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, TI 
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- 
3 
