Robert Michael Ballantyne
The Butterfly's Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast
A Gnat and a Dragonfly, with a great many of their relations, arrived about the same time with the Beetle. They looked quite charming in their brilliant dresses, the colours of which were chiefly green, orange, and blue. A large Blue-bottle Fly, with a very light waistcoat, and a hat stuck on one side of his head, said that the Dragonflies were lovely, and that Miss Gnat was quite killing. This was an odd thing to say, but Mr Blue-bottle meant by it, that she was very beautiful. Indeed, it was said that he fell in love with Miss Gnat, for he danced with nobody else during the whole afternoon.
And there came the Moth, with her plumage of down,
And the Hornet, with jacket of yellow and brown,
Who with him the Wasp, his companion, did bring—
They promised that evening to lay by their sting.
The Moth was sound asleep when the Gadfly blew his trumpet. She had sat up too late the night before, and, owing to having indulged this bad habit, had overslept herself the following morning.
However, she tried by her activity to make up for lost time; she saw the other insects hurrying past her house in crowds, so she threw on her clothes as fast as possible. The Moth was prettily dressed in a soft garment of down, and as she was a modest creature, every one loved her. On leaving home, she observed the Wasp and the Hornet passing. They were dressed in rich suits of brown and yellow. At sight of them she was a little frightened, and endeavoured to run back to her house until they should pass by; but they caught sight of her, and immediately gave chase, screaming out loudly, “Oh! dear Mrs Moth, pray don’t be alarmed. We have laid by our stings for to-day, and won’t hurt you.” They soon caught her, although she ran as fast as she could. So the Wasp and the Hornet each offered her an arm, and obliged her to walk between them while they danced along, shouting, and singing, and winking waggishly to the friends they passed on the road. The poor Moth blushed very much at being seen by all her friends in the company of two such wild creatures. A Caterpillar and a Long-legged Beetle, besides one or two other insects that chanced to be near, laughed very heartily on seeing what had happened. But the Moth soon recovered her spirits; and when they arrived at the oak-tree, she was walking along with a sprightly step, first talking to the Hornet and then chatting to the Wasp, as if they were her dearest friends.
Then the sly little Dormouse peeped out of his hole,
and led to the feast his blind cousin the Mole;
And the Snail, with her horns peeping out from her shell,
Came fatigued with the distance, the length of an ell.
“Come along, you lazy fellow,” cried the little Dormouse, knocking with his ivory-headed cane at the door of a mole-hill.
“Ay, ay, cousin,” shouted the Mole, “I’ll be there in a minute.”
So the Dormouse stood impatiently tapping his boots till the Mole should be ready. The Dormouse was dressed in the height of fashion, and thought himself a rather handsome fellow. Some people said that he was conceited, and indeed a Spider that was near at hand plainly told him so; but, whether this was true or not, there is no doubt that he was a very kind little fellow, because he came to lead his poor blind cousin to the feast.
“What a time you have been, old boy,” he said, as the Mole appeared, dusting the earth off his coat and white hat.
The Mole answered that he had been very busy all morning making a new tunnel between his bed-room and drawing-room. He then took his friend’s arm, and away they went over the green meadows, where the cowslips and buttercups grew, making the grass look as if it were dotted all over with gold. Sometimes the two friends stopped by the way to rest under a buttercup, and sip a little morning dew; but seeing every one hastening past them, while they wasted their time, the Dormouse jumped up again, and cast a sly look at his blind friend as he asked him what he thought of the fine view.
“Don’t make jokes about my being blind,” said the Mole, pretending to be angry.
Just at that moment they both ran into a Spider’s web.
“Oh! how stupid of me,” cried the Dormouse; “I wasn’t looking before me at the time.”
“You might as well be without eyes, if you don’t use them,” said the Mole, as they cleared away the threads of the net, and, making a low bow to the Spider, went on their way.
Now, all this time the Snail had been slowly creeping over the stones and winding round the blades of grass and flowers that strewed her path to the place of meeting. But she was so long of getting there that the guests began to be impatient, and said that perhaps she was not coming at all. She lived under the next tree, and had only about four feet to walk, but she was so very slow that she took a long, long time to it; and at last the Grasshopper whispered to the Butterfly that she should go and meet her. Away went the Butterfly on her gaudy wings, and, alighting by the Snail’s side, began to urge her to make haste. During the Butterfly’s absence, the Wasp, who was always making spiteful remarks, said that it was shameful in the Snail to keep them waiting; but the Humble-bee, who was walking up and down conversing with a Midge, turned round and said, “Remember, you Wasp, that you have not brought your sting with you to-day, so pray do not give way to your spiteful nature. The poor Snail has to carry her house on her back, so we should not be angry at her slowness.” Some of the other insects said that this was no excuse for the Snail, because she knew that she walked very slowly, and should therefore have set out sooner.
