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,
Wherever thou art hid,

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!
I know it by the trill

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.
Do Katy-dids drink tea?

"O, tell me where did Katy live,
And what did Katy do?
And was she very fair and young,
And yet so wicked too?

Did Katy love a naughty man,

Or kiss more cheeks than one?

I warrant Katy did no more
Than many a Kate has done.

"Dear me! I'll tell you all about
My fuss with little Jane

And Ann, with whom I used to walk
So often down the lane,

And all that tore their locks of black,
Or wet their eyes of blue.
Pray tell me, sweetest Katy-did,
What did poor Katy do?

"Ah, no! the living oak shall crash,
That stood for ages still,
The rock shall rend its mossy base,
And thunder down the hill,
Before the little Katy-did

Shall add one word, to tell
The mystic story of the maid

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 lift her drooping lid,

And then the child of future years
Shall tell what Katy did."

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.