10 WOODLAND IDYLS. 



down the side of the oak tree on my right. Two 

 or three times he pauses and gazes at the tent, 

 wondering, perchance, what kind of a queer 

 monster has suddenly appeared within the con- 

 fines of his daily hunting grounds. Then, with 

 a final "kah-kah," he is up and away. 



I walk over to the boulder glade and on the 

 way three species of Locustidae or katydids im- 

 press themselves upon my consciousness; first 

 a fork-tailed katydid, 5 arising from the grass 

 along the border of the pathway and shuffling 

 its way in aimless zigzag* fashion to the shelter 

 of some shrub; second, the sound of a true or 

 broad-winged katydid, 6 which methinks is work- 

 ing over time sounding his cymbals at near mid- 

 day when the scorching sun of an August morn 

 is beating down around him ; I third, a male of 

 the oblique-winged katydid, 7 silent as usual, sit- 

 ting motionless on the side of a boulder, wait- 

 ing for what? For a mate to share his exist- 

 ence ? For the coming of nightfall to sound his 

 " tic-tic " love call, or for the unknown and un- 

 knowable to fathom his being and remove him 

 into that "life beyond" where all good katy- 

 dids sojourn? 



I trust that the boulder genii will not become 

 jealous because I have pitched my tent on Oak 

 Point, and fail to appear when here I seat my- 

 self during the days to come. For often shall 



6 Scudderia curvicauda DeG. 6 Cyrtophyllus perspicillatus L. 



7 MICT ocentrum laurifolium L. 



