122 BOULDER KEVERIES. 



may be. Wind and rain are now the agents. 

 In three months more they will have taken into 

 partnership the frost, and will have formed a 

 triumvirate which, for six months succeeding, 

 will rule, hereabouts, the surface of the earth; 

 mellowing, carving, grinding, splitting, bearing- 

 onward and to and fro. Then frost, for a sea- 

 son, will dissolve partnership with the other two 

 and let them carry on the business. For cen- 

 turies untold has this triumvirate ruled in win- 

 ter ruled with an iron hand, and in a manner 

 almost wholly uncontrolled by man. For my- 

 riads of centuries yet to be will the partnership 

 be formed in autumn and dissolved in spring. 

 Man can only look on and marvel at the work 

 performed by these three ruling forces, when 

 they work in unison, as they almost always do. 

 The long, low, rattling note of the harvest- 

 fly or dog-day locust sounds at short intervals 

 from the surrounding trees. Last night the 

 clear-cut love call of the true katydid was heard 

 for the first time this season. For almost three 

 weeks the trill of a tree cricket has awakened 

 the echoes in the back yard of my city home. 



