she was sad—very sad. A new, unknown depression weighed her down. It grew steadily, something was happening, something constant and mournful—what? Suddenly she knew. It was a steady, recurrent noise, a buzzing, monotonous click. Now it rose, now it fell, accentuating the silence dense about it.
"Zig-a-zig! Zig-a-zig!" then a rest.
"Zig-a-zig! Ziz-a-zig-a-zig!"
"Wha's 'at?" she said.
"That? Oh, those are katydids. I s'pose you never heard 'em, that's a fact. Kind o' cozy, I think. Don't you like 'em?"
"Naw."
Another long silence intervened. Mr. Slater snored, William smoked, and the monotonous clamor was uninterrupted.
"Zig-a-zig! Zig-zig! Zig-a-zig-a-zig!"
Slowly, against the background of this machine-like clicking, there grew other sounds, weird, unhappy, far away.
"Wheep, wheep, wheep!"