2 Beautiful Butterflies. 



and rocked to sleep at night in a lily bell, or some other 

 such agreeable resting-place ; sipping the sweet juices 

 out of the flowers, and sporting in the air with com- 

 panions that never get out of temper, and quarrel. 

 Oh, that would be delightful ! Yes, I'd be a Butterfly ! 

 Would not you V 9 



My dear young Master, or Miss, as the case may be, 

 most assuredly I would not be a Butterfly. Nay, do 

 not look so incredulous, but listen, and I will tell you 

 why. In the first place I have no fancy to be snapped 

 up by a winged monster two or three hundred times 

 bigger than myself, as yon bright-winged flutterer has 

 just been by the Swallow, that has a little hungry family 

 up in the chimney there, and must find Butterflies or 

 some other equally gay and thoughtless creatures 

 wherewith to satisfy their wants. In the next place, 

 I should not like to undergo such a series of changes 

 and transformations as the Butterfly does, before he 

 comes out in his beautiful silken dress, to live his 

 little life of a few hours in the sunshine; and for all 

 that is said in praise of " a short life and a merry 

 one," by the thoughtless and careless among mankind, 

 yet would I rather, if it so pleased God, live a long 

 life, that I might have time to cultivate and exercise 

 these high and noble faculties of the mind, which dis- 

 tinguish man from the rest of creation, and so exercise 

 them as at once to glorify my Maker, and benefit my 



