Bee and Butterfly: A Tale of Two Cousins

"Which explains your usual fly-away look," observed her aunt quietly. "It would do no harm to expend more pains upon your toilet, Beatrice. A girl cannot be too careful of her p...

What difference did it make to him whether she had worked too hard or not, she asked herself with all the injustice of girlhood. Finding her loath to converse her father relapse...

"Now how shall I get this to him?" pondered Bee the next morning as she stood before the study door with a bowl of pansies in her hand. Since old Rachel had told her that it had...

"Through the open door A drowsy smell of flowers--gray heliotrope, And sweet white clover, and shy mignonette--Comes faintly in, and the silent chorus lends To the pervading sym...

Every precaution was used to prevent the small pox from obtaining a foothold in Walnut Grove, and so efficacious were the measures adopted by Doctor Raymond and the physician, D...

"If any loss thou hast to rue, Act as though thou wert born anew; Inquire the meaning of each day, What each day means, itself will say; Ne'er let thy breast with hate be suppli...

It was morning. The long night with its wretchedness and discomfort had passed, and the bright sunshine full of cheer streamed into the room, athwart the bed where Beatrice lay,...

It was four o'clock. The little town of Louisiana, Missouri, had slumbered all afternoon in the spring sunshine, but woke suddenly to life as the doors of the big brick school h...

The next day Mr. and Mrs. Henry Raymond with Adele went home. For the first time in their lives the girls took leave of each other with coldness. The older people affected not t...

"A thousand flowers, By the road-side and the borders of the brook, Nod gayly to each other; glossy leaves Are twinkling in the sun, as if the dew Were on them yet, and silver w...

"I am so glad that I sent it," exclaimed Beatrice again and again after posting the letter and the photograph. "Father has always wanted my picture, but I waited hoping that som...

Bee was awakened by Aunt Fanny bringing in her dinner. The sun had set and the cool sweetness of the evening gave relief from the heat of the day. All the events of the afternoo...

"But there will be," answered Bee confidently. "In all the years that he has been away father has not failed to send me a letter once a month. Even though it may not be an answe...

"It is beautiful!" she exclaimed looking with delight at the insect's broad expanse of wing. "Wouldn't you call that an orange-red, father? And see the white spots on the second...

"Some of these days the skies will be brighter, Some of these days the burdens be lighter; Hearts will be happier, souls will be whiter, Some of these days, Some of these days."

"Father thought it an unusually fine one, and wished it for his collection," replied Bee. "You cannot see it now because it is not ready to set up yet, but I can show you some o...

"'Tis a little thing To give a cup of water; yet its draught Of cool refreshment, drained by fevered lips, May give a shock of pleasure to the frame More exquisite than when nec...

The dining room at Walnut Grove was a place furnished with more regard for comfort than for show. There was an air about the apartment that seemed to say that eating here was no...

"Our lives are songs; God writes the words, And we set them to music at leisure; And the song is sad, or the song is glad, As we choose to fashion the measure."

"By the sweet power of music: therefore, the poet Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones and floods: Since naught so stockish, hard, and full of rage, But music for the time...

To the young all things are tragic. To Beatrice it seemed that the end of everything had come. Now she realized that behind her objection to Adele's presence in her home there h...

"Yes;" answered Bee brokenly. "After you had gone I remembered that you had spoken of sorrel grass for the larvae of the Chrysophanus Americanus, and I thought you had forgotten...

"Why, why," stammered Bee, so astonished by the lady's words that she could scarcely speak. She glanced down at the incriminating shears which she held in her hand, then at Perc...

The windows of the study were thrown wide to the breeze which came cool and fresh from the shrubberies laden with the odors of the garden. It was a cozy, old-fashioned room, pla...

"Man on the dubious waves of error tossed, His ship half foundered and his compass lost, Sees, far as human optics many command, A sleeping fog, and fancies it dry land: Spreads...

Ah! if our souls but poise and swing Like the compass in its brazen ring, Ever level and ever true To the toil and task we have to do We shall sail securely, and safely reach Th...

"We live in deeds, not years, in thoughts, not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives Who thinks most, feels the nob...

The wonderful evolution of a caterpillar, or grub, into a beautifully winged creature must inspire admiration in every one. More marvellous still is the growth of the human soul...