The story is this: _Miss Katydid_ consulted her cousin, the gallant _Colonel Katydid_, about the invitations to a grand party that she wanted to give. She was to ask only the higher circles, the _Fireflies_, of course, and the _Butterflies_; also the _Moths_, even though they were rather dull people, indelicately ate up ermine capes and got indigestion thereby. Then they must have that worthy family, the _Bees_, of course; the _Bumblebees_, too, who were so dashing and brilliant; the spiteful _Hornets_, just because they were so spiteful and must not be offended, and the plebeian _Mosquitoes_ since they were becoming literary and had very sharp pens, and--the _Crickets_--should they be asked? The _Locusts_, of course, a very old and distinguished family, and the _Grasshoppers_, though they were not of much account, but the _Crickets_--no! One must draw the line somewhere. “I thought they were nice, respectable people,” said _Colonel Katydid_. “O yes--very good people. But you must see the difficulty.” “My dear cousin, I am afraid you must explain.” “Why, their color, to be sure. Don’t you see?” “Oh, that’s it, is it? Excuse me, but I have been living in France where these distinctions are wholly unknown, and I have not yet got myself in the train of fashionable ideas here.” “Well, then, let me teach you. You know we republicans go for no distinctions except those created by Nature herself, and we found our rank upon color, because it is clearly a thing that none has any hand in but our Maker. You see?” “Yes, but who decides what shall be the reigning color?” “I’m surprised to hear the question. The only true color--the only proper one--is _our_ color, to be sure. A lovely pea-green is the precise shade on which to found aristocratic distinction.... Society would become dreadfully mixed if it were not fortunately ordered that the _Crickets_ are as black as jet. The fact is that a class to be looked down upon is necessary to all elegant society, and if the _Crickets_ were not black, we could not keep them down, because, as everybody knows, they are often cleverer than we.... Their being black is a convenience, because, as long as we are green and they black, we have a superiority that never can be taken from us. Don’t you see now?” The _Colonel_ saw. The party was held; the _Crickets_, being very musical, were asked to play for the dancing and came in concourses to do so. The ball went on until daybreak, so that it seemed that every leaf in the forest was alive. In fact those dissipated _Katydids_ kept up this sort of thing till _Parson To-whit_ preached against it and even till the celebrated _Jack Frost_ epidemic occurred in the month of September.