What Do You Hear?

Two men were walking along a crowded sidewalk in a downtown business area.  Suddenly one exclaimed:  "listen to the lovely sound of that cricket."  But the other could not hear.  He asked his companion how he could detect the sound of a cricket amid the din of people and traffic.  The first man, who was a zoologist, had trained himself to listen to the voices of nature.  But he didn't explain.  He simply took a coin out of his pocket and dropped it to the sidewalk, whereupon a dozen people began to look about them.  We hear," he said, "what we listen for."

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-Kermit L. Long