ALONG FOUR-FOOTED TRAILS 



grasshoppers that had straggled on behind the 

 main body and were alighting faster and faster, 

 it seemed to her, into her fathers fields and 

 even invading her own little garden that she 

 had spent so many hours in hoeing and weed- 

 ing. They fell so thick under the wide leather 

 belt of the harvester that Ella's father could 

 not cut any more of his grain, but stood help- 

 less with his neighbors watching the greedy in- 

 sects destroy most of his year's work. Ella 

 feared there would be no corn or grain to feed 

 the horses, cattle and pigs when the cold winter 

 should come. And her dear little lambs that 

 were growing to be big woolly sheep; she 

 could never see them starve ! No never ! She 

 was sure she could have no new dress or warm 

 coat for winter, and it had been three years 

 since she had had a new winter dress or coat. 

 It was all too much, and the poor little western 

 girl cried herself to sleep. 



The great horde of grasshoppers staid on the 

 ground the remainder of that day and night. 

 The following morning as soon as the hot sun 

 dried away the heavy dew of the previous night 

 the grasshoppers began to rise, much to the re- 



