102 WOODLAND IDYLS. 



ence in appearance, even to a bird 's eye, between 

 a man and a stump. Moreover, stumps do not 

 grow in a single night where never was one 

 before. 



I thought a human yodelled for me but it was 

 only a mosquito humming to my ear. 



The wind soughs through the trees on the hill- 

 tops with a great roar, but here in the valley 

 there is scarce the semblance of a breeze. Thus 

 are those humans high up tempest tossed while 

 those who dwell in lowly places live lives of 

 peace far removed from the great storm centers 

 of human endeavor. 



How varied are the forms of insect life which 

 these June days prey one upon the other or 

 upon the plants on which they dwell. All seven 

 of the great orders of such life are represented 

 within a two yards radius of where I sit. Mos- 

 quitoes, craneflies, gnats and midges represent 

 the Diptera or two-winged flies. A snapping 

 beetle crawling up a twig and a small leaf beetle 

 on a May-apple, the Coleoptera. A caterpillar 

 swinging lazily from suspended silken thread 

 and a Neonympha flitting ever close to earth, 

 the Lepidoptera. Great green bodied dragon- 

 flies hawking up and down the near-by stream 

 and a lace-winged fly creeping daintily along 

 the underside of a walnut leaf are both mem- 

 bers of the order Neuroptera. A half dozen 

 species of Hemiptera I see, largest of which, on 



