cculent stem close to the surface of the ground, above or below,
and leaves the wreck unutilized even by him. A comfort is that flight
is not his forte. He is generally to be found by the exploring
penknife or trowel close by the scene of his crime, and is thus easily
subjected to condign punishment. But his wife, family and friends
survive in different spots of the adjacent underworld, to give
evidence of their existence only in subsequent havoc. The titillative
rake or the peremptory hoe does not help you much in their discovery;
for their color is that of the soil, their size as various as that
of bits of gravel, and they are not easily perceptible to a cursory
glance from the ordinary height of the eye. Here is where keener
optics than yours, sharpened perhaps by a keener impulse--that of the
stomach--come to the rescue. The catbird, whose imploring mew you
listened to from your bed some time before thinking proper to respond
to it, is intently watching operations from the other end of the
border or the square. His lusty youngsters have been trained, after
the good old fashion, to early hours, and they are impatient for
breakfast. Their parent sees what you do not, and astonishes you by
suddenly pouncing upon a bit of earth you have just broken and seizing
a stout worm. This stranger, if presentable to the family circle, he
is at once off with, his spouse taking his place in the field. Or the
youngsters may still be _in futuro_. All the same: whatever turns up
is welcome to him. His appetite seems as insatiable as that of half a
dozen nestlings: they, you know, will eat three or four times their
own weight in twelve hours. He is thus immensely useful to you, but
your appreciation of that fact is as nothing to his estimate of your
value to him. He accepts you as a being sent for his benefit. You are
a part of his scheme of providence. True, he pities while he rejoices
over you. Your blindness and stupidity in not seeing the fat and
luscious tidbits he snaps up from almost beneath your feet is of
course a subject of wonder and disdain. But he learns to make
allowances for you, and comes to view your failings charitably,
especially as they enure to his benefit, and so lean to Virtue's side.
Fear of you he has none. Indeed, you inspire in him a certain sense of
protection, for in your presence his habitual vigilance is lulled, and
his apprehensive glances over his right and left shoulders fall to a
lower figure per minut