14 What Birds .Have Done With Me 



big as old man Hill's, drawn by elephants, or 

 a little plow made out of a single piece of wood 

 drawn by a buffalo or a donkey, and driven by a 

 man practically naked. The small boy looked a 

 bit puzzled, but said, u Yes, thank you, sir," and 

 started to run to catch up with old man Hill, the 

 plow man, and Pete, the oxen driver. The lat- 

 ter now had a new cracker on his whip. As a 

 matter of fact, the urchin had not understood a 

 word that his father had said to him, but he was 

 conscious of a vague, troubled feeling, and when 

 the plow started again, he began to scrutinize the 

 living things turned up, to see if among them all, 

 there were any who would make good play-fel- 

 lows if he had to come and live in the ground with 

 them. 



If there is such a thing as the fascination of re- 

 pulsion, it would go far to explain the small boy's 

 increasing interest in the creatures from the under- 

 world, sent scurrying for safety in all directions, 

 or left helpless in the bottom of the furrow by 

 what may have seemed to them something a bit 

 like what an earthquake is to us. Ralph Waldo 

 Emerson emphasizes the fact, that "we see what 

 we look for," and each thing that he had noticed 

 in the fore-noon was multiplied by ten in the 

 afternoon. Ants, worms, grubs, beetles, swarmed 

 and one had a thousand legs, as sure as you are 

 alive. He found only two things that under any 



