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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Tale of Chirpy Cricket, by Arthur Scott
+Bailey
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Tale of Chirpy Cricket
+
+
+Author: Arthur Scott Bailey
+
+
+
+Release Date: July 1, 2008  [eBook #25943]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF CHIRPY CRICKET***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Roger Frank and the Project Gutenberg Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 25943-h.htm or 25943-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/5/9/4/25943/25943-h/25943-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/5/9/4/25943/25943-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+Sleepy-Time Tales
+(Trademark Registered)
+
+THE TALE OF CHIRPY CRICKET
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Chirpy Discovers Mr. Cricket Frog. (Page 77)]
+
+
+
+New York
+Grosset & Dunlap
+Publishers
+
+Copyright, 1920, by
+Grosset & Dunlap
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                               PAGE
+      I  The Fiddler                     1
+     II  Quick and Easy                  6
+    III  The Bumblebee Family           10
+     IV  Too Much Music                 15
+      V  A Light in the Dark            20
+     VI  A Plan Goes Wrong              24
+    VII  Johnnie Green's Guest          30
+   VIII  Pleasing Johnnie Green         35
+     IX  An Interrupted Nap             40
+      X  Caught!                        44
+     XI  A Queer, New Cousin            48
+    XII  An Underground Chat            52
+   XIII  A Question of Feet             57
+    XIV  Chirpy is Careful              61
+     XV  Tommy Tree Cricket             66
+    XVI  A Long Wait                    71
+   XVII  Sitting on a Lily-Pad          76
+  XVIII  Mr. Cricket Frog's Trick       81
+    XIX  It Wasn't Thunder              86
+     XX  Bound to be Different          91
+    XXI  Mr. Nighthawk Explains         96
+   XXII  Harmless Mr. Meadow Mouse     101
+  XXIII  A Wail in the Dark            107
+   XXIV  Frightening Simon Screecher   112
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE TALE OF
+CHIRPY CRICKET
+
+I
+
+THE FIDDLER
+
+
+If Chirpy Cricket had begun to make music earlier in the summer perhaps
+he wouldn't have given so much time to fiddling in Farmer Green's
+farmyard. Everybody admitted that Chirpy was the most musical insect in
+the whole neighborhood. And it seemed as if he tried his hardest to crowd
+as much music as possible into a few weeks, though he had been silent
+enough during all the spring.
+
+He had dug himself a hole in the ground, under some straw that was
+scattered near the barn; and every night, from midsummer on, he came out
+and made merry.
+
+But in the daytime he was usually quiet as a mouse, sitting inside his
+hole and doing nothing at all except to wait patiently until it should be
+dark again, so that he might crawl forth from his hiding place and take
+up his music where he had left it unfinished the night before.
+
+Somehow he always knew exactly where to begin. Although he carried no
+sheets of music with him, he never had to stop and wonder what note to
+begin on, for the reason that he always fiddled on the same one.
+
+When rude people asked Chirpy Cricket--as they did now and then--why he
+didn't change his tune, he always replied that a person couldn't change
+anything without taking time. And since he expected to make only a short
+stay in Pleasant Valley he didn't want to fritter away any precious
+moments.
+
+Chirpy Cricket's neighbors soon noticed that he carried his fiddle with
+him everywhere he went. And the curious ones asked him a question.
+"Why"--they inquired--"why are you forever taking your fiddle with you?"
+
+And Chirpy Cricket reminded them that the summer would be gone almost
+before anybody knew it. He said that when he wanted to play a tune he
+didn't intend to waste any valuable time hunting for his fiddle.
+
+Now, all that was true enough. But it was just as true that he couldn't
+have left his fiddle at home anyhow. Chirpy made his music with his two
+wings. He rubbed a file-like ridge of one on a rough part of the other.
+So his fiddle--if you could call it by that name--just naturally had to
+go wherever he did.
+
+_Cr-r-r-i! cr-r-r-i! cr-r-r-i!_ When that shrill sound, all on one note,
+rang out in the night everybody that heard it knew that Chirpy Cricket
+was sawing out his odd music. And the warmer the night the faster he
+played. He liked warm weather. Somehow it seemed to make him feel
+especially lively.
+
+People who wanted to be disagreeable were always remarking in Chirpy
+Cricket's hearing that they hoped there would be an early frost. They
+thought of course he would know they were tired of his music and wished
+he would keep still.
+
+But such speeches only made him fiddle the faster. "An early frost!" he
+would exclaim. "I must hurry if I'm to finish my summer's fiddling."
+
+Now, Chirpy had dozens and dozens of relations living in holes of their
+own, in the farmyard or the fields. And the gentlemen were all musical.
+Like him, they were fiddlers. Somehow fiddling ran in their family. So on
+warm nights, during the last half of the summer, there was sure to be a
+Crickets' concert.
+
+Sometimes it seemed to Johnnie Green, who lived in the farmhouse, as if
+Chirpy Cricket and his relations were trying to drown the songs of the
+musical Frog family, over in the swamp.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+QUICK AND EASY
+
+
+Of course Chirpy Cricket didn't spend all his time merely sitting quietly
+in his hole, in the daytime--and fiddling every night. Of course he had
+to eat. And each night he was in the habit of creeping out of his hole
+and gathering spears of grass in Farmer Green's yard, which he carried
+home with him.
+
+He called that "doing his marketing." And it was lucky for him that he
+liked grass, there was so much of it to be had. All he had to do was to
+step outside his door; and there it was, all around him! It made
+housekeeping an easy matter and left him plenty of time, every night, to
+fiddle and frolic.
+
+Somehow Chirpy could never go from one place to another in a slow, sober
+walk. He always moved by leaps, as if he felt too gay to plod along like
+Daddy Longlegs, for instance. Chirpy himself often remarked that he
+hadn't time to move slowly. And almost before he had finished speaking,
+as likely as not he would jump into the air and alight some distance
+away. It was all done so quickly that a person could scarcely see how it
+happened. But Chirpy Cricket said it was as easy as anything. And having
+leaped like that, often he would begin to shuffle his wings together the
+moment he landed on the ground, thereby making his shrill music.
+
+Many of his neighbors declared that he believed a short life and a merry
+one was the best kind. And when they thought of Timothy Turtle, who was
+so old that nobody could even guess his age, and was so disagreeable and
+snappish that every one kept out of his way, the neighbors decided that
+possibly Chirpy Cricket's way was the better of the two. Anyhow, there
+was no doubt that Timothy Turtle believed in a long life and a grumpy
+one.
+
+All Chirpy's relations were of the same mind as he. They acted as if they
+would rather make the nights ring with their music than do anything else.
+And Johnnie Green said one evening, when he heard Solomon Owl hooting
+over in the hemlock woods, that it was lucky there weren't as many Owls
+as there were Crickets in the valley.
+
+If there were hundreds--or maybe thousands--of Owls, and they all hooted
+at the same time, there'd be no sleeping for anybody. At least that was
+Johnnie Green's opinion. And it does seem a reasonable one.
+
+Chirpy Cricket's nearest relations all looked exactly like him. Everybody
+said that the Crickets bore a strong family resemblance to one another.
+But there were others--more distant cousins--that were quite unlike
+Chirpy. There were the Mole Crickets, who stayed in the ground and never,
+never came to the surface; and there were the Tree Crickets, who lived in
+the trees and fiddled _re-teat! re-teat re-teat!_ until you might have
+thought they would get tired of their ditty.
+
+But they never did. They seemed to like their music as much as Chirpy
+Cricket liked his _cr-r-r-i! cr-r-r-i! cr-r-r-i!_
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE BUMBLEBEE FAMILY
+
+
+The farmyard was not the first place that Chirpy Cricket chose for his
+home. Before he dug himself a hole under the straw near the barn he had
+settled in the pasture. Although the cows seemed to think that the grass
+in the pasture belonged to them alone, Chirpy decided that there ought to
+be enough for him too, if he didn't eat too much.
+
+He had been living in the pasture some time before he discovered that a
+very musical family had come to live next door to him. They were known as
+the Bumblebees; and there were dozens of them huddled into a hole long
+since deserted by some Woodchucks that had moved to other quarters.
+
+Although they were said to be great workers--most of them!--the Bumblebee
+family found plenty of time to make music. They were very fond of
+humming. And in the beginning Chirpy Cricket thought their humming a
+pleasant sound to hear, as he sat in his dark hole during the daytime.
+
+"They're having a party in there!" he said, the first time he noticed the
+droning music. "No doubt"--he added--"no doubt they're enjoying a
+dance!"
+
+The thought made him feel so jolly that if it had only been dark out of
+doors he would have left his home and leaped about in the pasture.
+
+All that day, between naps, Chirpy could hear the humming. "It's
+certainly a long party!" he exclaimed, when he awoke late in the
+afternoon and heard the Bumblebee family still making music. But about
+sunset their humming stopped. And Chirpy Cricket couldn't help feeling a
+bit disappointed, because he had hoped to enjoy a dance himself, to the
+Bumblebees' music when he left his home that evening.
