46 MISS KATY-DID AND MISS CRICKET. 



because, as everybody knows, they are often a great deal 

 cleverer than we are. They have a vast talent for music 

 and dancing; they are very quick at learning, and would 

 be getting to the very top of the ladder if we once al- 

 lowed them to climb. But their being black is a conven- 

 ience, because, as long as we are green and they black, 

 we have a superiority that can never be taken from us. 

 Don't you see, now ? " 



"O yes, I see exactly," said the Colonel. 



"Now that Keziah Cricket, who just came in here, is 

 quite a musician, and her old father plays the violin beau- 

 tifully ; by the way, we might engage him for our or- 

 chestra." 



And so Miss Katy's ball came off, and the performers 

 kept it up from sundown till daybreak, so that it seemed 

 as if every leaf in the forest were alive. The Katy-dids, 

 and the Mosquitos, and 'the Locusts, and a full orchestra 

 of Crickets made the air perfectly vibrate, insomuch that 

 old Parson Too-Whit, who was preaching a Thursday even- 

 ing lecture to a very small audience, announced to his 

 hearers that he should certainly write a discourse against 

 dancing for the next weekly occasion. 



The good Doctor was even with his word in the mat- 

 ter, and gave out some very sonorous discourses, without 

 in the least stopping the round of gayeties kept up by 



