---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - J. L. Townsend
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 8
number: 9
published: 1905-07
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'J. L. Townsend, "The Sea Gulls and the Crickets," *Improvement Era* 8, no. 9 (July 1905): 656–658.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0809unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera0809unse
start_page: 656
end_page: 658
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1905-07)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0809unse
  publication_year: 1905
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1905, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# The Sea Gulls and the Crickets

<!-- page:656 -->

—
THE SEA GULLS AND THE CRICKETS.
          (For the Improvement Era.)
     With promise of abundant yield
     Lay ev'ry garden, ev'ry field,
     A smiling 'neath the summer sun,
     Where pioneers a home had won.
     Above, the Wasatch towered in might:
     Below, the Great Salt Lake was bright:
     And o'er the foothills far away
     The sage brush spread its sombre gray,
     To where the opalescent blue
     Of distant ranges closed the view.
     The parched desert ne'er had known
     A harvest where the seed was sown:
     And carefully each precious seed
     By faith was sown in time of need:
     For, weary months of want had worn
     Away each scanty store of corn,
     And yet a thousand miles of plain
     Lay in between the fields of grain
     There by Iowa's   hill   and dale,
     And these new grain fields of the vale.
     On bulbs and roots, on fish and game, —
     Awaiting till the harvest came,
     From nature's storehouse spread around,
     Full many their subsistence found;
     Yet naught man's appetite has led
     Away from yearning for his bread;

<!-- page:657 -->

——
THE SEA GULLS AND THE CRICKETS.                 657
  And hope of harvest filled each breast
  Within these new homes of the West.
  No thought of danger lurking near
  Aroused a dream or qualm of fear:
  And e'en where poverty held sway
  Contentment ruled each happy day:
  And toil and thrift, gave hope full cheer
  With its reward of harvest near.
  Then, mustered by some evil head
  A foe to fill the homes with dread
  From out the foothills all along
  The crickets swept, a countless throng,
  The verdure lay before them green,
  Behind 'twas like a fire-swept scene.
  And as thev neared the fields of grain
  The settlers fought them might and main,
  Till unavailing efforts gave
  The proof that none their crops could save.
  In many a trouble, doubt and care,
  The Saints had learned the power of prayer;
  In many an answer God had given,
  They learned to put their trust in Heaven;
   And solemn prayers of deep distress
  Arose then in the wilderness,
  And God was asked, while faith held sway,
  To drive the hordes of foes away,
  Aad save the crops, by his strong hand,
  To keep a famine from the land.
  Lo! then, a wonder in the skies
  To them glad vision brought surprise!
  Above the low horizon's bound,
  With wings all fluttering round and round,
  In cloud-like flocks, the sea gulls flew,
  In their migration strange and new;
  And myriads over all the land,
  As if they came at God's command,
  Sought for the crickets, as was meet,

<!-- page:658 -->

€58                              IMPROVEMENT ERA.
                      And ate as though compelled to eat,
                      And ate, disgorged, and ate, till then
                      Disgorged, they ate, and ate again;
                      Till,   at the sunset, they took flight,
                      And o'er the lake passed out of sight.
                  Again, each morning they returned,
                      As i^about the task concerned
                      Of clearing all the land so clean
                  That not a cricket could be seen.
                  The birds were tame. 'Twas very clear
                  Of men they yet had formed no fear:             .
                  They came about the cottage door,
                  'Mid scenes unknown to them before,
                  And children played with them in glee,
                  Yet left them undisturbed and free.
                      And to this day, the Saints believe
                      The sea gulls came here to achieve
                      A rescue from impending woes
                      Of famine, that these insect foes
                      Most surely would have made, that day,
                      Had not God's power swept them away.
                      And so the law's protecting care
                      Gives to the gulls an ample share;
                      And gratitude we give most fair
                      These winged pilgrims of the air.
                                                            J.   L.   Townsend.
      Payson,JUtah.