Page:Little Ellie and Other Tales (1850).djvu/23

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Little Ellie.

lived in the tree made their appearance, and paid their respects to Ellie, stared at her from head to foot, while the young-lady chafers turned up their feelers and said, “She has but two legs; and that looks very wretched. She has no feelers either,” said they; “and is, moreover, as small round the waist as a human being! It’s very ugly, I declare! it is really hideous!” cried out all the young-lady chafers at once. And yet our sweet Ellie was really the most engaging little being imaginable.

And so the cockchafer that had carried her off thought too; but because all the lady chafers said she was ugly, he began at last to think so himself, and therefore would have nothing more to say to her; she might go where she chose, he said; and with these words he flew with her over the ground, and set her on a daisy.

The poor thing wept, because she was so ugly that not even a cockchafer would have anything to do with her. But, despite the opinion of the young-lady chafers, which was certainly a very important one, Ellie

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