the Dowager Crocus, "quite so,--the
Lilac, oh, yes! it is certainly very wrong. You are looking uncommonly
well, Major," and she began to recover her composure and to look less
heated.

"Thank you, madam," said the Grasshopper, raising his elbow again, "and
I must say that I have never seen you looking better, and, if I may be
allowed to say it, younger."

"Oh, la!" exclaimed the Dowager, quite confusedly and getting into a
heat again.

"Do you find your company agreeable this morning?" asked the
Grasshopper, to change the subject. He referred to the calls she was
supposed to have received, but the Crocus thought he referred to
himself, for she was still a little off her balance. She was just
thinking how she could say something witty, when the Grasshopper added--

"You have had a number of calls, I presume?"

"Oh, yes! a great many. I am quite tired out," said she, though she
ought not to have said so, for it was not true, and besides, it might be
construed into a piece of rudeness. But the Grasshopper knew she had had
none though he did not say so. He had nothing more to say, however, and
he bade her good morning, and jumped by measurement down the Garden
walk.

This was the first year that the Pansy had received calls and she was
quite excited. She was very prettily pressed in a purple bodice with
white skirt and yellow slippers. "Some one is coming!" she exclaimed to
her mother, who was not far off. "I can hear a step on the Garden walk."
"Be composed," said her mother, "Is your bodice smooth?" She felt of it
and it was. The Red Ant and the Black Ant had come in company. The Red
Ant is a clerk and the Black Ant is his uncle and an undertaker. They
both entered at once and were graciously received. The Red Ant is so
methodical and so used to system, that he had arranged beforehand with
his uncle precisely what they should say and in what order. So the Black
Ant advanced and said quite soberly:

"This is a very lovely day," and the Red Ant immediately added--

"The Lilac is much later than usual this year."

"Isn't it!" said the Pansy very eagerly. "I declare I thought it never
would come out. Mother told me over and over again not to be so
impatient but I did get so vexed!"

"It makes very little difference with us," said the Red Ant whose turn
it now was; "every thing is arranged in the Hill so perfectly that
nothing can put us out. We each of us carry fifty grains of sand a day."

"Oh, how severe it