202 PROC. ENT. SOC. WASH., VOL. 24, NO. 7-8, OCT.-NOV., 1922 



"Alas," said the wasp; "the wood these days 

 Is so very tough, I am nearly crazed, 

 And they've plastered the posts with creosote 

 It has given me such a pain in my throat!" 



"Pooh, pooh!" quoth the ant, "your troubles are mean, 



Why, they've slaughtered my aphids with nicotine, 



And filled my halls with a poison gas 



So that even our workers can not pass; 



Such a horrible odor you never sniffed, 



I've a racking cough and am terribly miffed!" 



The bumble-bee hummed in his contra-bass, 

 As he wiped the pollen from his face, 

 "This farmer of mine is exceedingly rude, 

 He has cut his clover and starved my brood!" 

 Then they groaned in chorus, to disappear, 

 In the circumjacent atmosphere. 



James J. Montague, whose clever rhymes appear daily under 

 the caption "More Truth than Poetry," in numerous news- 

 papers throughout the land, is fond of entomological themes. 

 Recently there appeared in his column an amusing discussion 

 on the fable of the grasshopper and the ant, in which, as usual, 

 the industry of the latter is contrasted with the vagrancy of the 

 grasshopper. This terminates as follows: 



"Yet grasshoppers swarm from the north every year 



And feast on the ripening grain; 

 They eat every blade, every leaf, every spear, 

 Again and again and again." 



Evidently Mr. Montague had read the First Report of the 

 Entomological Commission, but failed to learn the sequel! but 

 he goes on : 



"While the ants have to work or they don't get along 

 Which seems to establish that something is wrong. 

 You may know the moral to this little song, 

 To me it is not very plain!" 



However, Joe Lincoln, in "Cape Cod Ballads," takes an 

 entirely different view of this enigma and perhaps he has solved 

 the mystery: 



"But, mind you, the ant, all summer long, 

 Had heard the grasshopper's merry song, 

 And had laughed with the rest of the happy throng 



At the bubbling notes of glee; 

 And said to himself, as his cash he lent. 

 Or started out to collect his rent, 

 'The shif'less fool don't charge a cent 



I'm getting the whole show free!" 



