182 BIRDS AND MAN 



to expect next. The village was in an excited state 

 about it, and all the children had gathered near the 

 tree and thrown stones into it, but the owl had stub- 

 bornly refused to come out. 



That about the young woman he had spoken of is 

 a queer little story to read in this enlightened land. 

 She was apparently in very good health, a wife, and 

 the mother of a small child ; but a few weeks before 

 her sudden death a strange thing occurred to trouble 

 her mind. One afternoon, when sitting alone in her 

 cottage taking tea, she saw a cricket come in at the 

 open door, and run straight into the middle of the 

 room. There it remained motionless, and without 

 stirring from her seat she took a few moist tea-leaves 

 and threw them down near the welcome guest. The 

 cricket moved up to the leaves, and when it touched 

 them and appeared just about to begin sucking their 

 moisture, to her dismay it turned aside, ran away out 

 at the door, and disappeared. She informed all her 

 neighbours of this startling occurrence, and sadly 

 spoke of an aunt who was living at another village 

 and was known to be in bad health. " It must be 

 for her," she said ; " we'll soon be hearing bad news 

 of her, I'm thinking. But no bad news came, and 

 when she was beginning to believe that the strange 

 cricket that had refused to remain in the house had 



