s,
which are provided with organs of hearing, but whose language is too fine
for our coarse perceptions. The vibrations--chirps, hums, and clicks--can
be recorded on delicate instruments, but, just as there are shades and
colours at both ends of the spectrum which our eyes cannot perceive, so
there are tones running we know not how far beyond the scale limits which
affect our ears. Some creatures utter noises so shrill, so sharp, that it
pains our ears to listen to them, and these are probably on the borderland
of our sound-world.

Pipe, little minstrels of the waning year,
In gentle concert pipe!
Pipe the warm noons; the mellow harvest near;
The apples dropping ripe;

The sweet sad hush on Nature's gladness laid;
The sounds through silence heard!
Pipe tenderly the passing of the year.
Harriet Mcewen Kimball.

I love to hear thine earnest voice,
Wherever thou art hid,
Thou testy little dogmatist,
Thou pretty Katydid!
Thou mindest me of gentlefolks,--
Old gentlefolks are they,--
Thou say'st an undisputed thing
In such a solemn way.
Oliver Wendell Holmes.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

AUGUST

------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE GRAY DAYS OF BIRDS

The temptation is great, if we love flowers, to pass over the seed time,
when stalks are dried and leaves are shrivelled, no matter how beautiful
may be the adaptation for scattering or preserving the seed or how
wonderful the protective coats guarding against cold or wet. Or if insects
attract us by their many varied interests, we are more enthusiastic over
the glories of the full-winged image than the less conspicuous, though no
less interesting, eggs and chrysalides hidden away in crevices throughout
the long winter.

Thus there seems always a time when we hesitate to talk or write of our
favourite theme, especially if this be some class of life on the earth,
because, perchance, it is not at its best.

Even birds have their gray days, when in the autumn the glory of their
plumage and song has diminished. At this time few of their human admirers
intrude upon