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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43834 ***
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE ILLUSTRATIONS ENGRAVED BY DALZIEL BROTHERS.
+
+THE COLOURED PLATES BY KRONHEIM & CO.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+COMIC INSECTS.
+
+    BY
+    The Rev. F. A. S. REID, M.A.
+
+    WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+    BY
+    BERRY F. BERRY.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+    LONDON:
+    FREDERICK WARNE AND CO.,
+    BEDFORD STREET, STRAND.
+
+[Illustration: Camden Press
+
+DALZIEL BROTHERS
+
+ENGRAVERS & PRINTERS]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+                              PAGE
+    THE CATERPILLAR              1
+    THE MOTH                     7
+    THE SNAIL                   13
+    THE BEE                     19
+    THE BLACK-BEETLE            25
+    THE SPIDER                  31
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: PREFACE]
+
+
+    OH, wonder I much what this book contains!
+    Can Insects talk, and do they have brains?
+    I always thought that these queer little things
+    Were made up entirely of legs, wings, and stings.
+    A Black-Beetle teach me! And what, Bumble-Bee,
+    In all the wide world can you say unto me?
+    And surely a Caterpillar never has read?
+    With green leaves for books, he would eat them instead;
+    While neither a Moth nor a Spider could tell
+    How a pen should be held, or correctly could spell.
+    And as for poor Snailey,--it's more than absurd,
+    He never could read a one-syllable word!
+    But I've heard of the School Board, and now it's appalling
+    To think that a Moth or a Snail may be calling
+    And telling me too, as their little eyes glisten,
+    Their funny wee lessons, if only I'll listen.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Yes! they talk in a language that all is their own,
+    And here into English you'll find it has grown;
+    Where pictures will shew, and the rhymes they will say,
+    How Insects can work, talk, and laugh, and be gay.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: INTRODUCTION]
+
+
+
+
+COMIC INSECTS.
+
+
+    How queer a procession is passing this way,
+    Of insects all talking; come, hear what they say!
+    The sight is as strange as their words they are true,
+    And you'll laugh as they offer their lessons to you.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "_Led astray._"]
+
+
+
+
+THE CATERPILLAR.
+
+
+        I'M a Caterpillar green,
+        Not the prettiest you have seen,
+    And my Chrysalis I enter rather loth;
+        Though I know that in the spring
+        I shall rise on feathered wing
+    In the costume of a fascinating Moth.
+
+[Illustration: "_I'm a Caterpillar green._"]
+
+        Little likeness you will spy,
+        With the cleverest little eye,
+    'Twixt your green-coated friend of to-day
+        And the airy form that sails
+        When the golden sunlight pales,
+    And the owl flies abroad for his prey.
+
+[Illustration: "_And my Chrysalis I enter rather loth._"]
+
+        Yet the same we are indeed,
+        Though the riddle's hard to read,
+    One, the Moth and the Caterpillar green;
+        And still stranger things than this,
+        Which no little one should miss,
+    In the Picture Book of Nature can be seen.
+
+[Illustration: "_If you'll only deign to lend your ear._"]
+
+        So I think, my little friend,
+        If you'll only deign to lend
+    Your ear to these few words that I say,
+        Ne'er again will you rely
+        For convictions on the eye,
+    As appearances have often led astray.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "_Oh, what a beautiful Moth am I._"]
+
+
+
+
+THE MOTH.
+
+
+    OH, what a beautiful Moth am I!
+    Colours so gay, and sparkling each eye,
+    Nobody ever would guess, I ween,
+    I once was a Caterpillar all in green.
+
+[Illustration: "_With silver and gold I have decked me too._"]
+
+    I've taken me feathers of brightest hue,
+    With silver and gold I have decked me too:
+    No, no! you never would guess, I ween,
+    I once was a Caterpillar all in green.
+
+    With a tardy foot no longer I crawl
+    'Neath the shady leaves, or on ivied wall;
+    But, joyously floating in airy height,
+    I wander abroad in the pale moonlight;
+
+[Illustration: "_I wander abroad in the pale moonlight._"]
+
+    Or join the Elves as they dance and sing
+    In the circle green of the fairy ring,
+    Or tease a poor Daisy that's trying to keep
+    Its big yellow eye from my curious peep.
+
+[Illustration: "_Want of discretion._"]
+
+    But sometimes I fly to a treacherous light,
+    That mimics a star in a darkling night;
+    And too late I learn, with my poor singed wings,
+    The evil that want of discretion oft brings.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "_How very pale._"]
+
+
+
+
+THE SNAIL.
+
+
+        POOR little Snail,
+        How very pale,
+    Your cheek is blanched with fear!