+
+A little later he told his favorite cousin about the party that had
+lasted all day. And Chirpy said that he supposed the Bumblebees had only
+one party a year, because he understood that most of them were great
+workers, and he didn't believe they would care to spend a whole day
+humming, very often.
+
+The favorite cousin gave Chirpy a strange look in the moonlight. And then
+he began to fiddle, making no remark whatsoever. He thought there was no
+use wasting words on a fine, warm night--just the sort of night for a
+lively _cr-r-r-i! cr-r-r-i! cr-r-r-i!_
+
+Chirpy Cricket lost no time in getting his own fiddle to working. And
+each of them really believed he was himself making most of the music that
+was heard in the pasture.
+
+Once in a while Chirpy Cricket and his cousin stopped to eat a little
+grass, or paused to carry a few spears into their holes, because they
+liked to have something to nibble on in the daytime. But they always
+returned to their fiddling again; and they never stopped for good until
+almost morning.
+
+But at last Chirpy Cricket announced that he would make no more music
+that night.
+
+"I'll go home now," he said. "I expect to have a good day's rest. And
+I'll meet you at this same spot to-morrow night for a little fiddling."
+
+"I'll be here," his favorite cousin promised.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+TOO MUCH MUSIC
+
+
+It was just beginning to grow light in the east when Chirpy Cricket
+crawled into his hole in the pasture, after his fiddling with his
+favorite cousin. Having spent a good deal of the previous day in
+listening to the humming of the musical Bumblebee family, who lived next
+door to him, Chirpy was more than ready to rest.
+
+All was quiet at that hour of the morning, except for the creaky fiddling
+of a relation of Chirpy's who didn't appear to know that it was time to
+go home. But Chirpy Cricket didn't mind that. Fiddling never bothered
+him.
+
+He never knew whether he had fallen asleep or not. He may have been only
+day-dreaming. Anyhow, all at once he noticed a rumbling sound, which grew
+louder and louder as he listened.
+
+"They're at it again!" Chirpy Cricket exclaimed. "The Bumblebee family
+have begun their music. I do hope they aren't going to have another
+all-day party, for I don't want my rest disturbed."
+
+But he soon found that the Bumblebees were not tuning up for nothing.
+Before long they were humming and buzzing away as if they hadn't a care
+in the world.
+
+"I declare,"--Chirpy cried, although there was no one but himself to
+hear--"I declare, they're dancing again! It can't be long after sunrise,
+either. And no doubt they won't stop till sunset."
+
+He began to feel very much upset. He could understand why people should
+want to make music by night, and hop about in a lively fashion, too. But
+by day--ah! that was another matter.
+
+Being unable to rest, on account of the uproar from the Bumblebees'
+house, Chirpy crept out of his door and stood blinking in the pasture.
+Soon he noticed a plump person sitting on a head of clover which the cows
+had overlooked. Chirpy couldn't see clearly who he was, coming up out of
+the darkness as he had. But he was glad there was somebody to talk to,
+anyhow.
+
+"Good morning!" he greeted the person on the clover-top, adding in a
+lower tone, "They're a queer family--those Bumblebees!"
+
+To his great dismay, the person to whom he had spoken began to buzz. And
+leaping nearer him, in order to see him better, Chirpy Cricket discovered
+that he had been talking to Buster Bumblebee! Buster was a blundering,
+good-natured chap. And to Chirpy's relief, instead of getting angry he
+merely laughed.
+
+"I didn't mean to hurt your feelings," Chirpy told him. "If I'm
+disagreeable this morning, it's because I need a good rest. And your
+family's humming disturbs me."
+
+"Why do you think we're queer?" Buster asked him.
+
+"Don't you call it a bit odd--having a dance at this time of day?"
+
+"Bless you! They're not dancing in there!" Buster Bumblebee cried.
+"That's the workers storing away the honey. They're always buzzing like
+that. Perhaps you didn't know that our honey-makers can't work without
+being noisy. To tell the truth, they wake me every morning. And often I'd
+rather sleep."
+
+"Will they keep this racket up all summer?" Chirpy inquired.
+
+"On all pleasant days!" Buster Bumblebee said.
+
+"Then," said Chirpy Cricket, "I'll have to move to a quieter
+neighborhood. This humming every day would soon drive me frantic."
+
+"I don't blame you," Buster Bumblebee told him. "I've often felt that way
+myself."
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+A LIGHT IN THE DARK
+
+
+Chirpy Cricket preferred the dark to the day. He was quite different from
+Jennie Junebug and Mehitable Moth, who dearly loved a light at night, and
+would dash joyously into any they saw.
+
+There was only one light that Chirpy Cricket was always glad to see. He
+thought Freddie Firefly's flashes looked very cheerful as they twinkled
+about the farmyard. And he often told Freddie that he would be willing to
+linger above ground in the daytime now and then, if only Freddie would
+stay with him and make merry with his light.
+
+But Freddie Firefly knew enough to decline the invitation. He was well
+aware that nobody could see his light when the sun was shining. And he
+was afraid that other merrymakers in the farmyard might make matters far
+from merry for him. For Freddie Firefly feared all birds. At night he
+used his trusty light to frighten Mr. Nighthawk or Willie Whip-poor-will.
+But he didn't intend to run any risk in the daytime, with Jolly Robin or
+Rusty Wren.
+
+Chirpy Cricket soon saw that it was useless to try to get Freddie Firefly
+to enjoy an outing with him by daylight. So every night he spent as much
+time as he could in Freddie's company.
+
+If the truth were known, Chirpy Cricket wished that he had a light of his
+own. And he couldn't help hoping that sooner or later Freddie Firefly
+would offer to lend him his.
+
+Night after night the two met in the farmyard. But nothing seemed further
+from Freddie Firefly's thoughts than lending his brilliant greenish-white
+light to Chirpy Cricket, or to any one else.
+
+But Chirpy simply couldn't keep his eyes off that wonderful flash-light
+when Freddie Firefly was in the neighborhood. People began to notice that
+he even stopped fiddling sometimes, to stare at Freddie Firefly.
+
+At last Chirpy Cricket made up his mind that if he was ever going to
+borrow the light he would have to ask Freddie for it. Several nights
+passed before he could think of a good reason for using it. But after a
+while he thought of a fine one. So he went straight to Freddie Firefly.
+
+"I'm going to see Miss Christabel Cricket home after the music is over
+tonight," Chirpy said, "and I've been wondering if you'd be willing to do
+me a favor."
+
+"Why, certainly!" Freddie Firefly told him.
+
+"Will you loan me your light?" Chirpy asked him. "You know there'll be no
+moon when it's time to go home. And your light would be a great help to
+me, for Miss Christabel lives beyond the barnyard fence."
+
+For just a few moments Freddy Firefly appeared greatly surprised. To tell
+the truth, Chirpy's request almost took his breath away. And while he
+recovered himself he forgot to flash his light--a most unusual
+oversight.
+
+But Freddie was no person to disappoint a friend. Besides, he had just
+said, "Why, certainly!"
+
+Really, there was nothing for him to do but to say the same thing again.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+A PLAN GOES WRONG
+
+
+Chirpy Cricket never fiddled faster than he did that night. Somehow he
+had a notion that the faster he fiddled the more quickly the night would
+pass. For Freddie Firefly had promised to loan Chirpy his light, because
+Chirpy needed it when he saw Miss Christabel Cricket to her home beyond
+the barnyard fence. Chirpy was going to see her safely to her door when
+the night's concert was ended. And he could hardly wait until the time
+came when he would flash that wonderful light in the eyes of all his
+friends.
+
+"I hope you won't go dancing across the meadow tonight," he remarked
+anxiously to Freddie Firefly. "You might wander into the swamp and get
+lost."
+
+"Oh, there's no danger of that!" Freddie assured him.
+
+"If you stumbled into the wet swamp you might put your light out," Chirpy
+Cricket warned him.
+
+But Freddie Firefly laughed and told him not to worry.
+
+"I always enjoy at least one dance in the meadow each night," he
+explained. "They're expecting me over there now. And I don't want to
+disappoint them."
+
+"No!" Chirpy answered. "And neither do you want to disappoint me. So
+please don't fail to be on hand when the music's finished."
+
+After telling Chirpy that he wouldn't fail him, Freddie Firefly flitted
+away. But in spite of what he had said Chirpy Cricket couldn't help
+feeling nervous and uneasy. And he fiddled so fast that the other
+fiddlers kept complaining. They said he wasn't playing in time.
+
+Chirpy Cricket was too well-mannered to contradict them. But he had his
+own opinion, which he kept to himself. He thought his companions were out
+of time. "Goodness!" he exclaimed under his breath. "I near heard such
+slow fiddling in all my life!"
+
+There was another way, too, in which Chirpy annoyed the others. He kept
+asking them--first one and then another--what time it was. And of course
+nobody wants to stop and look at his watch when he is fiddling.
+
+At last one of his cousins told him, in answer to his question, that it
+was time to stop talking and pay attention to the music.
+
+After that Chirpy Cricket tried to be patient. But it was hard not to be
+restless. And he kept leaping into the air, hoping to get a glimpse of
+Freddie Firefly's twinkling light. For it seemed to him that Freddie
+would never return from the meadow.
