Happiness of the Grasshopper

Happy insect! what can be
In happiness compared with thee!
Fed with nourishment divine,
The dewy morning's gentle wine;
Nature waits upon thee still,
And thy verdant cup does fill.
All the fields which thou dost see,
All the plants belong to thee:
All that summer hours produce,
Fertile made with easy juice;
The country hinds with gladness hear,
Prophet of the ripened year!

Cowley

The Whale

Warm and buoyant, in his oily mail,
Gambols on seas of ice th' unwieldily whale;
Wide waving fins round boating islands urge
His bulk gigantic through the troubled surge;
With hideous yawn, the flying shoals he seeks,
Or clasps with fringe of horn his massy cheeks;
Lifts o'er the tossing wave his nostril bare,
And spouts the watery columns into air;
The silvery arches catch the setting beams,
And transient rainbows tremble o'er the streams.

Darwin

The wasp and the Bee

A wasp met a bee that was just buzzing by,
And he said "Little Cousin, can you tell me why
You are loved so much better by people than I.

"My back shines as bright, and as yellow as gold
And my shape is most elegant too to behold,
And yet nobody likes me for that, I am told,"
Bz.

"Ah! Cousin," the bee said, "'tis all very true,
But if I were half as much mischief to do,
Then I'm sure they would love me no better than you.
Bz.

"You have a fine shape and a delicate wing,
And they say you are handsome; but then there's one thing
They never can put up with; and that is your sting.
Bz.

"My coat is quite homely and plain, as you see,
But yet no one is angry or scolding at me,
Just because I'm a harmless and busy bee."
Bz.

From this little story let people beware,
For if, like the cross wasp, ill-natured they are,
They will never be loved, though they're ever so fair.

My Pets

I bring my little doggies milk;
I bring my rabbits hay;
I feed and tend, and love them well--
Such helpless things are they!
See! now in soft and cozy bed
They roll about and play;
They've milk and bones, and all they want--
Such happy pets are they!

[Illustration: Man Carrying Animals.]

[Page 188--Squirrel Land]

[Illustration: Boy with Squirrel.]

The Squirrel

I'm a merry, merry squirrel,
All day I leap and whi