ROCKY MOUNTAIN GRASSHOPPERS 



when the lonely little girl, without a playmate 

 or child companion, had moved about and tried 

 to have them play with her and her doll. 



It was three o'clock in the afternoon of one 

 of the last days in July. Ella was sitting on the 

 ground in the shade of the corn-stalks watch- 

 ing a pair of catbirds feeding grasshoppers to 

 their young. They had built a nest in a plum- 

 thicket near by. Each of the birds by turn 

 taok a fat grasshopper in its stout beak and 

 beat it against the ground until it became a soft 

 mass, then flew to the edge of the nest and 

 dropped it into the wide open mouth of one of 

 their little ones. In this way, in company with 

 the robins, meadowlarks and other birds of 

 the plains, they destroy large numbers of grass- 

 hoppers each day. 



A gray cloud seemed to pass between the 

 sun and earth; the father catbird, thinking the 

 sunset hour was approaching, perched on a twig 

 near the nest and began to sing one of his sweet 

 mimic songs. Ella's father and two of his 

 neighbors were cutting the golden wheat when 

 they, too, noticed the approaching gloom. It 

 grew darker and darker. Ella became frightened 



