5 6 FROM SPRING TO FALL. 



Wiggins, — ef you don't 'zactly 'member sich a time 

 as this 'ere afore, I do. Weather like this 'twas 

 when I was married ; some of the folks went chou- 

 terin' about, poor silly critters, sayin' as how the 

 fust sign of the end were cum, fur the world, was 

 to pass away in a great heat. But it didn't ; an' 

 here I be now, grandmother to a rare lot on 'em. 

 There was alius a seed-time an' harvest, an' there 

 will be, for the book says it. We'll get rain when 

 the time cums." 



Day by day the heat increased; after a time 

 green places exposed to the fierce rays of the sun 

 lost their freshness, changed to brown withered 

 patches, and remained so, — no food or shelter there, 

 even for a mouse. A certain amount of moisture 

 is necessary for the development of insect life in 

 all its various forms ; and birds and animals follow 

 their food-supply. Where streams run through the 

 woods covered over by the underwood and grass 

 tangle ; where the water in ordinary seasons forms 

 small pools in the water-meadows — dry often on 

 the surface, but moist enough below — there are 

 the places in which to look for natural life. If 

 you know the run and lay of water, whether in 



