Dillard stands in a meadow replete with grasshoppers of all sizes and colors. They fling against her and then away in frenzied fear. Dillard wonders what would happen if the grasshoppers were locusts, and she stood in the midst of them as the first man. For centuries, no one understood how the locusts appear and disappear so suddenly. A Russian botanist solved the puzzle in discovering that locusts are merely grasshoppers under stress. Eggs laid by locusts become ordinary grasshoppers, unless they are born in a drought or famine. The noise and destruction millions of locusts produce is incredible. Dillard walks through the meadow, startling grasshoppers. She realizes she has very little impact on any of the creatures, mountains, or creek around her.
It is late summer, and Dillard is spending the night at.....
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