Music of the Wild 



florists are a cluster of bare twigs in winter. AVhen 

 the pods open, the membranes incasing the seed 

 are briglit carmine, exactly tlie shade of the inner 

 hning of Ehon//mus ximericanus. 



The shrubs and bushes l)eside these old fences 

 are tenanted from leaf to ground with life, and 

 What did a volume of sound arises constantly from earth in 

 Katydo? -j-]^^ summer time. The clearest enuuciator and the 

 handsomest insect of all is the katy-did. What a 

 very, very delightful thing it must have been that 

 Katy did! How her descendants rejoice in telling 

 it over and o^er. It of necessity had to l)e some- 

 thing wonderfully fine. In all the world there is 

 not enough rancor to sing of an evil deed adown 

 all time since tJie morning of creation. But this 

 charming tiling that Katy did has been celebrated 

 from the beginning, and will be to the end. Surely 

 it was something big and broad, beneficial to all 

 her race, and the wide world as well — else why are 

 her minstrels forever celebrating her act? It had 

 to be something obvious, too; for while they con- 

 stantly affirm the deed, they never specify just 

 Avhat was done, and this neglect must arise from 

 the fact that they supjiose all of us know. I be- 

 lieve Katy was the first of her family to discover 

 sound and teach all of her relatives to voice the 

 fullness of their joy in life on their fiddles in such 

 exquisite measure and inflection that they deceive 

 most of us into tliinking it song. To have a-iven 



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