+        What horrid dread
+        Has made you shed
+    So many a slimy tear?
+
+        Come! faster crawl
+        Along the wall,
+    Leave care behind,--all's well!
+        That seeming pack
+        Upon your back
+    Is near an empty shell.
+
+[Illustration: "_Leave care behind._"]
+
+        Come! smile again,
+        And let the rain
+    Of tears at once be dry;
+        Faint-hearted quite,
+        And far from right,
+    Before you're hurt to cry.
+
+        No one will doubt
+        Who thinks about
+    This great world spinning round,
+        That all have hours
+        When sorrow's showers
+    Make April all around.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+      "_That seeming pack
+        Upon your back
+    Is near an empty shell._"]
+
+        But May and June
+        Follow full soon,
+    And joy succeeds to sorrow;
+        So dry the tear,
+        And from the year
+    Your cheering lesson borrow.
+
+[Illustration: "_Ah, Snailey! see._"]
+
+        Ah, Snailey! see
+        To you and me
+    Our burdens oft appear
+        Much heavier far
+        Than what they are,
+    When we give way to fear.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration:
+
+        "_Buz! buz! buz!
+    Over blossoms heavy laden._"]
+
+
+
+
+THE BEE.
+
+
+          BUZ! buz! buz!
+    Over blossoms heavy laden with their treasures;
+        Hear its music as it rifles
+        From the flowers their seeming trifles;
+    We may watch it in the sunshine at our leisure.
+
+[Illustration: "_Hearty toil._"]
+
+        See! their secrets it espying
+        In their tinted depths while prying,
+    As it works thro' the long summer day;
+        "Be in earnest in your quest,
+        Hearty toil brings well-earned rest,"
+    Seems the burden of its light-hearted lay.
+
+[Illustration: "_Well-earned rest._"]
+
+        Lessons here of self-reliance,
+        And "defence but not defiance,"
+    As Volunteers are taught by the Bee.
+        As it works on active wing,
+        Self-protected with its sting,
+    'Tis a grand working model, good to see;
+
+[Illustration: "_. . . Its music as it rifles._"]
+
+        Pointing out how each is sharing
+        In the common task, and bearing
+    His just portion; where no idler is seen:
+        All are busy in the hive
+        Where these happy workmen thrive,
+    And they're loyal, every one, to their Queen.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "_This poor Black-Beetle's ill!_"]
+
+
+
+
+THE BLACK-BEETLE.
+
+
+        OH, dear! Oh, dear!
+        I sadly fear
+    This poor Black-Beetle's ill;
+        And to him now
+        No use, I trow,
+    Is the cleverest doctor's skill.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+    "_No medical sage
+      His pain can assuage._"]
+
+        No medical sage
+        His pain can assuage.
+    You can see at a glance how bad
+        He's made himself,
+        All thro' his pelf:
+    Isn't it dreadfully sad?
+
+[Illustration: "_When the cook was asleep._"]
+
+        For wandering wide
+        On the floor he spied,
+    Last night when the cook was asleep,
+        And rejoiced to find
+        Some cucumber rind,
+    And now no more he will creep!
+
+[Illustration: "_Cucumber at night._"]
+
+        Yes! sad though it be,
+        This little "B-B"
+    Would follow his own appetite;
+        He could never say "no,"
+        When it tempted him; so
+    His epitaph is, "Serve him right!"
+
+        And thus tearfull-ee,
+        He begs you and me
+    His case as a warning to mind;
+        Cucumber at night
+        To regard with affright,
+    And never to eat up the rind.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "_Spiders,--heugh!_"]
+
+
+
+
+THE SPIDER.
+
+
+        SP . . . I . . . DERS,--heugh!
+    Horrible forms that creep and crawl,
+    And hang their webs from ceiling and wall!
+
+[Illustration: "_As they joy in the breeze._"]
+
+    From leaf and fern as they joy in the breeze,
+    From moss-grown arch and ivy-clad trees,
+    And catch the flies--the poor little things--
+    That carelessly use their gossamer wings.
+
+[Illustration: "_Their beautiful nets._"]
+
+    It makes one shudder to think of the fate
+    That giddy bluebottles and gnats may await.
+    Yet wonder we must, as we watch them spread
+    Their beautiful nets with their silken thread;
+
+[Illustration:
+
+    "_It makes me shudder to think of the fate
+      That giddy blue-bottles and gnats may await._"]
+
+    And happier feel at the sign of that Power
+    That guides each to weave such a fairy-like bower;
+    And think of that Hand, that no eye can see,
+    Which fashioned these Insects, and made you and me.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Comic Insects, by F. A. S. Reid
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43834 ***