+
+At last the fiddlers stopped playing, one after another; for the night
+was going fast. The Cricket family always liked to be home before
+daylight.
+
+Chirpy had almost given up hope of seeing Freddie Firefly. But to his
+great delight Freddie came skipping up just as Chirpy stood before Miss
+Christabel Cricket, whom he expected to see to her home.
+
+"I'm glad you've come!" Chirpy greeted him. "I'll take your light now.
+And I'll return it to you to-morrow night."
+
+"Oh! That would be too much trouble for you," Freddie Firefly said. "I'll
+go right along with you and your young lady. And after I've lighted her
+home I'll do the same thing for you."
+
+"Oh! That would be too much trouble for you," Chirpy Cricket objected.
+"Let me take the light, please!" He certainly didn't want Freddie Firefly
+tagging along with Miss Christabel Cricket and himself.
+
+Of course, Freddie Firefly _couldn't_ give Chirpy his light. It was just
+as much a part of him as his head. And since Chirpy Cricket began to get
+excited, and said again and again that the light had been promised him,
+in the end Freddie had to explain everything.
+
+It was a great disappointment to Chirpy Cricket. He had expected to have
+wonderful fun, flashing Freddie Firefly's light.
+
+But Miss Christabel Cricket did not seem to mind in the least.
+
+"You oughtn't to blame Freddie Firefly for not loaning his light," she
+said. "You know you wouldn't let him take your fiddle."
+
+Well, Chirpy Cricket hadn't thought of that. And he had to admit that
+what she said was true.
+
+And just then the sun peeped over Blue Mountain. So everybody hurried
+home alone, after all.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+JOHNNIE GREEN'S GUEST
+
+
+There were enough night noises before Chirpy Cricket came to live in the
+farmyard. What with Solomon Owl's hooting, his cousin Simon Screecher's
+quavering call, and the musical Frog's family's concerts in Cedar Swamp,
+it was a wonder that Johnnie Green ever managed to fall asleep. The
+Katydids alone were almost enough to drive anybody frantic--if he let
+himself listen to them--with their everlasting cry of _Katy did, Katy
+did; she did, she did_.
+
+Johnnie Green himself said he wished the Crickets had gone somewhere else
+to spend the summer. At least, he thought they might play some other tune
+besides _cr-r-r-i! cr-r-r-i! cr-r-r-i!_ over and over again. If they
+would only fiddle "Yankee Doodle" now and then he said he wouldn't mind
+lying awake a while to listen to it.
+
+Perhaps Chirpy Cricket heard what Johnnie Green said. Maybe he wanted to
+punish him. Anyhow, he crept into the farmhouse one evening and found his
+way into Johnnie Green's chamber, where he hid in a gaping crack behind
+the baseboard. And that very night, as soon as Johnnie Green put out his
+light and jumped into bed, Chirpy Cricket began to fiddle for him.
+
+Johnnie had been sleepy. But the moment Chirpy Cricket began fiddling
+right there in his room he became wide awake. He had had no idea how
+loudly one of the Cricket family could play his _cr-r-r-i!_ _cr-r-r-i!
+cr-r-r-i!_ indoors. The high, shrill sound was piercing. It rang in
+Johnnie's ears and drowned the muffled concert of the fields and swamp
+which the light breeze bore through the window.
+
+For a few minutes Johnnie lay still. And then he sat up in bed. "I'll
+have to get up and find that fellow," he said. "If I don't, he'll keep me
+awake."
+
+The moment he stirred, the fiddling stopped short. Johnnie was glad of
+that. And once more he laid his head upon his pillow. But in a few
+moments that _cr-r-r-i! cr-r-r-i!_ rang out again.
+
+Then Johnnie Green tried several remedies. He shook the bed. He knocked
+over a chair. He caught up a shoe and threw it toward a corner of the
+room, whence the sound seemed to come. And then he threw the other shoe.
+
+Every time Johnnie Green made a noise Chirpy Cricket stopped fiddling.
+And if Johnnie had had enough shoes no doubt he could have kept Chirpy
+from making any more music that night. But of course Johnnie couldn't
+have slept any, if he had done that. Besides, he would have kept the
+whole family awake, too. He thought of that after he had hurled the
+second shoe. For his father called up the stairs and asked him what was
+the matter.
+
+"There's an old Cricket in my room!" Johnnie explained. "He's keeping me
+awake."
+
+"I should think you were keeping him awake," said Farmer Green. "Get up
+and look for him if you must.... But don't let him bite you!"
+
+"You wouldn't joke if this old Cricket was in your room," Johnnie
+grumbled.
+
+He did not grumble often. But he had had a long, hard day, swimming in
+the mill-pond and climbing apple trees. And he wanted to go to sleep.
+
+Johnnie Green thought it was no time to crack jokes.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+PLEASING JOHNNIE GREEN
+
+
+Johnnie Green knew that he could never find the Cricket in the dark. So
+he crawled out of bed and lighted a candle, blinking a few moments in its
+flickering flame.
+
+From his hiding place in the crack of the baseboard, in a corner of
+Johnnie Green's chamber, Chirpy Cricket saw the gleam of the candle. And
+he wondered whether it might be a relation of Freddie Firefly. It seemed
+to have a trick of moving about in a jerky fashion, as if it didn't know
+where it was going and didn't greatly care, so long as it was on the
+move.
+
+Chirpy Cricket kept still as a mouse then. He soon saw that the bearer of
+the bright light was quite unlike Freddie Firefly, in one way. He made a
+tremendous racket, knocking over almost everything in the room.
+
+In a few minutes a voice called up the stairway again. "Is the Cricket
+chasing you?" it asked. It was Farmer Green, speaking to Johnnie.
+
+"Don't tease me!" Johnnie Green cried. "Come up and help me find him!"
+
+So Farmer Green climbed the stairs and looked into Johnnie's room and
+laughed.
+
+"Maybe I ought to have brought the old shotgun," he said. "I'd hate to
+have a Cricket jump at me."
+
+Johnnie managed to grin at that. He was so wide awake that he no longer
+felt like grumbling.
+
+"The trouble with this Cricket is that he won't jump," he told his
+father. "I can't tell where he is, because he keeps still whenever I
+move. But when the light's out and everything's quiet he makes a terrible
+noise."
+
+"That's a trick Crickets have," Farmer Green observed. "And I must say
+that if I were a Cricket I'd act the same way."
+
+Of course Chirpy Cricket heard everything that was said. And he couldn't
+help thinking that Farmer Green was a very sensible person. "I dare say
+he'd be a famous fiddler if he belonged to our family," Chirpy told
+himself. And for a moment or two he was tempted to play a tune for Farmer
+Green. But he thought better of the notion at once. He remembered that
+Farmer Green had climbed the stairs to hunt for him. And Chirpy squeezed
+himself further into the crack where he was hiding until he was so
+huddled up that he couldn't have fiddled if he had wanted to.
+
+Though they looked carefully, neither Johnnie nor his father could find
+him. And at last they had to admit that it was useless to search any
+longer.
+
+"What shall I do?" Johnnie wailed. "As soon as I put out the light and
+get into bed he'll begin chirping again."
+
+"In such cases," Farmer Green answered wisely, "there's only one thing to
+do."
+
+"What's that?" Johnnie inquired hopefully.
+
+"All you can do," said Farmer Green, "is to come downstairs and have
+something to eat."
+
+Now, that may seem a strange remedy. But somehow it just suited Johnnie
+Green. He pattered barefooted down the stairs. And later, when he went to
+bed again, and Chirpy Cricket began to chirp once more, all Johnnie Green
+said was this:
+
+"Sing away--little Tommy Tucker! You may not know it, but you sang for my
+supper!"
+
+And the next moment, Johnnie Green was sound asleep.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+AN INTERRUPTED NAP
+
+
+Chirpy Cricket liked his home in Farmer Green's yard. During the long
+summer days he thought it very cheerful to rest in his dark hole in the
+ground. He liked the darkness of his home; he liked its warmth, too. For
+in pleasant weather the sun beat down upon the straw-littered ground
+above him and gave him plenty of heat, while on gray days the straw
+blanket kept his house cosy. And it never occurred to Chirpy Cricket that
+there was anything odd in having a blanket over his house instead of over
+himself.
+
+Nothing ever really disturbed Chirpy Cricket after he settled in the
+farmyard. To be sure, he had a few frights at first. Now and then the
+earth trembled in a terrible fashion. But that happened only when Johnnie
+Green led old Ebenezer, or some other horse, to the watering-trough,
+passing right over Chirpy's home. And Chirpy had soon learned that he was
+in no danger.
+
+Then at other times he heard an odd tearing and scratching, as if some
+giant had discovered Chirpy's doorway and meant to dig him out of his
+hiding place. By peeping slyly out he discovered at last the cause of
+those fearful sounds. It was only the hens looking for something to
+eat--a bit of grain amid the straw, or perhaps an angleworm. Chirpy never
+left his house when he heard the hens at work. He had no wish to offer
+himself as a tidbit. And he felt quite safe down in his home, for he was
+quick to learn that the hens were no diggers. They could only scratch the
+surface of the ground. So, in time, he used to laugh when he heard them.
