298 TENANTS OF AN OLD FARM. 



when the workmen were afield. The oddity pleased 

 the Mistress, and indeed we all now have a sort of pride 

 in Sarah's shell, which she soinids not only with thorough 

 gusto but with the skill of a Triton. In my rambles I 

 have often heard with high satisfaction its midday or 

 evening notes, mellowed by distance and associated 

 with home and good fare, echoing over the meadows 

 and through the waving corn. 



Sarah keeps it suspended upon a rustic bracket of 

 oak-forks above the kitchen hearth, so that Dan's 

 metaphor had a special appositeness which the family 

 at least appreciated. 



" Isn't it time for us to go back from our digression V" 

 I suggested. "If you are quite satisfied with your 

 philosophizing over the cricket's music, suppose we 

 turn our attention to the question how the music is 

 made." 



