A BUTTERFLY EPISODE. 



race. They are the fleetest of our butter- 

 flies. My orange-tip just glanced at them 

 as who should say, " Strange that insects 

 of taste should put up with such colouring. 

 Why, she's almost pure white. I wouldn't 

 look twice at her." The words had scarcely 

 thrilled through his fatuous little brain when 

 up loomed from windward a small yellowish 

 butterfly, not wholly unlike himself: green 

 and white underneath, fringed with black 

 above, but without the orange spot which 

 made my lord so attractive. In a second 

 I recognized her : it was a female orange- 

 tip a virgin female. But, quicker far than 

 myself, her natural master had seen her 

 and known her instinctively as the mate 

 predestined for him. Hi, presto ! as I 

 looked, all the world was one maze ; the 

 pretty things were at once in the thick of 

 their courtship. 



And what a courtship that was ! How 

 dainty ! how ethereal ! He, rising on the 

 breeze and displaying with pride his beautiful 



