THE CATERPILLAR AND THE BUTTERFLY
GOOD-MORROW, friend," so spoke, upon a day
A Caterpillar to a Butterfly.
The winged creature looked another way,
And made this proud reply:
"No friend of worms am I"
The insulted Caterpillar heard
"And what were thou, I pray.
Ere God bestowed on thee that brave array?
And answered thus the insulting word:
Why treat the Caterpillar tribe with scorn?
Art thou then nobly born?
What art thou. Madam, at the best?
A Caterpillar elegantly dressed."
(By José Rosas Moreno. Translated by William Cullen Bryant.)
THE SPIDER'S WEB
A DEXTROUS Spider chose
The delicate blossom of a garden rose
Whereon to plant and bind
The net he framed to take the insect kind.
And when his task was done.
Proud of the cunning lines his art had spun,
He said, "I take my stand
Close by my work, and watch what I have planned.
