LETTEES FROM ALABAMA. 
185 
hapless fate in the prospect of disturbed repose 
throughout the summer ; but perpetual reiteration 
'' as so blunted my perceptions, that I now not only- 
disregard the annoyance, but am actually uncon- 
sbious of its existence, save when the mind acci- 
dentally reverts to the subject. I need scarcely 
say that there are many conditions of human life 
in which the power which the mind thus possesses 
(trifling as it appears in the present instance) of 
accommodating itself to circumstances, is a most 
kind and merciful ordination. 
There’s mercy in every place : 
And mercy, encouraging thought ! 
Gives even affliction a grace, 
And reconciles man to his lot.” 
Feeding on the acrid milky leaves of a very 
beautiful flower, the Butterfly weed {Asclepms 
tuberosa), I found, a few weeks ago, a fine cater- 
pillar of the large black and orange butterfly 
[Danais ArcMppus), It had a tigrine appearance, 
being marked with transverse bands and stripes of 
yellow, white, and black, and was adorned withal 
with four flexible fleshy horns or tentacles, two on 
the shoulders, and two on the rump. A day or 
two ago, it hung itself up by the tail, from a little 
conical knob of silk, which it had skilfully spun, 
thread over thread, on the roof of its box ; an 
apparently trivial circumstance, yet so decisive as 
to show indubitably to which of the two great 
divisions of the butterfly tribe it was to be re- 
ferred. The pupge of butterflies are, I believe, 
invariably suspended, or at least tied ; but while 
those of one great section are loosely hung from a 
little button, as in the specimen before us, those of 
the other have, besides this support, a slender but 
