THE BEAUTIFUL LADDER. 195 
plenty for my own wants, and enough to spare 
in generous supplies to the afflicted oqes—a 
thought which gave me great pleasure. Alas! 
how soon the vision changed! About the 
middle of the afternoon a sudden dimness ap¬ 
peared in the north-west, which I at first mis¬ 
took for a rising cloud. Anon, it grew darker 
and darker, and came on apace with the noise 
and gloom of a thunder-cloud ; and, alas! with 
more fatal effects than had ever followed the 
rush of the hurricane. It was the terrible army, 
or rather the living storm, of grasshoppers. 
The cloud was so vast and thick that the sun 
was obscured, and fate so ordered that they 
should settle upon my promise-burdened fields. 
They covered the ground in such numbers that 
they could be shovelled up as one would shovel 
grain. All weapons were powerless against 
such a foe, and we could only seek shelter from 
personal harm, and despairingly witness the 
destruction of all our hopes; and a completer 
ruin was never inflicted. When another morn¬ 
ing returned nothing remained of the rich 
promise of the day before ; all was gone, stalk 
and branch, leaf and ear, and my fields were as 
bare as the bleakest desert of Arabia.’ 
