`` Can I ? '' and Dan looked both surprised and pleased . `` You can learn to be patient and cheerful in spite of pain and no play . You can amuse Teddy for me , wind cotton , read to me when I sew , and do many things without hurting your foot , which will make the days pass quickly , and not be wasted ones . '' Here Demi ran in with a great butterfly in one hand , and a very ugly little toad in the other . `` See , Dan , I found them , and ran back to give them to you ; are n't they beautiful ones ? '' panted Demi , all out of breath . Dan laughed at the toad , and said he had no place to put him , but the butterfly was a beauty , and if Mrs. Jo would give him a big pin , he would stick it right up in the drawer . `` I do n't like to see the poor thing struggle on a pin ; if it must be killed , let us put it out of pain at once with a drop of camphor , '' said Mrs. Jo , getting out the bottle . `` I know how to do it Mr. Hyde always killed 'em that way but I did n't have any camphor , so I use a pin , '' and Dan gently poured a drop on the insect 's head , when the pale green wings fluttered an instant , and then grew still . This dainty little execution was hardly over when Teddy shouted from the bedroom , `` Oh , the little trabs are out , and the big one 's eaten 'em all up . '' Demi and his aunt ran to the rescue , and found Teddy dancing excitedly in a chair , while two little crabs were scuttling about the floor , having got through the wires of the cage . A third was clinging to the top of the cage , evidently in terror of his life , for below appeared a sad yet funny sight . The big crab had wedged himself into the little recess where Polly 's cup used to stand , and there he sat eating one of his relations in the coolest way . All the claws of the poor victim were pulled off , and he was turned upside down , his upper shell held in one claw close under the mouth of the big crab like a dish , while he leisurely ate out of it with the other claw , pausing now and then to turn his queer bulging eyes from side to side , and to put out a slender tongue and lick them in a way that made the children scream with laughter . Mrs. Jo carried the cage in for Dan to see the sight , while Demi caught and confined the wanderers under an inverted wash-bowl . `` I 'll have to let these fellers go , for I ca n't keep 'em in the house , '' said Dan , with evident regret . `` I 'll take care of them for you , if you will tell me how , and they can live in my turtle-tank just as well as not , '' said Demi , who found them more interesting even that his beloved slow turtles . So Dan gave him directions about the wants and habits of the crabs , and Demi bore them away to introduce them to their new home and neighbors . `` What a good boy he is ! ''
said Dan , carefully settling the first butterfly , and remembering that XXXXX had given up his walk to bring it to him .
Demi Hyde Jo Teddy camphor days execution right trabs turtle-tank