44 MISS KATY-DID AND MISS CRICKET. 



"I thought they were nice, respectable people." 

 "O, perfectly nice and respectable, very good people, 

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

 difficulty." 



"My dear cousin, I am afraid you must explain." 

 " Why, their color, to be sure. Don't you see ? " 

 Oh ! " said the Colonel. " 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." 



"Well, then, let me teach you," said Miss Katy. "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 ? " 



" Yes ; but who decides what color shall be the reigning 

 cofor ? " 



" 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 



