By the Roadside (Dunn and Troxell)/Polyphemus

There is an old, old story of a great ugly giant, who was called Polyphemus. He had only one eye, and that was in the middle of his forehead. He ate men as quickly as a hungry boy can eat the drumstick of a chicken. That is what the old story tells us.
But the Polyphemus we are to read about was not an ugly old giant. She was a beautiful moth. She was a giant for a moth. She was five inches from one wing tip to the other. Her wings were a beautiful soft brown color, with pink and gray tips. Two soft feelers grew from her head. They looked like slim, dainty, brown feathers.
Each of the back wings of this moth had a big eye-spot. It was not ugly ​like the old giant's eye. It was a beautiful deep blue. But I think it is this eye-spot that made a wise man name her after the old giant.
Polyphemus was hanging from an oak twig. She had not been a moth very long. Just that afternoon she had pushed her way out of her cocoon.
Nobody would ever have thought that such a big moth could have come out of so small a cocoon. It was a little brown silk case no bigger than the egg of a little bantam hen.
How hard Polyphemus had worked to get out! First she had to break a hole through the top. Then sh

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