BERTIE’S BUTTONS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 13, 26 March 1892, Page 311

BERTIE’S BUTTONS.

Bertie was fond of collecting potato beetles. He thought them very pretty. They had funny striped backs, and a hard round back by which he could pick them up. He carried them in a little tin box, shutting the lid carefully after each one was put in, that it might not get away. One day he came in hot and tired, and after Mary had given him a drink, and said he should have a cake ‘ presently,’ he carried his collection into the parlour to count how many he had found. It was cool and half dark there, and the room was empty.

‘ One, free, fourteen, ten,’ he counted, pointing to the wriggling pets with a fat, grimy finger. ‘ They runs so fast I can’t count. Twenty-two I fink.’ He laid the box down, and sighed. ‘ P’r’aps I’d better get that cake now. P’r aps Mary’s goin’ out,’ he said.

Then there was nobody in the parlour but the potato beetles. Of course he forgot to shut the box. And presently a very young lady called to see Bertie’s very young Aunt Daisy. Aunt Daisy was so glad to see her. ‘ But, dear me !’ she exclaimed to her visitor, ‘ your seat must be very uncomfortable. Seems to me you are sitting on some buttons. Bertie’s so fond of stringing buttons, and I see he’s scattered them all over the sofa. I never saw such a ch—’

And just then the two very young ladies gave voice to some very shrill screams; for when they tried to pick up Bertie’s buttons, the buttons squirmed in an alarming manner, and showed themselves to be not buttons at all, but potato-beetles.