carefully picked away the outer layer till I came to loose silken fibers
that evidently were the covering of an inside case. Whatever was there
was snugly tucked away in a little inner chamber with the key inside,
and I must wait with what patience I could command till he chose to open
the door.

"I kept my precious cocoon all winter in a cold, dry place; but when
warm spring weather came it lay in state on my work-table, in a box
lined with cotton, where I could watch it all day long. Nothing
happened till one bright day in June I heard a faint scratching inside
the brown case. It grew louder and louder every moment. Evidently my
tenant was bestirring himself and, with intervals of rest, was scraping
and tearing away his silken wrappings. Presently an opening was made and
out of this were poked two bushy legs with claws that held fast by the
outside of his house, while the creature gradually pulled himself out.

"First a head with horns; then a part of the body and two more legs;
then, with one tremendous effort, he was free!--an odd beast of no
particular color, looking exceedingly damp and disagreeable, with his
fat chunky body and short legs, like an exaggerated bumble-bee, only not
at all pretty. He was shaky on his legs and half tumbled from his box
to the window-sill, along which he walked trembling till he came to the
tassel of the shade, just within his reach. This he grabbed with all
four claws, his wings hanging down.

"'It's nothing but a homely old brown bug!' said my brother Charlie,
whom I had called to see the sight.

"'No,' I said, "'it isn't a bug. I'm sure I don't know what it is,'