CATCHING GRASSHOPPERS 113 



some cling to the stems, some are creeping under 

 the leaves, and not one seems to be in reach. 

 You step again; another flight takes place, and 

 you eye them with a fierce penetration as if you 

 could catch some one with your eye. You can- 

 not though. You brush the grass with your feet 

 again. Another hundred snap out, and tumble 

 about in every direction. At length you see a 

 very nice young fellow climbing a steeple stem. 

 You take good aim and grab at him. You catch 

 the spire, but he has jumped a safe rod. Yonder 

 is another, creeping among some delicate ferns. 

 With broad palm you clutch him and all the 

 neighbouring herbage too. Stealthily opening 

 your little finger you see his leg ; the next finger 

 reveals more of him; and opening the next you 

 are just beginning to take him out with the other 

 hand, when out he bounds and leaves you to 

 renew your entomological pursuits. Twice you 

 snatch handfuls of grass, and cautiously open 

 your palm to find that you have only grass. It 

 is quite vexatious. There are thousands of them 

 here and there, climbing and wriggling on that 

 blade, leaping off from that stalk, twisting and 

 kicking on that spider's web, jumping and 

 bouncing about under your very nose, hitting 

 you in your face, creeping on your shoes, and 

 yet not one do you get. If any tender-hearted 

 person ever wondered how a humane man could 

 bring himself to such cruelty as to impale an 

 insect, let him hunt for a grasshopper on a hot 

 day among tall grass, and when at length he 

 secures one, the affixing him upon the hook will 

 be done without a single scruple, and as a mere 

 matter of penal justice and with judicial 

 solemnity." 



