Children's Picture Book featuring a little boy, a mouse, and a butterfly, dealing with the inevitability and sadness of death. Read around 1974-1975.

[David]

I read this book c. 1974 or 1975. A little boy and his friends, a talking mouse and butterfly, are each granted a magical wish. The mouse wishes for a piece of cheese. As the butterfly ponders what to wish for, the mouse reminds him that a butterfly's lifespan is very short - that his death may be "imminent." The butterfly, thinking that "imminent" is a beautiful word, repeats it several times, whereupon he dies. The boy silently makes his wish - and suddenly the meadow is full of beautiful butterflies.