A BANQUET. 79 



however, by hunger and her own determined spirit, and 

 assisted by that Kind Power which, as shewn both in the Fa- 

 ble book and the book of Life, seldom fails to help those who 

 are inclined to help themselves, she arrived at length within 

 sight of the desired oak tree. A few minutes more brought 

 her under its boughs, and into the very midst of the family 

 she had come to visit. Like her, they had all been brought - 

 out by the sunshine, and like her had all been sleeping through 

 the frost, a habit in which they exactly resembled our busy 

 friend and her fellows ; but here all likeness ended, the people 

 of the oak being as lazy a crew as ever slept or ate away 

 existence. They were, in short, of the number of those spoilt 

 children of mother earth (of all the least enviable), on whom 

 she lavishes her gifts without requiring any labour in return ; 

 for these idlers, wherever their abode, always found themselves 

 in the midst of plenty. Idlers as they were, yet after their 

 late long fast you may be sure they were all busy enough in 

 breaking it; and as their famishing visitor drew near, her 

 hungry eyes were not slow in discerning that young and old, 

 big and little, were hard at work, not with their knives and 

 forks, but with their pipes, which, both their food and their 

 manner of eating it being, like those of the Chinese, rather 

 peculiar, served them instead of either. Not one of the party 

 took the slightest notice of the pitiful presence of our poor 

 dripping wearied traveller, as she stood at an humble distance, 

 and looked round timidly before she ventured, except by looks, 