+And now and then he would even fiddle a bit, as if to say to them, "Here
+I am! Come and get me if you can!"
+
+The sound of fiddling, coming from beneath their feet, always puzzled the
+hens. They would stop scratching and cock their heads on one side, to
+listen. And they tried to look very knowing. But they were really the
+most stupid of all the creatures in the farmyard. If they had only been
+as wise as Farmer Green's cat they would have kept still and waited and
+watched. And sooner or later they would have given Chirpy Cricket the
+surprise of his life, when he came crawling out of his hole to get a few
+blades of grass for his supper.
+
+But even if the hens had thought of such a plan they never could have
+kept their minds upon it long enough to carry it out. So perhaps it was
+no wonder that Chirpy Cricket got the idea into his head that he was safe
+from everybody. Sometimes, when he was dozing, even the footsteps of old
+Ebenezer failed to rouse him.
+
+But there came a day when Chirpy Cricket awoke with a great start.
+Something had touched his long feelers. Something had come right down
+into his hole and was prodding him.
+
+He thought it must be a hen. And he did not laugh. No! Nor did he
+fiddle!
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+CAUGHT!
+
+
+Whatever or whoever it was that had entered Chirpy Cricket's home--the
+hole in the ground near Farmer Green's barn--it caused him a terrible
+fright. It kept poking him in a most alarming fashion. Chirpy couldn't
+move away from it, for his home was only big enough for himself alone.
+And since he didn't care to share it with another, he soon made up his
+mind that there was only one thing for him to do. He would quit his house
+for the time being, with the hope of finding it empty later. Indeed
+Chirpy Cricket thought he would be lucky to escape in safety. So he
+scrambled up into the daylight, to be greeted with a shout and a pounce,
+both at the same time. And Chirpy Cricket saw, too late, that it was a
+creature much bigger than a hen that had captured him. It was Johnnie
+Green!
+
+Of course Johnnie himself had not entered Chirpy's underground home. What
+he had done was merely to run a straw into the hole where Chirpy lived
+and prod him with it until he came out.
+
+"Aha!" said Johnnie Green as he looked at his prisoner, whom he held
+gingerly between a finger and a thumb. "Are you the rascal that keeps me
+awake at night with your everlasting noise?"
+
+Chirpy Cricket never said a word.
+
+"You make racket enough every night," Johnnie told him. "Can't you answer
+now when you're spoken to?"
+
+Still Chirpy Cricket made no reply. He waved his feelers frantically and
+tried to jump out of Johnnie Green's grasp. But no matter how fast he
+moved his six legs, he couldn't get away.
+
+"You don't seem to like me," said his captor finally. "You don't act as
+if you wanted to play with me.... What will you do for me if I let you
+go?"
+
+But not a word did Chirpy Cricket say--not one single word!
+
+"You're a queer one," Johnnie Green told him. "You might fiddle for me,
+at least--though I must say I don't care for the tune you always play. I
+can get better music out of a cornstalk fiddle than I've ever heard from
+you or any of your family."
+
+Then, very carefully, Johnnie set Chirpy Cricket on the ground, with both
+his hands cupped closely over him, so he couldn't jump away.
+
+"Now, fiddle!" Johnnie Green cried. "Fiddle just once and I'll let you
+go."
+
+Though Johnnie Green waited patiently for what seemed to him a long time,
+he heard nothing that sounded the least bit like fiddling. So at last he
+peeped between two fingers to see what the fiddler was doing. But Johnnie
+Green couldn't see him. Little by little he lifted his hands. And to his
+great surprise there was nothing under them but grass--and beneath the
+grass a crack in the earth.
+
+"Well! You're a sly one!" Johnnie Green exclaimed. "You've crawled into
+that crack. And you may stay there, too, for all I care." Johnnie jumped
+to his feet and moved away. And not until he had been gone some time did
+Chirpy Cricket make a sound. Then he played a few notes on his fiddle,
+just to see that it hadn't been harmed.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+A QUEER, NEW COUSIN
+
+
+Chirpy Cricket was so fond of fiddling that sometimes he was the last of
+all the big Cricket family to stop making music and go home to bed. Now
+and then he lingered so long above the ground that the dawn caught him
+before he crept into his hole in the ground, beneath the straw. And one
+morning it was getting so light before he had played enough to suit him
+that he crawled into a crack in Farmer Green's garden. It looked like a
+comfortable place to spend the day. And he thought it would be foolish
+for him to do much travelling at that hour, because there was no telling
+when an early bird might spy--and pounce upon--him.
+
+He found his retreat quite to his liking. Nothing had happened to disturb
+his rest. And if he had only had time to carry a few blades of grass into
+the crack, to eat between naps, Chirpy would have had nothing to wish
+for.
+
+Late in the afternoon, however, a most unusual thing took place. Chirpy
+Cricket noticed a sound as of some one digging. It grew louder and louder
+as he listened. And it was not in the least like the scratching of a hen,
+looking for grubs and worms. This noise was deep down in the ground and
+like nothing Chirpy had ever heard.
+
+He wished that he had not allowed himself to become so fond of fiddling.
+If he had cared less for it, he would have gone home in good season. But
+there he was in a crack in the garden! And he didn't dare leave it
+because he had heard that the garden was a famous place for birds.
+
+Chirpy Cricket was frightened. And when at last the loose earth near him
+began to quiver and even to crumble he was so scared that he didn't know
+which way to move. The next instant a strange looking person stood before
+him. And for a few moments neither one of them said a word.
+
+The newcomer was a big fellow, very long and with enormous legs. His
+front legs especially were short and powerful, with huge feet at the end
+of them. And yet, odd as the stranger was, Chirpy could not help noticing
+that somehow he had a look like the Cricket family.
+
+"Well," said the stranger at last, "you seem surprised. Perhaps you
+weren't expecting callers."
+
+"No, I wasn't," Chirpy Cricket answered in a voice that was faint from
+the fright he had had.
+
+"But you're glad to see me, I hope," the stranger went on. "You know I'm
+related to you. You know I'm a sort of cousin of yours."
+
+"Is that so?" Chirpy Cricket cried. "I did think for a moment that there
+was a slight family resemblance. But the longer I look at you the queerer
+you seem. May I ask your name?"
+
+"I'm Mr. Mole Cricket," said the stranger. "And I don't need to inquire
+who you are. You're one of the well-known Field Cricket family."
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+AN UNDERGROUND CHAT
+
+
+Chirpy Cricket was glad of one thing. Mr. Mole Cricket _talked_ quite
+pleasantly, for all he looked so frightful. When he dug his way through
+the dirt in Farmer Green's garden and broke into the crack where Chirpy
+was hiding he had given Chirpy a terrible start.
+
+"If you're a cousin of mine--as you say--it's strange that I've never
+happened to meet you before," Chirpy told the newcomer.
+
+"Not at all! Not at all!" Mr. Mole Cricket said. "I spend all my time
+underground. I've never been up in the open."
+
+"Don't you go out at night?" Chirpy asked him.
+
+"Never!" Mr. Mole Cricket declared. "I've lived my whole life in the
+dirt. And I like it too well to leave it."
+
+Chirpy Cricket thought his cousin was the queerest person he had ever
+met.
+
+"How do you get anything to eat?" he inquired.
+
+Mr. Mole Cricket seemed to consider that an odd question.
+
+"Bless you!" he exclaimed. "There's everything to eat in the
+ground--everything anybody could possibly want. Wherever I tunnel I find
+tender roots. You know Farmer Green grows fine vegetables here. Indeed
+that's one reason I live under his garden."
+
+"If that's one reason, what's another?" Chirpy Cricket asked him. For
+Chirpy couldn't help being curious about this new-found cousin of his,
+who had such strange ways and who was even stranger to look upon.
+
+He was obliging enough--was Mr. Mole Cricket. He was quite willing to
+answer any and all questions. It may be that he was glad of the chance to
+talk with somebody. Certainly it seemed to Chirpy Cricket that his cousin
+led a very lonely life. He explained to Chirpy that it was easy to dig in
+the garden, because its soil was loose. The ploughing in the spring, and
+the harrowing, as well as the hoeing that Farmer Green's hired man did
+during the summer, kept the earth in fine condition for tunnelling. Of
+course, living beneath the surface as he did, Mr. Mole Cricket had no way
+of knowing why the garden soil was so nicely stirred up. He only knew
+that it was so. And that was quite enough for him.
+
+Chirpy Cricket said that it was all very interesting to hear about. But
+he knew that he shouldn't care to follow Mr. Mole Cricket's manner of
+living. "I love to fiddle," he said. "I simply must go abroad every
+pleasant night and make music."
+
+"But you don't need to leave the dirt to fiddle!" Mr. Mole Cricket
+exclaimed. "I'm musical too. I often fiddle down in my house. I don't
+know a better way of passing the time, when a person's not digging or
+eating."
+
+"Won't you play for me now?" Chirpy Cricket asked him.
