here when the first ship brought the white men to our shores, and
hundreds and hundreds of those whom they call bravest, wisest,
strongest,--warriors, statesmen, orators, and poets,--have been born,
have grown up, lived, and died, while yet it has outlived them all.
It has seen more wisdom than the best of them; but two or three hours
of brutal strength sufficed to lay it low. Which of these dolts
could make a tree? I'd like to see them do anything like it. How
noisy and clumsy are all their movements,--chopping, pounding,
rasping, hammering. And, after all, what do they build? In the
forest we do everything so quietly. A tree would be ashamed of
itself that could not get its growth without making such a noise and
dust and fuss. Our life is the perfection of good manners. For my
part, I feel degraded at the mere presence of these human beings;
but, alas! I am old; a hollow place at my heart warns me of the
progress of decay, and probably it will be seized upon by these
rapacious creatures as an excuse for laying me as low as my noble
green brother."

In spite of all this disquiet about it, the little cottage grew and
was finished. The walls were covered with pretty paper, the floors
carpeted with pretty carpets; and, in fact, when it was all arranged,
and the garden walks laid out, and beds of flowers planted around, it
began to be confessed, even among the most critical, that it was not
after all so bad a thing as was to have been feared.

A black ant went in one day and made a tour of exploration up and
down, over chairs and tables, up the ceilings and down again, and,
coming out, wrote an article for the Crickets' Gazette, in which he
described the new abode as a veritable palace. Several butterflies
fluttered in and sailed about and were wonderfully delighted, and