The Butterfly's Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast

It was written for very young children, and very amusing they must have
found it, with its characters being the little insects and small mammals
of the fields and woods, who assemble together for a feast. Naturally
they must have become vegetarian for the day! Anyway, they put away
their warring instincts, and had a good time together, though one or two
incidents caused by the over exuberant during the dancing, threatened to
cause serious mishaps, though all were avoided.


CHAPTER ONE.

THE BUTTERFLY'S BALL AND THE GRASSHOPPER'S FEAST.

Come, take up your hats, and away let us haste
To the Butterfly's ball and the Grasshopper's feast;
For the trumpeter Gadfly has summoned his crew,
And the revels are now only waiting for you.

On the smooth-shaven grass by the side of the wood,
Beneath a broad oak that for ages has stood,
See the children of earth, and the tenants of air,
For an evening's amusement together repair.

And there came the Beetle, so blind, and so black,
Who carried the Emmet, his friend, on his back;
And there came the Gnat, and the Dragonfly too,
And all their relations, green, orange, and blue.

And there came the Moth, with her plumage of down,
And the Hornet, with jacket of yellow and brown,
Who with him the Wasp, his companion, did bring--
They promised that evening to lay by their sting.

Then the sly little Dormouse peeped out of his hole,
And led to the feast his blind cousin the Mole;
And the Snail, with her horns peeping out from her shell,
Came fatigued with the distance, the length of an ell.