thin skin-pieces laid upon a framework of nerves or veins. They are covered with a double layer of scales. The edge scales are long and fringe-like. The upper and under sides of the wings differ in color. The upper wings are widest. They have smooth edges, and are of a triangle-shape. The lower wings are rounded. They have waved or pointed edges. Sometimes they have two long points like tails. The body of the butterfly is made in rings, but they are soft, not horny like those of a dragon-fly. The body is slender and has no weapon. It has no sting to fight, and no saw to cut wood to make a place for its eggs. LESSON XXIII. THE CHILD OF THE DAY. [Illustration: THE LITTLE PRISON.] The butterfly is the chief partner of the flowers. Its long, slim drinking tube helps it to dip far into a flower’s throat. As it reaches in, it gets the stamen pollen well upon it. Then, since the butterfly rarely walks about, as the beetles do, it is not likely to waste the pollen by rubbing it off where it is not wanted. Not only is the butterfly the flower’s best partner, but it wears the gay colors of the flowers. Once I was walking in a garden with a very little boy. A flight of yellow butterflies came over a tulip bed. “See! see!” cried the child, “the flowers are loose, and are flying away!” Poets, as well as children, have called the butterflies “flying flowers.” In very early times, people began to study butterflies. It was not only their number or their beauty which made people notice them. It was the wonder of their changes, from egg to full-grown insect. Who would think that this splendid thing, which scorns to use its feet, and lives on the wing in the clear air, was once a worm, crawling on many legs, among the grasses and leaves? Who would think that this dainty creature, which drinks dew and honey, once spent all its days, chewing and gnawing leaves as the earthworm does?