home, Mrs. Milton looked for Dr. Holmes's poems, and found the lines addressed by him to this insect, which were read for the amusement of the company. "TO AN INSECT. "I love to hear thine earnest voice, Thou testy little dogmatist, Thou pretty Katy-did! Thou 'mindst me of gentle-folks, — Old gentle-folks are they, Thou say'st an undisputed thing, In such a solemn way. "Thou art a female, Katy-did! That quivers through thy piercing notes, So petulant and shrill. I think there is a knot of you Beneath the hollow tree, A knot of spinster Katy-dids. "O, tell me where did Katy live, Did Katy love a naughty man, Or kiss more cheeks than one? I warrant Katy did no more "Dear me! I'll tell you all about And Ann, with whom I used to walk And all that tore their locks of black, "Ah, no! the living oak shall crash, Shall add one word, to tell Whose name she knows so well. "Peace to the ever-murmuring race! And when the latest one Shall fold in death her feeble wings Beneath the autumn sun, Then shall she raise her fainting voice, And then the child of future years but did not The garden was brilliant now, abound with fragrant flowers. There were the large and showy china asters, variegated euphorbia, scarlet malope, purple and yellow immortal flower, the purple and white amaranthus, the cock's-comb, and many others. The sweet alyssum and the sweet pea added fragrance to their pretty appearance. The dahlias were this year very abundant, and made a fine show until the frost; but they were forced to bow their heads at the first approach of this cruel enemy. The young people still continued their botanical walks with their kind neighbor. There were not many very attractive field-flowers, however, at this season. Few of them retained any fragrance. There were a great variety of the aster family, (class 19th, order 2d.) The showy family of Solidago, or golden-rod, of the same class and order, were also abundant. There were remaining some of the Hibiscus Palustris, marsh hibiscus, (class 16th, order 8th,) which blossomed at the close of the last month, and whose brilliant red flowers, at a little distance, looked like roses. The Althea Officinalis, marsh-mallow, of the same class, blossomed this month. These, with some others, made up very showy bouquets, and the young people enjoyed their excursions very highly, and looked forward with pain to the approaching cold weather, when the fields would be covered with snow, and they should be forced to confine their botanical researches to the beautiful "monsters" of the greenhouse. |