t and hearing too,
Forth a polished table she
Quickly to the closet drew.

First, she stepped upon a chair;
Then the table--then a shelf;
Thinking she securely there
Might, unnoticed, help herself.

Then she seized a heavy slice,
Leaving in the loaf a cleft
Wider than a dozen mice,
Feasted there all night, had left.

Stepping backward, Fanny slid
On the table's polished face:--
Down she came, with dish and lid,
Silver--glass--and china vase!

In, from every room they rushed,
Father--mother--servants--all,
Thinking all the closet crushed,
By the racket and the fall.

'Mid the uproar of the house,
Fanny, in her shame and fright,
Wished herself indeed a mouse,
But to run and hide from sight.

Yet was she to learn how vain,
Poor and worthless, is a wish.
Wishing could not lull her pain,
Hide her shame, nor mend a dish.

There she lay, but could not speak;
For a tooth had made a pass
Through her lip; and to her cheek
Clung a piece of shivered glass.

From her altered features gushed
Rolling tears, and streaming gore;
While, untasted still, and crushed,
Lay her cake upon the floor.

Then the doctor hurried in:
Fanny at his needle swooned,
As he held her crimson chin,
And together stitched the wound.

Now her face a scar must wear,
Ever till her dying day!
Questioned how it happened there,
What can blushing Fanny say?

=Sudden Elevation; or The Empaled Butterfly=

"Ho!" said the Butterfly, "here am I,
Up in the air, who used to lie
Flat on the ground, for the passers by
To treat with utter neglect!
But none will suspect that I am the same;
With a bright, new coat, and a different name;
The piece of nothingness whence I came
In me they'll never detect.

"That horrible night in the chrysalis,
Which brought me at length to a day like this,
In a form of beauty--a state of bliss,
Was little enough to give
For freedom to range from bower to bower,
To flirt with the buds, and flatter the flower,
And bask in the sunbeams hour by hour,
The envy of all that live.

"Why, this is a world of curious things,
Where those who crawl, and those that have wings,
Are ranked in the classes of beggars, and kings,
No matter how much the worth
May be on the side of those who creep,
Where the vain, the light, and the bold will sweep,
Others from notice, and proudly keep
Uppermost on the earth!

"Many a one that has loathed the