After about two weeks the great change takes place, and the bundle-baby
or chrysalis opens to let out the splendid red-brown Butterfly, of
nearly the same red as a Cock Robin's breast in springtime, with lines
and embroidery of black and its border set with pearls. Near the middle
of the hind wing is a dark spot like a thickening of one rib. This has
been called a "sachet bag" or "scent-pocket," and though not very
ornamental to look at, is of more use to it than the most beautiful
white pearl of the border. For this is the battery of its wireless
telegraph. We think our ships and aeroplanes very far advanced because
they can signal miles away, and yet the Wandering Monarch had an outfit
for sending messages long before it was ever dreamed of by man. Maybe it
is not a very strong battery, but it certainly reaches for miles; and
maybe its messages are not very clear, but they serve at least to let
the Monarchs know where their wives are, and how to find them, which is
something.
There is one other reason for calling this the Wanderer. Although it is
an American by birth, it has travelled to England and the Philippines
and is ever going farther over the world till at last no doubt it will
have seen all lands and possessed them.
It makes old Ulysses look like a very stay-at-home, for his farthest
travels never went beyond the blue Mediterranean, and his whole twenty
years of voyaging covered less than the states east of the
Mississippi--much less than our Red Wanderer covers in a single summer.
TALE 15
The Bells of the Solomon Seal
Let us go out into the woods, and look for the Solomon Seal. This is May
and we should find it in some half open place, where it is neither wet
nor dry. Here it is! See the string of bells that hangs from its curving
stem. Dig out its roots, wash off the earth, and you will see the mark
of King Solomon's Seal that gives its name to the plant. Now listen to
the story of it all.
King Solomon had the "second sight" that means the deeper sight, the
magic eyesight which made him see through a stone wall, or read men's
thoughts. King Solomon had fayland ears; which means, he could hear all
sounds from A to Z; while common ears, like yours and mine, hear only
the middle sounds from K to Q.
Everything that lives and moves is giving out music; every flower that
blooms is singing its song. We cannot hear, our ears are too dull; but
King Solomon could. And one day, as he walked through the woods, he
heard a new flower-song that made him stop and listen. It had strange
music with it, and part of that was a chime of golden bells.
[Illustration: The Bells of the Solomon Seal]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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