282 THE MOTHS OF THE BANNERS. 



Moths, or moth-like spirits, be they what they might, 

 the two companions flitted, now here^ now there, then meet- 

 ing, laid their plumed heads together, and commenced (in 

 moth language) a parley which we shall thus interpret: 

 " Sister," cried one of them who had just descended on the 

 old banner from a short exploratory flight towards the new ; 

 " why art thou thus wilfully determined on keeping to our 

 ruined habitation ? "Pis a hard necessity, I acknowledge, to 

 desert this wasted fabric in which our honourable ancestors 

 were born and died ; but it no longer affords us maintenance be- 

 coming our exalted rank, and, for the good of my descendants, 

 I have resolved to establish myself up yonder, (and here she 

 looked towards the new banner,) where our consequence will 

 be properly kept up." " Consequence ! maintenance!" cried 

 the other (scornfully tossing her plumes ;) " let my family 

 perish rather than subsist on the vulgar mongrel texture of 

 that painted gew-gaw! Deserting this fabric of unmingled 

 silk, pure even to its last attenuated thread, shall we stoop to 

 provide support for our future progeny on a new-fangled tis- 

 sue, basely intermingled with cotton yarn ? I marvel at thy 

 degenerate vanity : ennobled by my presence, these ruins, how- 

 ever far decayed, retain their pristine grandeur ; and so long 

 as one particle remains upon another, here do I abide." 

 " And that will be, sister," returned the other, "until to-mor- 

 row's dawn, when you and it together will be trampled into 

 dust. But do as you like best, and so farewell, for ever, 



