Lucifer s and the Poets. 259 



out from their dormitories on the boughs the katy-did. 

 "Yank," falters the one. " Katy did" replies the other. 

 And thereupon the spell is broken. 



As if by some talisman, the charm of the enchanted sleep 

 is snapped, and in an instant there grows upon the air such 

 a volume of sound as beggars language. The fatal word 

 of the fairy-story is spoken, and on the instant the tem- 

 pests rage. Every inch of swamp has its " mud-compeller " 

 in full song, every inch of forest overhead its katy-did in 

 ceaseless clamour, assailing and pursuing the flying train. 

 It sounds as if the whole country were screeching and jeer- 

 ing at the carriages as they fly by. Stop thief ! stop thief ! 

 Katy-^ / Yank ! Yank ! 



No wonder Greece thought of the frog as it did ! We 

 in England know nothing of the "damnable iteration" of 

 its multitudinous rioting. But Arkansas does. Like the 

 stars past counting, and the wrinkles on the sea beyond 

 arithmetic, the pen shrinks from description of the din. It 

 is like launching on " the tenth wave " for an infinite nata- 

 tion upon cycles of floods. The subject is impossible ; for 

 the air vibrates, throbs, seems bursting, and ready to crack 

 with, the soulless metallic babel of the frogs. Yank ! Yank ! 

 Yank ! And yet through it, over it, under it, all round it, 

 shrills supreme the strident cry of the cicadas, without 

 number and without shame, countless katy-dids swearing 

 their confidences to all the reluctant stars. It is no use 

 trying to talk in" 1 the carriage ; all you hear is " Yank ! 

 Katy-did ! Yank ! Yank ! Katy-drtf." 



It was enough to make Arkansas a memory for ever. And 

 yet, whenever I remember that most strange railway journey, 

 it is neither swamp, nor frog, nor katy-did that first recurs 

 to me, but the fireflies. The black night, with its glistening 

 pools, its interminable clamour of brazen-throated batrachians 

 and tin-lunged cicadas are forgotten, while recollection con- 

 jures up afresh that miracle of the lantern-bearing myriads. 



