I 



THE LURE OF KARTABO 



A HOUSE may be inherited, as when a wren 

 rears its brood in turn within its own natal hol- 

 low; or one may build a new home such as is 

 fashioned from year to year by gaunt and shad- 

 owy herons; or we may have it built to order, 

 as do the drones of the wild jungle bees. In my 

 case, I flitted like a hermit crab from one used 

 shell to another. This little crustacean, living 

 his oblique life in the shallows, changes doorways 

 when his home becomes too small or hinders him 

 in searching for the things which he covets in 

 life. The difference between our estates was 

 that the hermit crab sought only for food, I 

 chiefly for strange new facts which was a dis- 

 tinction as trivial as that he achieved his desires 

 sideways and on eight legs, while I traversed my 

 environment usually forward and generally on 

 two. 



The word of finance went forth and demanded 

 the felling of the second growth around Kala- 



