ABSTRACT
There was once a town in the heart of america where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings. The town lay in the midst of a checkerboard of prosperous farms, with fields of grain and hillsides of orchards where, in spring, white clouds of bloom drifted above the green fields. … Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything began to change. … There was a strange stillness. … The few birds seen anywhere were moribund. … It was a spring without voices.
