FEBRUARY 295 



Bugs and locusts, cutworms and beetles, 

 form no small part of their food. For this 

 the farmer would be devoutly grateful did 

 they not demand such heavy pay in the 

 shape of corn and wheat and rye. Jim is 

 probably not learned in the matter of di- 

 astase and its power to turn starch to sugar, 

 but he has the practical side of that infor- 

 mation, for he knows that a few days after 

 corn has been planted it is delightfully 

 tender and sweet. This taste, more than 

 anything else, has been his ruin, and the 

 farmer is his uncompromising enemy. 



THE WINTER ASSEMBLY 



When fall comes, ^the charm of married 

 life wanes and he drifts back into disrepu- 

 table ways again. Joining himself with 

 other fellows of the baser sort, they form 

 crowds of hundreds or even thousands. 

 Seizing on some isolated grove on the moun- 

 tains for their refuge, they sally forth in 

 great flocks early each morning. 



Many a dweller in the towns, as he begins 

 the slow process of waking in a winter 



