44 MISS KATY-DID AND MISS CRICKET. 



&quot;I thought they were nice, respectable people.&quot; 

 &quot; O, perfectly nice and respectable, very good people, 

 in fact, so far as that goes. But then you must see the 

 difficulty.&quot; 



&quot;My dear cousin, I am afraid you must explain.&quot; 

 &quot; Why, their color, to be sure. Don t you see ? &quot; 

 &quot; Oh ! &quot; said the Colonel. &quot; That s it, is it ? Excuse 

 me, but I have been living in France, where these dis 

 tinctions are wholly unknown, and I have not yet got 

 myself in the train of fashionable ideas here.&quot; 



&quot;Well, then, let me teach you,&quot; said Miss Katy. &quot;You 

 know we republicans go for no distinctions except those 

 created by Nature herself, and we found our rank upon 

 color, because that is clearly a thing that none has any 

 hand in but our Maker. You see ? &quot; 



&quot; Yes ; but who decides what color shall be the reigning 

 cofor ? &quot; 



&quot; I m surprised to hear the question ! The only true 

 color the only proper one is our color, to be sure. A 

 lovely pea-green is the precise shade on which to found 

 aristocratic distinction. But then we are liberal ; we as 

 sociate with the Moths, who are gray ; with the Butterflies, 

 who are blue-and-gold-colored ; with the Grasshoppers, yel 

 low and brown ; and society would become dreadfully 

 mixed if it were not fortunately ordered that the Crickets 

 are black as jet. The fact is, that a class to be looked 