+
+Mr. Mole Cricket was more than willing to oblige. He began to fiddle at
+once. And the tune he played was as strange as he was. Chirpy Cricket did
+not like it at all. It seemed to him very mournful, a sort of sad, sad
+air, as if Mr. Mole Cricket were bewailing his dismal life beneath the
+garden.
+
+But of course Chirpy was too polite to tell that to his cousin. And when
+Mr. Mole Cricket asked him how he liked the tune, Chirpy replied that it
+was very, very interesting.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+A QUESTION OF FEET
+
+
+"Are you sure you're a cousin of mine?" Chirpy Cricket inquired of Mr.
+Mole Cricket. "Don't you think that perhaps you are mistaken? I'm almost
+certain you are."
+
+"No!" said Mr. Mole Cricket. "I can't be wrong. Why do you ask me such a
+question?"
+
+"Your forefeet"--Chirpy told him--"your forefeet are so big! I've always
+understood that all our family had small ones."
+
+Mr. Mole Cricket smiled.
+
+"Don't let the size of my feet trouble you!" he replied. "I couldn't be a
+Mole Cricket if my feet were like yours. You see, I use my forefeet for
+digging. And if they weren't big and strong I never could burrow in this
+garden, nor anywhere else."
+
+Still Chirpy Cricket had his doubts.
+
+"I'm inclined to believe," he continued, "that you're related to
+Grandfather Mole, and not to me. For your feet are very much like his."
+
+"Oh, no!" Mr. Mole Cricket cried. "And for pity's sake don't ever let
+Grandfather Mole hear you say that! He'd be so angry that he'd eat me, as
+likely as not. You see, he objects to my name. He says I have no right to
+call myself Mr. Mole Cricket. But that's the name my family has always
+had. And I can't very well change it."
+
+The poor fellow acted so alarmed that Chirpy Cricket hastened to promise
+him that he would never mention his likeness to Grandfather Mole again.
+
+"Very well!" said Mr. Mole Cricket. "That's kind of you, I'm sure. And
+now, if you want to make me quite happy, there's one more thing to which
+you will agree."
+
+"What's that?" Chirpy Cricket asked. He felt sorry for Mr. Mole Cricket,
+who had never known the pleasure of fiddling with a thousand other
+musicians under the stars on a warm summer night. "If there is anything I
+can do to make you happy, just tell me!"
+
+"Then call me 'Cousin'!" Mr. Mole Cricket begged him.
+
+Chirpy Cricket cast one glance at Mr. Mole Cricket's huge feet. In spite
+of everything their owner had told him, Chirpy still found it difficult
+to believe that Mr. Mole Cricket could be even a very distant relation.
+
+"I'll do it!" he said at last. "If it will make you any happier I'll call
+you 'Cousin'--though you can't be any nearer than a hundred times
+removed."
+
+It was easy to see that Mr. Mole Cricket was delighted.
+
+"Thank you! Thank you!" he exclaimed. "But permit me to correct you. I'm
+your cousin a good many thousand times removed. But that's no reason why
+we shouldn't be the best of friends. And now," he added, "won't you come
+home with me? I'd like you to meet my wife."
+
+While thanking him for the invitation, Chirpy Cricket couldn't help
+wondering whether Mr. Mole Cricket's wife had as big feet as her
+husband.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+CHIRPY IS CAREFUL
+
+
+"Do you live near-by?" Chirpy Cricket inquired of Mr. Mole Cricket, who
+had just invited him to his home to meet his wife.
+
+"My home is not very far from here," his new cousin said. "We'll go back
+through this tunnel I've been making. The other end of it opens into my
+dwelling, some distance below the surface of the garden. Follow me and
+you'll have no trouble finding it."
+
+But somehow Chirpy Cricket did not quite like the idea of travelling with
+the stranger, cousin though he might be, under Farmer Green's garden.
+"Not to-day!" he said politely. "I haven't had anything to eat since last
+night. And I don't feel like taking a journey."
+
+"We'll snatch a bite on the way to my house," Mr. Mole Cricket suggested
+cheerfully. "I'll dig out a few juicy roots for you. Which kind do you
+like best--beet, turnip or carrot?"
+
+"I don't like any of them," Chirpy Cricket confessed.
+
+"You don't!" his cousin cried, as if he were astonished to hear that.
+"What do you live on, then?"
+
+"Grass!" Chirpy answered.
+
+"I've never heard of it," said Mr. Mole Cricket. "And I must say you have
+queer tastes--even though you are my own cousin."
+
+Chirpy Cricket saw that he and Mr. Mole Cricket were bound to have
+trouble if they saw too much of each other. So he hinted--in a delicate
+way--that Mr. Mole Cricket's wife must be wondering where he was.
+
+Thereupon that gentleman started up hurriedly and made for his tunnel.
+
+"I'll see you again sometime," he said hastily over his shoulder. And in
+another instant he was gone.
+
+They never met again. Chirpy Cricket took great pains never to spend
+another day in hiding in Farmer Green's garden. He was afraid there might
+be trouble if he saw more of his cousin. And he couldn't forget those
+powerful forelegs and enormous feet of Mr. Mole Cricket! They looked very
+dangerous.
+
+The longer Chirpy pondered over his brief meeting with Mr. Mole Cricket,
+the more firmly he made up his mind that he had been in great danger and
+that he had been lucky to escape alive. Everybody knew that Grandfather
+Mole was a terrible-tempered person when aroused. He would rush at
+anybody, big or little. Perhaps that was because he couldn't see what
+sized person he was attacking. For Grandfather Mole was blind. But he
+never stopped to inquire of anybody whether he was tall or short, thick
+or thin. He just went ahead without asking.
+
+"I'm glad," thought Chirpy, "that I didn't go home with Mr. Mole Cricket.
+If his wife's feet are anything like his they'd be a fearful pair to
+quarrel with. And even if they hadn't quarrelled with me, they might have
+had trouble between themselves. And if I happened to get in their way it
+would certainly have gone hard with me."
+
+Harmless Mr. Mole Cricket never knew what a monster his cousin Chirpy
+Cricket believed him to be. When he reached home he told his wife that he
+had met a queer little cousin who spent much of his time above ground and
+lived on grass.
+
+But Mrs. Mole Cricket wouldn't believe him. She told him not to be silly.
+She even said that there wasn't any such thing as grass. And she asked
+him how anybody could live on it when there wasn't any anywhere.
+
+Naturally, she wouldn't have talked like that if she had ever seen much
+of the world. But she had spent her whole life down in the dirt, beneath
+Farmer Green's garden.
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+TOMMY TREE CRICKET
+
+
+After meeting that odd Mr. Mole Cricket, who claimed to be his cousin,
+Chirpy Cricket tried to find out more about him from his nearer
+relations. But there wasn't one that had ever seen or heard of such a
+person. One night Chirpy even travelled quite a distance to call on Tommy
+Tree Cricket, with the hope that perhaps Tommy might be able to tell him
+something.
+
+Chirpy found Tommy Tree Cricket in the tangle of raspberry bushes beyond
+the garden. It was not hard to tell where he was, because he was a famous
+fiddler. He played a tune that was different from Chirpy's _cr-r-r-i!
+cr-r-r-i! cr-r-r-i!_ Tommy Tree Cricket fiddled _re-teat! re-teat!
+re-teat!_ And many considered him a much finer musician than Chirpy
+himself. He was small and pale. Beside Chirpy Cricket, who was all but
+black, Tommy Tree Cricket looked decidedly delicate. But he could fiddle
+all night without getting tired.
+
+"I've come all the way from the yard to have a chat with you!" Chirpy
+called to his cousin Tommy.
+
+"Come up and have a seat!" said Tommy Tree Cricket.
+
+"I can find one here, thank you!" Chirpy answered.
+
+"Oh! Don't sit on the damp ground!" Tommy cried. "That's a dangerous
+thing to do."
+
+Chirpy Cricket smiled to himself. In a way Tommy Tree Cricket was queer.
+He always clung to trees and shrubs, claiming that it was much more
+healthful to live off the ground. But he was so pale that Chirpy Cricket
+was sure he was mistaken.
+
+"The ground's good enough for me," Chirpy told his cousin.
+
+"Well, we won't quarrel about that tonight," said Tommy Tree Cricket.
+"Sit there, if you will. And when I've finished playing this tune we'll
+have a talk. I only hope you won't catch cold while you're waiting down
+there."
+
+"Can't you stop fiddling long enough to talk with me now?" Chirpy asked
+him. "I've come here to ask you whether you ever saw a cousin of ours
+called Mr. Mole Cricket."
+
+"_Re-teat! re-teat! re-teat!_" Tommy Tree Cricket was already fiddling
+away as if it were the last night of the summer. He was making so much
+shrill music that he couldn't hear a word Chirpy said. The more Chirpy
+tried to attract his attention the harder he played, rolling his eyes in
+every direction--except that of his caller.
+
+Several times Chirpy Cricket leaped into the air, hoping that Tommy Tree
+Cricket would see that he had something important to say. But Tommy paid
+not the slightest heed to him.
