CRICKETS OF THE FIELD. 9! 



house, with all kinds of music. The trumpet and the 

 drum were rather more than the cricket could cry 

 down ; and whether from fright, or from anger at being 

 conquered, it is not certain ; but certain it is that 

 crickets never again troubled the house or the lady. 

 There are few, however, who object to the cry; for 

 over the hearts of most men the merry chirp of the 

 house cricket has power, calling up those days when 

 its single note was mingled with many a voice which 

 will not, perhaps, be heard again. 



The learned Scaliger, who lived in Italy more than 

 three hundred years ago, kept some crickets in a box 

 to cheer him in his labors. This practice also prevails 

 in Spain ; and in Africa persons make a trade of crick- 

 ets. They feed them in a kind of iron oven, and sell 

 them to the natives, among whom the noise they make 

 is thought to be pleasing; and these people believe 

 that it assists in lulling them to sleep. 



22. CRICKETS OF THE FIELD. 



WHILE taking our evening rambles over the field, we 

 sometimes hear the cheerful summer cry of the field 

 cricket. But they are so sly and cautious, says White, 

 that it is difficult to obtain sight of one of these sonor- 

 ous animals ; for, feeling a person's footsteps as he ad- 

 vances, they stop short in the midst of their song, and 

 retire backward, nimbly into their burrows, until all 

 suspicion of danger is over. 



