ground looks dreary in winter, the _black_ ground looks hideous in
summer; for the hot sun turns the grass black, and fills the air with
black dust, and there are no shady groves, no cool hills, no refreshing
brooks. There must, indeed, be a _little_ shade among the thistles, as
they grow to twice the height of a man; but how different is such shade
from the shade of spreading oaks like ours! Instead of nice fruit, there
is bitter wormwood growing among the grass, and when the cows eat it,
their milk becomes bitter.

WILD ANIMALS.--The most common, is a pretty little creature called the
sooslik. It is very much like a squirrel.

But can it live where squirrels live,--in the hollows of trees? Where are
the trees in the steppe? The sooslik makes a house for itself by digging
a hole in the ground, just as rabbits do in England. Will it not surprise
you to hear that wolves follow the same plan, and even the wild dogs? The
houses the dogs make are very convenient, for the entrance is very
narrow, and there is plenty of room below.

There are some very odious animals on the steppe. Snakes and toads. Yes,
showers of toads sometimes fall. But neither snakes nor toads are as
great a plague as locusts. These little animals, not bigger than a
child's thumb, are more to be dreaded than a troop of wolves. And why?
Because they come in such immense numbers. The eggs lie hid in the ground
all the winter. O if it were known _where_ they were concealed, they
would soon be destroyed. But no one knows where they are till they are
hatched. In the first warm days of spring the young animals come forth,
and immediately they begin crawling on the ground in one immense flock,
eating up all the grass as they pass along; in a month they can fly, and
then they darken the air like a thick cloud; wherever any green appears,