142 UNDER THE OPEN SKY 



in seventeen years, arriving in June and 

 lasting into July. The truth of the matter 

 is, it takes seventeen years to make him. 

 Before his exact period had been recognized, 

 his coming, like that of the comets and all 

 other unexpected events, was considered to 

 presage war. This was all the more clear 

 inasmuch as his front wings carry a very 

 plain W, and what else could this mean? 

 We now know that during the sixteen 

 intervening years he lives under the 

 ground, without wings, and thus escapes 

 our notice. 



The mother locust cuts light slits in the 

 tender bark of the ends of the limbs of trees 

 and in them lays her eggs. She thus- in- 

 jures the wood, and soon the twig dies and 

 hangs down. The next high wind breaks 

 it off and it falls to the earth. By this time 

 the eggs have hatched, and the young 

 locust, not yet looking at all like his mother, 

 creeps into the earth. Here he goes through 

 a very slow growth and development, feed- 

 ing occasionally on tender roots. By the 

 summer of the seventeenth year he is ready 