+
+At last Chirpy decided that he might as well do a little fiddling
+himself, to pass the time away. So he began his _cr-r-r-i! cr-r-r-i!
+cr-r-r-i!_ And then Tommy noticed him immediately.
+
+"You're playing the wrong tune!" he cried. "It's _re-teat! re-teat!
+re-teat!_"
+
+Chirpy Cricket thought that his cousin's face was slightly darker, as if
+a flush of annoyance had come over it. He certainly didn't want to
+quarrel with Tommy Tree Cricket. So he said to him, very mildly, "I fear
+you do not like my playing."
+
+"I can't say that I do," said Tommy. "It makes me think of that creaking
+pump at the farmhouse."
+
+"And of what"--Chirpy Cricket stammered--"of what, pray, does your own
+fiddling remind you?"
+
+"Ah!" said Tommy. "My own music is like nothing in the world except the
+sound of a shimmering moonbeam."
+
+There is no doubt that Tommy Tree Cricket thought very well of his own
+fiddling.
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+A LONG WAIT
+
+
+Chirpy cricket was so good-natured that he wouldn't quarrel with his
+cousin, Tommy Tree Cricket. Although Tommy had said bluntly that Chirpy's
+fiddling reminded him of Farmer Green's creaking pump, Chirpy made no
+disagreeable answer. He did not want to hurt his pale cousin's feelings.
+
+After making his rude remark Tommy Tree Cricket began his _re-teat!
+re-teat! re-teat!_ once more. He shuffled his wings together at a faster
+rate than ever, as if he had to furnish all the music for the night. As
+before, he seemed to have forgotten all about his caller; for Chirpy
+still waited beneath the raspberry bush where Tommy Tree Cricket was
+fiddling.
+
+But if Tommy paid no heed to Chirpy, there was a reason why. Near Tommy
+sat a pale young miss of his own sort, who listened with great enjoyment
+to his playing. Or at least she acted as if she thought it the most
+beautiful music in the whole world.
+
+Tommy Tree Cricket was not so intent upon his fiddling that he couldn't
+roll his eyes towards his fair listener. And Chirpy was not slow to
+understand that it was for her that Tommy was playing his _re-teat!
+re-teat! re-teat!_
+
+"I'll wait here until he rests," Chirpy said to himself. "Then I'll ask
+him again what he knows about Mr. Mole Cricket."
+
+Well, Chirpy waited and waited. But it seemed to him that as the night
+lengthened Tommy Tree Cricket fiddled all the faster. And if the weather
+hadn't turned colder along toward morning probably he wouldn't have had a
+chance to speak to Tommy again.
+
+Anyhow, a cool wind began to whip around the side of Blue Mountain and
+sweep through Pleasant Valley. And the moment it struck Tommy Tree
+Cricket he began to play more slowly. Little by little a longer pause
+crept between his _re-teats_. And at last the pale miss beside him cried,
+"I hope you're not going to stop your beautiful fiddling!"
+
+"I fear I'll have to," Tommy told her with a sigh. "I'm beginning to feel
+a bit stiff, with this north wind blowing on me."
+
+This was Chirpy Cricket's chance.
+
+"Please!" he called. "Will you listen to me a moment?"
+
+"What! Have you come back again?" Tommy Tree Cricket sang out.
+
+"No! I've been here all the time," Chirpy explained. "I've been waiting
+for hours to have a talk with you."
+
+"Very well!" Tommy answered. "It's too cold for me to fiddle any more. So
+talk away! And you'd better be quick about it, for the night's almost
+gone."
+
+But somehow Chirpy Cricket felt that his chat could wait a little longer.
+If the pale young person clinging to the raspberry bush near Tommy Tree
+Cricket loved music, he thought it was a pity to disappoint her.
+
+"You may feel too cold to fiddle; but I don't!" Chirpy said. "I'm quite
+warm down here on the ground. This little hollow where I'm sitting is
+sheltered from the wind. So I'll fiddle for your friend." As he spoke he
+began to play.
+
+Looks as of great pain came over the pale faces of his two listeners in
+the raspberry bush. And they shuddered so violently that they had to
+cling tightly to their seats to keep from falling.
+
+"My friend thanks you. But she says she doesn't care for your fiddling,"
+Tommy Tree Cricket called down to Chirpy. "She says it's too squeaky."
+
+Chirpy Cricket was fiddling so hard by that time that he never heard a
+word. And when he stopped at last, to rest a bit, a voice cried out,
+"That's fine! Won't you play some more?"
+
+Chirpy Cricket was pleased. He thought, of course, that it was Tommy's
+friend speaking to him. But when he looked up he couldn't see her
+anywhere--nor her companion either.
+
+They had both disappeared. And it was already gray in the east.
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+SITTING ON A LILY-PAD
+
+
+Though Chirpy Cricket looked all around with great care, he couldn't
+discover who had spoken to him. A voice from somewhere had called out
+that his music was fine and asked him if he wouldn't play some more.
+
+Whoever the owner of the voice might be, it was plain that he liked
+music. So without knowing for whom he was playing, Chirpy began to fiddle
+again. And when he stopped the same voice cried, "Thank you very much!"
+
+Now, the duck-pond was near-by. And at first Chirpy hadn't thought of
+looking there for his listener. But the second time he heard the voice he
+guessed that it came from the pond. So Chirpy leaped to the water's edge;
+and there, sitting on a lily-pad, was the tiniest Frog he had ever seen.
+He seemed no bigger than Chirpy himself.
+
+"How do you do!" Chirpy said to him. "Was it you that spoke to me?"
+
+"Yes!" the stranger said. "I've been enjoying your music. And I'm glad to
+meet you. It's time we knew each other, living as we do in the same
+neighborhood. My name is Mr. Cricket Frog. And may I inquire what yours
+is?"
+
+"I'm called Chirpy Cricket," said the fiddler on the bank. "Is it
+possible--do you think--that we are cousins?"
+
+"No!" said Mr. Cricket Frog. "No! I belong to a branch of the well-known
+Tree Frog family. But somehow I've never cared to live in trees. Indeed,
+I've never climbed a tree in all my life."
+
+"You're a sensible person!" Chirpy Cricket cried. He did not know that
+the reason why Mr. Cricket Frog stayed on the ground was because his feet
+were not suited to climbing trees. He couldn't have got up a tree if he
+had tried. "Aren't you afraid of falling off that lily-pad into the
+water?" Chirpy asked his new friend. "It seems to me you haven't picked
+out a safe place at all."
+
+He had scarcely finished speaking when he had a great fright. For Mr.
+Cricket Frog did not answer him. Instead he leaped suddenly into the air.
+And Chirpy Cricket feared that he would fall into the water and be
+drowned. But when Mr. Cricket Frog came down again he landed squarely
+upon another lily-pad.
+
+"I caught him," he said pleasantly.
+
+Chirpy Cricket had no idea what he was talking about.
+
+"Whom did you catch?" he asked.
+
+"The fly!" Mr. Cricket Frog replied.
+
+"Don't you think you took a great risk, leaping above the water like
+that?" Chirpy inquired. "Aren't you worried for fear you'll fall into the
+pond some day, if you jump for flies in that careless fashion?"
+
+Mr. Cricket Frog tried not to smile.
+
+"Bless you!" he exclaimed. "I spend half my time in the water. Please
+don't think I'm boasting when I say I'm a fine swimmer. You'll understand
+why when you look at my feet." And he held up a foot so that Chirpy
+Cricket might see it.
+
+Chirpy noticed that there were webs between Mr. Cricket Frog's toes. And
+everybody knows that webbed feet are the best for swimming.
+
+Mr. Cricket Frog wanted to be agreeable. "Would you like to see me swim?"
+he asked.
+
+"Yes, thank you!" Chirpy replied.
+
+So Mr. Cricket Frog leaped nimbly into the water and began to swim among
+the lily-pads while Chirpy watched him and admired his skill.
+
+All at once Chirpy heard a splash. And he was just about to ask Mr.
+Cricket Frog what it could be, when he noticed something queer about his
+new friend. He was no longer swimming. He was floating, motionless, upon
+the water. Not by a single movement of any kind did he show that he was
+alive.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+MR. CRICKET FROG'S TRICK
+
+
+"What's the matter? Are you hurt?" Chirpy Cricket called to Mr. Cricket
+Frog from the bank of the duck-pond. Ever since a splash near-by had
+interrupted their talk, Mr. Cricket Frog had not swum a single stroke. He
+was floating, motionless, upon the surface of the water. And he made no
+reply whatever to Chirpy's questions. He acted exactly as if he had not
+heard them. The fitful breeze caught at Mr. Cricket Frog's limp form and
+wafted it about.
+
+Chirpy Cricket couldn't help being alarmed. And yet he almost thought,
+for a moment, that he saw Mr. Cricket Frog's eyes rolling in his
+direction, as he stood on the bank of the pond. If Mr. Cricket Frog was
+in trouble, Chirpy knew of no way to help him. And after a time he made
+up his mind that Mr. Cricket Frog was beyond anybody's help. Chirpy was
+about to go back to the farmyard when Mr. Cricket Frog came suddenly to
+life.
