y to the sun, "Good-night!"
Though she saw him there like a ball of light;
For she knew he had God's time to keep
All over the world and never could sleep.

The tall pink foxglove bowed his head;
The violets curtsied, and went to bed;
And good little Lucy tied up her hair,
And said, on her knees, her favorite prayer.

And while on her pillow she softly lay,
She knew nothing more till again it was day;
And all things said to the beautiful sun,
"Good-morning, good-morning! our work is begun."

323

It is quite impossible for us to realize why
the English reading public should have been so
excited over the following poem in the years
immediately following its first appearance in
1806. It attracted the attention of royalty,
was set to music, had a host of imitators, and
established itself as a nursery classic. It was
written by William Roscoe (1753-1831),
historian, banker, and poet, for his son
Robert, and was merely an entertaining skit
upon an actual banquet. Probably the fact that
the characters at the butterfly's ball were
drawn with human faces in the original
illustrations to represent the prominent guests
at the actual banquet had much to do with the
initial success. The impulse which it received
a hundred years ago, coupled with its own
undoubted power of fancy, has projected it thus
far, and children seem inclined to approve and
still further insure its already long life.

THE BUTTERFLY'S BALL

WILLIAM ROSCOE

"Come, take up your hats, and away let us haste
To the Butterfly's Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast,
The Trumpeter, Gadfly, has summon'd the crew,
And the Revels are now only waiting for you."
So said little Robert, and pacing along,
His merry Companions came forth in a throng,
And on the smooth Grass by the side of a Wood,
Beneath a broad oak that for ages had stood,
Saw the Children of Earth and the Tenants of Air
For an Evening's Amusement together repair.

And there came the Beetle, so blind and so black,
Who carried the Emmet, his friend, on his back,
And there was the Gnat and the Dragonfly too,
With all their Relations, gre