de of voices talking all at once.

"My dear," cried the Butterfly across the table to the Grasshopper, "I
hope you are attending to your friends there. See that you give them
enough to eat, and plenty of mountain-dew to drink."

"Yes, yes, my love," replied the Grasshopper as well as he could for
laughing at the jokes of a bloated old Spider that sat beside him. Then
the Grasshopper called to the Butterfly to send him a slice of wheat;
but, as the noise prevented his being heard, he jumped over the table at
one bound, helped himself, and bounded back again. Two or three young
Crickets and five or six Midges sat at a little side mushroom. They
made more noise than all the grownup people put together; and the lady
Butterfly looked round at them with a smile once or twice, quite
delighted to see them so happy, and to hear their merry voices ringing
through the woods.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

With steps more majestic the Snail did advance,
And he promised the gazers a minuet dance;
But they all laughed so loudly, he pulled in his head,
And went, in his own little chamber, to bed.

After dinner the ball began, and it was the strangest ball that ever was
seen. The trumpeter Gadfly and a number of his relations, besides
several Grasshoppers and Bees, were the chief musicians. They wanted a
bass very much at first, but the Bull-frog offered his services,
although he confessed that he was accustomed to sing alone. Then the
gentlemen drew on their gloves, flattened their wings, pulled up their
collars, and coiled away their tails; while the ladies tightened their
garters, ruffled their feathers, and put out their feelers. Oh how they
did dance! reels were nothing to it. The greatest difficulty was to
keep the Grasshoppers in order. They became so excited that they sprang
quite out of sight every moment, and so lost their partners, and ran
against everybody in searching for them. Then the Bull-frog, who sang
bass, got a little too much of the dew, and sang so loudly, that he
quite drowned all the other players. So Mrs Butterfly put her claws in
her ears, and running up to him, said, "Oh! dear Mr Bull-frog, pray do
not sing quite so loudly." The poor Bull-frog was almost weeping with
joy at the merry scene before him, but he blushed very green on hearing
this, and said he had forgotten what he was doing, but would try to be
more careful. However, in five m