+
+"Meet me here to-morrow!" he called. Then he dived to the bottom of the
+water. And Chirpy Cricket went home, thinking that it was all very
+queer.
+
+"What happened to you yesterday?" Chirpy asked Mr. Cricket Frog, when he
+came back to the duck-pond the following day and found that spry little
+gentleman waiting for him on a lily-pad. "Were you ill?"
+
+"Oh, no!" Mr. Cricket Frog answered. "When I heard a splash behind me I
+didn't know who made it. So I played dead for a while. And after waiting
+until I felt somewhat safer, I went down to the bottom of the pond and
+hid in the mud. I've found that it's always wise to attract as little
+attention as possible when I don't know who's lurking about.... I hope
+you didn't think I was rude," he added.
+
+"No!" Chirpy told him. "But I've been upset ever since I saw you. I
+haven't had the heart to fiddle."
+
+"Dear me!" Mr. Cricket Frog cried. "I must do something to cheer you up.
+I'll sing you a song!" Then Mr. Cricket Frog puffed out his yellow throat
+and began to sing. And he gave Chirpy Cricket a great surprise. For his
+singing was so like Chirpy's fiddling that Chirpy thought for a moment he
+was making the sound himself.
+
+But there was one marked difference. Mr. Cricket Frog's time was not like
+his. It was not regular. Mr. Cricket Frog began to sing somewhat slowly
+and gradually sang faster and faster. After he had sung about thirty
+notes he would pause to get his breath. And then he would begin again,
+exactly as before.
+
+Mr. Cricket Frog hadn't sung long before Chirpy's spirits began to rise.
+Indeed, he soon felt so cheerful that he began to fiddle. And between the
+two they made such a chirping that an old drake swam across the duck-pond
+to see what was going on.
+
+Of course, his curiosity put an end to the concert. Mr. Cricket Frog saw
+him coming. And this time he didn't stop to play dead. He sank in a great
+hurry to the bottom of the pond.
+
+Chirpy Cricket wondered why his friend chose to stay in a place where
+there were so many interruptions. "I should think," he said to himself,
+"Mr. Cricket Frog would rather live in a hole in the ground, as I do....
+I must ask him, when I see him again, why he doesn't move to the
+farmyard."
+
+Mr. Cricket Frog was very polite, later, when Chirpy spoke to him about
+moving. But he explained that he was too fond of swimming to do that. And
+besides, he thought his voice sounded better on water than it did on
+land.
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+IT WASN'T THUNDER
+
+
+Quite often, during the nightly concerts in which Chirpy Cricket took
+part, he had noticed an odd cry, _Peent! Peent!_ which seemed to come
+from the woods. And sometimes there followed from the same direction a
+hollow, booming sound, as if somebody were amusing himself by blowing
+across the bung-hole of an empty barrel.
+
+Chirpy Cricket had a great curiosity to know who made those queer noises.
+He asked everybody he met about them. And at last Kiddie Katydid told him
+that it was Mr. Nighthawk that he had heard.
+
+"He seems to think he's a musician," said Chirpy Cricket. "But I must say
+I don't care much for his music. He's not what you might call a steady
+player. And his notes are not shrill enough for my liking. Perhaps he
+lacks training. I'd be glad to take him in hand and see what I could do
+with him. Tell me! Does he ever visit our neighborhood?"
+
+"Not often!" said Kiddie Katydid. "I met him here once. And that was
+enough for me. I never felt more uncomfortable in all my life." He
+shuddered as he spoke and looked over his shoulder.
+
+Somehow Chirpy Cricket did not share Kiddie Katydid's uneasiness. The
+more he thought about Mr. Nighthawk the more he wanted to meet him.
+
+"If you ever see Mr. Nighthawk again I wish you'd tell him I want to talk
+with him," Chirpy said.
+
+"I'll do so," Kiddie Katydid promised. "And now let me give you a bit of
+advice. When you meet Mr. Nighthawk, keep perfectly still. He's a hungry
+fellow, always on the look-out for somebody to eat. But he has one
+peculiar habit: he won't grab you unless you're moving through the air.
+He always takes his food on the wing."
+
+Chirpy thanked his friend Kiddie Katydid for this valuable bit of news.
+And he said he'd be sure to remember it.
+
+"Well," Kiddie Katydid observed, "if you forget it when you meet Mr.
+Nighthawk you'll forget it only once. For he'll grab you quick as a
+flash."
+
+Chirpy Cricket pondered a good deal over the talk he had with Kiddie
+Katydid. It was clear that Mr. Nighthawk was a dangerous person.
+"Perhaps"--Chirpy thought--"perhaps if I could get him to take a greater
+interest in his music he wouldn't be so ferocious. Yes! I feel sure that
+if I could only persuade him to practice that booming sound it would give
+Mr. Nighthawk something pleasant to think of. Who knows but that he might
+become as gentle as I am?"
+
+Chirpy Cricket liked that notion so much that he thought of little else.
+He even began to consider making a journey to the woods where Mr.
+Nighthawk lived, in order to meet that gentleman and offer to train him
+to be a better musician. And at last Chirpy had even decided to go--as
+soon as the moon should be full. He spent much of his time listening for
+Mr. Nighthawk's _Peent! Peent!_ which now and then came faintly across
+the meadow, and the dull, muffled _boom_ that often followed.
+
+While Chirpy waited for the moon to grow full, one night an odd thing
+happened. The stars twinkled overhead. There wasn't a cloud in the sky.
+Yet all at once a loud _boom_ startled Chirpy Cricket and made him leap
+suddenly towards home.
+
+"Goodness!" he cried to Kiddie Katydid, who happened to be near him. "Did
+you hear the thunder?"
+
+"That wasn't thunder," Kiddie said. "And you'd better not jump like that
+again. Mr. Nighthawk is here. He made that sound himself."
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+BOUND TO BE DIFFERENT
+
+
+Nothing ever surprised Chirpy Cricket more than what Kiddie Katydid told
+him. He had thought it was thunder that he had just heard. But it was Mr.
+Nighthawk, making that odd, booming sound of his. It was ever so much
+louder than Chirpy had supposed it could be. He had never heard it so
+near before.
+
+For a moment Chirpy thought that perhaps Kiddie Katydid didn't know what
+he was talking about. But no! There was Mr. Nighthawk's well-known call,
+_Peent! Peent!_ There was no denying that it was his voice. He always
+talked through his nose--or so it sounded. And one couldn't mistake it.
+
+Chirpy Cricket began to think that after all he would rather not have a
+talk with Mr. Nighthawk. He certainly sounded terrible!
+
+Meanwhile Mr. Nighthawk alighted in a tree right over Chirpy's head, and
+settled himself lengthwise along a limb. He was, indeed, an odd person.
+He liked to be different from other folk. And just because other birds
+sat crosswise on a perch, Mr. Nighthawk had to sit in exactly the
+opposite fashion. No doubt if he could have, he would have hung
+underneath the limb by his heels, like Benjamin Bat. Only he would have
+wanted to hang by his nose instead of his heels, in order to be
+different.
+
+"Has anybody seen Chirpy Cricket?" Mr. Nighthawk sang out.
+
+"He's on the ground, under that tree you're in," Kiddie Katydid informed
+him. Kiddie never moved as he spoke, but clung closely to a twig in the
+bush where he was hiding. Being green himself, he hardly thought that Mr.
+Nighthawk would be able to discover him amongst shrubbery of the same
+color.
+
+Chirpy Cricket wished that Kiddie Katydid hadn't replied to Mr. Nighthawk
+at all. But how could Kiddie know that Chirpy had changed his mind? And
+now Mr. Nighthawk spoke to Chirpy.
+
+"I can't see you very well, Mr. Cricket," he said. "Won't you leap into
+the air a few times, so I can get a good look at you? I've heard that
+you've been wanting to meet me. And I've come all the way from the woods
+just to please you."
+
+Luckily Chirpy Cricket did not forget Kiddie Katydid's advice. Kiddie had
+explained to him how Mr. Nighthawk caught his meals on the wing.
+
+"You'll have to excuse me," Chirpy told Mr. Nighthawk. "I'd rather not do
+any jumping for you. That wasn't why I wanted to meet you."
+
+"Ha!" said Mr. Nighthawk. "Then why--pray--did you wish to see me?"
+
+"I thought"--Chirpy Cricket replied--"I thought that perhaps you'd like
+me to help you with your music. I've often heard your booming at a
+distance. And it has seemed to me that you have the making of a good
+musician, if you have a good teacher."
+
+Mr. Nighthawk sniffed. It must be remembered that he was not very
+gentlemanly.
+
+"I've had plenty of training," he said. "I didn't come all the way from
+the woods to be told that I don't know my own business. I practice every
+night. And I flatter myself that I'm a perfect performer."
+
+"Then," said Chirpy Cricket, "perhaps you need a new fiddle. For there's
+no doubt that your booming would sound much better if it were shriller."
+
+Mr. Nighthawk gave a rude laugh.
+
+"I don't make that sound with a fiddle," he sneered. "Don't you know a
+wind instrument when you hear it?"
