Prilla and the Butterfly Lie Read Online Free PDF

just have a berry for breakfast instead,” she said.
    Splat! A big juicy raspberry landed right on the toadstool table. Red juice splattered everywhere. Prilla jumped to her feet, spilling her tea. Now, where did that come from? She looked up at the sky. A passing bird must have dropped it, she thought.
    “Lucky it didn’t hit me on the head,” she said out loud.
    Splat!
    Berry juice dripped down Prilla’s face and onto the collar of her dress. She had spoken too soon!
    She wiped the sticky juice from her forehead and cheeks with the cobweb napkin. Unless I want every wasp in Pixie Hollow to be buzzing around me, I’d better get to Havendish Stream and wash this off, she thought. She placed the cork back into the thermos, put the thermos in her sack, took a step forward—and promptly tripped on a pebble.

    How odd, thought Prilla. I didn’t see that there before.
    Shrugging, she slung the sack over her shoulder and headed for Havendish Stream. “What a strange day,” she said. “It would be funny if it weren’t so…” Then she started to laugh despite herself. It was pretty funny that so many things had gone wrong!
    Prilla got to the stream. She knelt on the bank, scooped up some of the clear, cool water, and splashed it on her face. She couldn’t resist magically making a fountain or two spring up from the water when she was done washing. I’m getting pretty good at this, she thought. Rani would be proud. Rani was the water talent fairy who had taught Prilla how to make fountains. Maybe she’ll let me move on to water creatures next! I bet I could make a sea horse!
    Smiling at the idea, Prilla raised her head and began to straighten up. And there, on the opposite bank, sat a blue and golden butterfly. Prilla blinked. The butterfly fluttered its wings two or three times, then took off into the air.
    Prilla was right behind it. She hoped the butterfly would lead her straight to the rest of the herd.
    She followed the butterfly along the banks of the stream. She trailed it through an underground passage. She chased it around and around a big oak tree until she was dizzy. She followed it past the Mermaid Lagoon…and ended up right back at Flower Field.
    If I didn’t know any better, Prilla thought, I’d think this butterfly was taking me on a wild-goose chase!
    At the edge of Flower Field, the butterfly suddenly darted under a pile of dead leaves. Prilla landed nearby and slowly crept up to it. She stifled a giggle as she saw the leaves rustle. The silly butterfly thought it was fooling her!
    Prilla lifted the top leaf.
    This is a surprise! was all she could think.
    For there was no butterfly under the leaf. Instead there was a Never stinkbug—an angry Never stinkbug.
    It was a surprise—and a particularly unpleasant one at that!

    The stinkbug raised its tail, and— whoosh! —it drenched Prilla from head to toe in its horribly stinky perfume.
    “Yuck!” cried Prilla. She stepped back, coughing.
    As she wiped the tears from her eyes, she glanced up. Sitting on the branch above her head was the butterfly she had been chasing. Its wings were shaking. Prilla could have sworn that it was laughing at her.

T HE BUTTERFLY FLEW OFF , but Prilla didn’t follow. Instead, she sat down and put her head in her hands. She was stinky, sticky, and worn out. Maybe it was time to give up. It was quite clear to Prilla that she was a terrible butterfly herder. She had no idea what she was doing. She was starting to dislike butterfly herding—and butterflies themselves—very much.
    Then again, if she gave up now, the herd might get lost, or harmed by predators. And it would all be her fault. Prilla couldn’t bear the thought.
    I can do this! she told herself. She stood up and began to retrace her steps.
    When she returned to the spot where her muffins had gone missing, to her surprise she spotted a butterfly. It was a pretty pink and bronze one. It sat there sunning itself on the toadstool she had used as a table.
    The