350 



KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



to produce the noise it at times makes 

 (which reminds us of the spring call of the 

 rail or corncrake) by scratching its mandible 

 or the instrument that it perforates with, 

 against its horny chest. Heavy and un- 

 wieldy creatures, they travel badly, and from 

 the same cause fly badly, and that with 

 labor; and as they commonly hide them- 

 selves deep in the foliage and obscurity, with- 

 out some such signal of their presence a 

 meeting of the parties would seldom be ac- 

 complished.'' 



Reaumur relates that the members of a 

 female convent in France were once thrown 

 into great consternation at the appearance 

 of a DeathVHead Moth, which happened 

 to fly in during the evening at one of the 

 windows of the dormitory. 



Abington, April 26. F. Myles. 



LIVE DOLLS; 

 A " Wrinkle " for Young and Old. 



" I wish very much, mamma," said a little 

 girl, as she was walking one fine spring 

 morning, with her doll in her arms, " that 

 my doll could breathe, and speak, and tell 

 me how she loves these sweet and bright 

 little flowers, that are coming up all over 

 the banks and hedge-rows." As she said 

 this, she turned her eyes first upon the pretty 

 but inanimate little figure she had pressed 

 to her bosom, and then upon the fair and 

 sunshiny scene that lay all around her. 

 Everything appeared to have a fresh life 

 given. 



The trees, and flowers, and sparkling rivu- 

 lets, looked so gay, that one might almost 

 fancy them to be really rejoicing that the 

 summer was coming again ; and as for the 

 birds and the young lambs, with which the 

 soft green fields were full, the one sang so 

 sweetly and cheerily, and the others did so 

 sport about in the sunshine, that our little 

 girl could not contain herself for delight. 

 But when she looked at her doll again, her 

 eyes ceased to sparkle ; for there it was with 

 its painted cheeks, and its moveless lips and 

 eyes, a thing more without life than any 

 other object near her. It had been her com- 

 panion in the winter, when the cold winds 

 and the snow had kept her shut up in the 

 house, and she had amused herself tolerably 

 well, in making it frocks and hats, of all 

 variety of fashions ; but she had not once 

 thought then about its having no life or 

 feeling like herself, and she was contented 

 with it, merely because nothing led her to 

 reflect that her care and labor about it were 

 useless. 



But everything now reminded her, that 

 there was a vast difference between the gayest 

 toy-shop and the beautiful country dressed 



up by the returning spring ; and she could 

 not but think, that the very best play thing that 

 her mamma could buy her, was not so really 

 worth possessing as the flowers that were 

 growing wild but fragrantly on the hedges. 

 Before, therefore, she had long continued her 

 walk, her doll was entirely neglected, and it 

 lay upon her arm as if it were a burden. She 

 began gathering some of the prettiest of 

 the wild geraniums, and the sweet little blue 

 harebells, that peeped and smiled from 

 among the dewy grass, and having formed 

 them into a wreath, she felt for a short time 

 as if she possessed something that she could 

 love much better than a doll, that had no 

 sense of the happy spring-time. 



" Are they not beautiful, mamma?" said 

 she, holding them up with delight. " They 

 are indeed, dear Ellen," said her mamma, 

 " and they ought to make you love that 

 great Creator, who while he had the power 

 to make this world, and the sun, and the 

 stars, has also had the benevolence to adorn 

 the earth so beautifully, to make it the 

 pleasant abode of the young and innocent." 



Little Ellen understood and felt the truth 

 of her mamma's observations, and she never 

 afterwards looked upon the lovely scenes 

 which every season of the year in turn pro • 

 duces, without recalling it to her thoughts. 

 But scarcely had she ceased expressing her 

 pleasure at the sight of her spring flowers, 

 when their heads began to droop, their leaves 

 to grow flaccid, and all their brightness to 

 fade away. " What a sad thing it is, 

 mamma," exclaimed the disappointed little 

 girl, " that we should not be able longer to 

 preserve such beautiful things !" 



a It would be, indeed," was the answer, " if 

 they had not been intended only to bloom in 

 a particular situation, and then for a short 

 time only. But you must learn to observe, 

 Ellen, that all these beautiful little objects 

 are ornaments to the earth, which can be 

 easily destroyed, while things more neces- 

 sary to our comfort are better defended, or 

 by nature different." 



Ellen looked vexed when she found it 

 would be of no use to carry the flowers any 

 farther, and she was again without anything 

 to pet and love. To her great delight, how- 

 ever, on passing a small green recess on one 

 side of the road, they saw a man sitting and 

 employing his skill in making captives of 

 many of the sweet little birds, whose songs 

 she had listened to with such pleasure. If 

 she had reflected a moment on the real 

 cruelty of this occupation, she would not 

 have observed the bird-catcher with such 

 feelings of gratification ; but she was intent 

 on nothing but the pleasure she should have 

 in possessing one of the little warblers, and 

 she forgot the barbarity of making it a 

 prisoner, in the thoughts of what care she 



