destitute of song, except on the supposition
that in such elevated situations the young are more easily guided by
sight than by hearing. Still there are many songsters which are
dressed in brilliant plumage, and of these we have some examples among
our native birds. These, however, are evident exceptions to the
general fact, and we may trace a plain analogy in this respect between
birds and insects. The musical insects are, we believe, invariably
destitute of brilliant plumage. Butterflies and moths do not sing; the
music of insects comes chiefly from the plainly-dressed locust and
grasshopper tribes.

OUR TALKS WITH UNCLE JOHN.

TALK NUMBER ONE.

We were happy children, Alice and I, when, on Alice's sixteenth
birthday, we persuaded our father, the most indulgent parent in
Cincinnati, that there was no need of our going to school any longer;
not that our education was finished,--we did not even put up such a
preposterous plea as that,--but because Mrs. C. did not intend to send
Laura, and we did not believe any of our set of girls would go back
after the holidays.

There is no being so facile as an American father, especially where
his daughters are concerned; and our dear father was no exception to
the general rule. So our school education was finished. For the
rest, for the real education of our minds and hearts, we took care of
ourselves.

How could it be otherwise? Our father, a leading merchant in
Cincinnati, spent his days in his counting-room, and his evenings
buried in his newspapers or in his business calculations, on the
absorbing nature of which we had learned to build with such certainty,
that, when his consent was necessary to some scheme of pleasure, we
preferred our requests with such a nice adjustment of time, that the
answer generally was, "January 3d,--two thousand bales,--yes, my
dear,--and twelve are sixteen,--yes, Alice, don't bother me, child!"
and, armed with that unconscious assent, we sought our mother.

"Papa says that we may go. Do you think, mamma, that Miss D. can have
our dresses in time?"

Our dear mother, most faithful and indefatigable in her care for our
bodily wants, what time had she for aught else? With feeble health,
with poor servants, with a large house crowded with fine furniture,
and with the claims of a numerous calling and party-giving
acquaintance,--claims which both my father and herself imagined his
business and her social position made imperative,--what c