THINGS TO HEAR THIS SUMMER 55 



crows and jays have already begun their cawings 

 and screamings that later on become the dominant 

 notes of the golden autumn. They are not so loud 

 and characteristic now because of the insect orchestra 

 throbbing with a rhythmic beat through the air. So 

 wide, constant, and long-continued is this throbbing 

 note of the insects that by midsummer you almost 

 cease to notice it. But stop and listen field crick- 

 ets, katydids, long-horned grasshoppers, snowy tree- 

 crickets : chwl-chici-chwi-chwi thrr-r-r-r-r-r-r 

 crrri-crrri-crrri'Crrri gru-gru-gru-gru retreat- 

 retreat -retreat -treat -treat like the throbbing of 

 the pulse. 



XII 



One can do no more than suggest in a short chap- 

 ter like this ; and all that I am doing here is catch- 

 ing for you some of the still, small voices of my 

 summer. How unlike those of your summer they 

 may be I can easily imagine, for you are in the 

 Pacific Coast, or off on the vast prairies of Canada, 

 or down in the sunny fields and hill-country of the 

 South. 



I have done enough if I have suggested that you 

 stop and listen ; for after all it is having ears which 

 hear not that causes the trouble. Hear the voices 

 that make your summer vocal the loud and still 

 voices which alike pass unheeded unless we pause to 

 hear. 



