16 



But see tbiit broad-winged insect, with buttons of gold — 

 Two rows on his bh\ck tail-coat, like a soldier bold I 

 Do you know he is stingy of Imttons to his wife, 

 And was fond of your parsnips in his early life ? 

 Aud there is that innocent-looking one iu white, 

 With tips of black that are barely seen in his flight — 

 Do you know that he cnme from Europe a while ago, 

 Aud his children will eat your cabbage sprouts by the row t 



Aud there are the birds — the restless noisy wren, 



That scolds all day like a little lunatic hen — 



Know you, ray fussy friend, tliat it soon wears out. 



Far it lives but three short years, or thereabout. 



And then your horses and swine — vvhy, who would suppose 



They are classed with elephants, — smaller, short in the nils'-'-. 



But flexing that feature in quite a handy way. 



To search the ground, or to pick and mumble the hay. 



The outcrop of sandstone, here on your valley farm — 

 A very bad crop to raise — lo ! here was an arm 

 Of the oceau, and then the rock was muddy shore, • 

 By feathered reptiles tracked — prize poultry of yore, 

 So large that if sold at the present market rate. 

 Any one would have bought a set of silver plate ; 

 And a dozen eggs, if whipped to a cloud of foam, 

 Would have frosted a cake as big as the Capitol dome. 



Evening descends, and the bright day's work is done. 

 How strange to know the metals that boil in the sun ; 

 And to learn that the red waves only struggle through 

 At sunset, because they are largest ; and, that the dew 

 Never falls, as we say ; and why we hear the sound 

 Of far-cift" water at night, when the air is damp ; 

 And why, in yon orb that glimmers, our nightly lamp, 

 The air and oceans were long since lost in the ground. 



But, say not that science dissects and pickles the face 

 Of beautiful Nature, forgetting her sweetness and grace- 



