"I see," said the little girl, in a small flute voice, "that you
know much more than I; do not refuse, then, to instruct me. I cannot
explain how it is you speak and breathe. Since you have kept your
trunk in its case, I perceive above it your lips closed, and I do
not see them move." Piccolissima, fearing she might be laughed at,
did not dare to add, that she had supposed that the voice of the fly
came from under his wings.

"I speak as all well-formed people speak," answered the haughty
insect, "with four voices;" and four puffs of air issued from the
oval breathing holes on both sides of his breast, giving a tremulous
motion to his two little egg-shell wings, his two balance wings, and
the roots of his two other wings. "I breathe through these openings
of my corselet, and I have, in order to enable me to take in the
inspiring air which was created to bear me up, as many mouths as
rings to my corselet."

He then swelled out with a proud air his brown abdomen, which seemed
formed of rings of shell; and while he was indulging in the
admiration of himself and his powers, the sharp eyes of Piccolissima
discovered that these circles were not, as we should say, soldered
together, but were lying on a flexible membrane, or thin skin, which
held them in their place, and which was folded up or extended at the
will of the insect. On either side, between each ring, there was in
this membrane a little oval hole, smaller than those which, near the
cavities of the corselet, emitted and modulated the buzzing sound
which Piccolissima had just heard; these openings enabled the insect
to breathe.

"You have many ways of speaking," the little girl said at last, with