"PRETTY Butterfly, stay! Come down here and play," A Grasshopper said, As he lifted his head. "Oh, no! and oh, no! Daddy Grasshopper, go! Once you weren't so polite, But said, 'Out of my sight, You base, ugly fright!'" "Oh, no! and oh, no! I never said so," The Grasshopper cried: "I'd sooner have died Than been half so rude. You misunderstood." "Oh, no! I did not; 'Twas near to this spot: The offence, while I live, I cannot forgive." "I pray you explain When and where such disdain, Such conduct improper, Was shown by this Hopper." "I then was a worm: 'Tis a fact, I affirm," The Butterfly said, With a toss of her head. "In my humble condition, Your bad disposition Made you spurn me as mean, And not fit to be seen. In my day of small things You dreamed not that wings Might one day be mine,-- Wings handsome and fine, That help me soar up To the rose's full cup, And taste of each flower In garden and bower. This moral now take For your own better sake: Insult not the low; Some day they may grow To seem and to do Much better than you. Remember; and so, Daddy Grasshopper, go!" EMILY CARTER. [Illustration] [Illustration] THE PET PIGEON. WHEN I was about nine years old, my father and mother were living in a Southern city; and, as I had been very ill for a long time, I was taken from school, and permitted to do as I liked. In one of my walks I met an old colored woman, who took quite a fancy to me; and once, when I was sick at home, she came to see me, bringing as a present a young pigeon. Its feathers were not grown enough to show its color; but it proved to be brown and white. I was very much grieved when my mother said that she could not have a pigeon kept in the house; but my father persuaded her to indulge me till I was able to go out again; and then my pet gave so little trouble that nobody objected to him. For the first two or three weeks, he was put at night in another room; but I begged so hard that finally "Pidgy," as I called him, was allowed to roost on top of the wardrobe in my bed-room. The first time he saw me asleep, he seemed very much alarmed (so my mother told me); but he settled down on my shoulder, and kept very quiet till I awoke. This he always did after that morning, sometimes waiting more than two hours. After amusing myself with him till it was time to get up, I used to give him a large basin of water, into which he would jump with great delight; and he would be making his toilet while I was making mine.