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+MR. NIGHTHAWK EXPLAINS
+
+
+Mr. Nighthawk appeared to think it a great joke on Chirpy Cricket,
+because Chirpy had thought he played the fiddle. He laughed in a most
+disagreeable fashion. And he kept repeating that people who didn't know a
+wind instrument when they heard it couldn't know much about music.
+
+As for Chirpy, he didn't know just what to say. But at last he managed to
+stammer that he hoped he hadn't offended Mr. Nighthawk.
+
+"Not at all!" Mr. Nighthawk told him. "This is the funniest thing I've
+heard for a long time. It was worth coming all the way from the woods to
+enjoy a laugh over it."
+
+Of course it was very rude for Mr. Nighthawk to speak in such a way. But
+he was never polite to any of the smaller field-people, unless he
+happened to be coaxing them to jump, so that he might grab them when they
+were in the air. You may be sure he was as meek as he could be if he
+happened to meet Solomon Owl. But at that moment Solomon was far off in
+the hemlock woods. Only a short time before Mr. Nighthawk had heard his
+rolling call in the distance. So he felt quite safe in bullying so gentle
+a creature as Chirpy Cricket.
+
+Thinking that he ought to be polite to his caller, rude as he was, Chirpy
+asked Mr. Nighthawk if he wouldn't kindly play something.
+
+"I don't care if I do," said Mr. Nighthawk--meaning that he _did_ care,
+and that he _would_ play something. But it was not because he wanted to
+oblige anybody. He was proud of his booming. And he was only too glad of
+a chance to show Chirpy Cricket how loud he could make it sound.
+
+"Stay right there in that tree, if you will!" Chirpy said. "I won't move.
+I'll sit here and listen."
+
+"Ha, ha!" Mr. Nighthawk laughed. "I _knew_ you didn't know anything about
+wind instruments. When I make that booming sound I'm always on the wing.
+I'm going to take a flight now. And when I come back you'll hear a noise
+that is a noise--and not a squeaky chirp."
+
+Then Mr. Nighthawk left his perch and climbed up into the sky. And when
+he had risen high enough to suit him he dropped like a stone. It seemed
+to Chirpy Cricket that he had never heard anything so loud as the _boom_
+that broke not far above his head soon afterward. At the very moment when
+it looked as if Mr. Nighthawk must dash himself to pieces upon the
+ground, right where Chirpy Cricket crouched and trembled, he had spread
+his wings and checked his fall. It was the air, rushing through his
+wing-feathers with great force, that made the queer, hollow sound. That
+was why Mr. Nighthawk claimed that he made the booming on a wind
+instrument.
+
+"There!" he said, when he had settled himself in the tree once more. "If
+you think you can teach me to perform better, just try that trick
+yourself!"
+
+But Chirpy Cricket said that he was sure Mr. Nighthawk's performance
+couldn't be bettered by anybody. And he remarked that the noise reminded
+him of a high wind coming on top of a thunder storm.
+
+That pleased Mr. Nighthawk.
+
+"It's the greatest praise I've ever had!" he declared. And before Chirpy
+Cricket knew what had happened, Mr. Nighthawk had flown away.
+
+Chirpy often wondered why he left so suddenly. The truth was that Mr.
+Nighthawk had hurried back to the woods to tell his wife what Chirpy
+Cricket had said to him. And ever afterward he was fond of repeating
+Chirpy's remark, in a boasting way, until his neighbors were heartily
+tired of hearing it.
+
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+HARMLESS MR. MEADOW MOUSE
+
+
+One night when Chirpy Cricket was fiddling his prettiest, not far from
+the fence between the farmyard and the meadow, he had a queer feeling, as
+if somebody were gazing at him. And glancing up quickly, he saw that a
+plump person sat on a fence-rail, busily engaged in staring at him.
+
+"How-dy do!" Chirpy Cricket piped; for the fat, four-legged person looked
+both cheerful and harmless. "I take it you're fond of music."
+
+The stranger, whose name was Mr. Meadow Mouse, smiled. "I won't dispute
+your statement," he said.
+
+"Perhaps you play some instrument yourself," Chirpy observed.
+
+But Mr. Meadow Mouse shook his head.
+
+"No!" he replied. "No! To tell the truth, I haven't much time for that
+sort of thing. Besides, it seems to me somewhat dangerous. I was
+wondering, while I watched you, whether you weren't likely to fiddle
+yourself into bits--you were working so hard."
+
+Chirpy Cricket assured him that there wasn't the least danger.
+
+"All my family are famous fiddlers," he said. "And I've never heard of
+such an accident happening to any of them."
+
+Mr. Meadow Mouse appeared to be slightly disappointed.
+
+"I thought," he said, "I could pick up the pieces for you, in case you
+fell apart."
+
+Dark as he was, Chirpy Cricket almost turned pale.
+
+"You--you weren't intending to--to swallow the pieces, were you?" he
+stammered.
+
+"Dear me! No!" Mr. Meadow Mouse gasped. "I'm what's known as a
+vegetarian."
+
+Well, when he heard that, Chirpy Cricket made ready to jump out of the
+stranger's way. He didn't know what a vegetarian was; but it sounded
+terrible to him.
+
+Mr. Meadow Mouse must have guessed that Chirpy was uneasy. Anyhow, he
+hastened to explain that a vegetarian was one that ate only food that
+grew on plants of one kind or another.
+
+"I live for the most part on seeds and grain," he said. "So you see I'm
+quite harmless."
+
+Chirpy Cricket told him that he was glad to know it.
+
+"I'm a vegetarian myself," he added proudly, "for I eat blades of grass.
+And you see I'm harmless too."
+
+Mr. Meadow Mouse bestowed another fat smile on him.
+
+"Then," he said, "it must be quite safe for me to stay here and talk with
+you."
+
+Chirpy Cricket didn't know why the plump gentleman was smiling, unless it
+was because he felt easy in his mind. Chirpy couldn't help liking him, he
+was so friendly.
+
+"I'll play my favorite tune for you, if you wish," Chirpy offered, being
+eager to do something pleasant for his new acquaintance.
+
+"Do!" said Mr. Meadow Mouse. "And make it as lively as you please. For
+I've just dined well and I'm in a very cheerful mood."
+
+So Chirpy Cricket began his _cr-r-r-i!_ _cr-r-r-i! cr-r-r-i!_ while Mr.
+Meadow Mouse moved nearer and watched him closely. After a time he began
+to fidget. And at last he asked Chirpy if he wouldn't please be still for
+a moment, because there was something he wanted to say.
+
+Chirpy stopped fiddling.
+
+"I notice," said Mr. Meadow Mouse, "that you're having some trouble
+tuning up your fiddle. So if you don't mind I'll go over in the cornfield
+on a matter of business and come back here later. Then, no doubt, you'll
+be all ready to play a tune for me."
+
+Chirpy Cricket had to explain that he had been playing a tune all the
+time--that he always played on one note.
+
+So Mr. Meadow Mouse stayed and heard more of the fiddling. He begged
+Chirpy's pardon for his mistake. And he said that if he only had a fiddle
+he should like to learn the same tune himself. "Although," he added, "it
+must be very difficult to play always on the same note. It must take a
+great deal of practice."
+
+
+
+
+XXIII
+
+A WAIL IN THE DARK
+
+
+There was an odd cry that often interrupted the nightly concerts of the
+Cricket family. Chirpy Cricket had never heard it in the daytime. But
+when twilight began to wrap Pleasant Valley in its shadows, the strange,
+wailing call was almost sure to come quavering through the air. Somehow
+it always sent a shiver over Chirpy. And sometimes it made him lose a few
+notes--if he happened to be fiddling when he heard it.
+
+He learned that it was a dangerous bird known as Simon Screecher--a
+cousin of Solomon Owl--that made this uncanny call. If he had lived, like
+Solomon, across the meadow in the hemlock woods, Chirpy Cricket would
+have paid less heed to the noise he made. But Simon Screecher had his
+home in a hollow apple tree in Farmer Green's orchard.
+
+It was said--by those that claimed to know--that Simon Screecher slept in
+the daytime. But every tiny night-creature--the Katydids and the Crickets
+and all the rest--knew that after sunset Simon Screecher was as wide
+awake as anybody.
+
+It was no wonder that Chirpy Cricket was always uneasy when Simon
+screeched his warning that he was awake and looking for his supper.
+Chirpy knew that he could not depend on Simon to stay long in one place.
+Though you heard his screech in the orchard one moment, you might see him
+in the farmyard soon afterward. He never ate a whole meal in just one
+spot, but preferred to move about wherever his fancy took him. Simon
+himself said that he could eat off and on all night long, if he kept
+moving.
+
+Somehow Mr. Meadow Mouse had heard of this saying of Simon Screecher's.
+"You ought to crawl into your hole under the straw whenever Simon
+Screecher is about the neighborhood," he advised Chirpy one evening, when
+the two chanced to meet near the fence.
+
+"But Simon is around here every night," Chirpy replied. "If I stayed at
+home from dusk till dawn I couldn't take part in another concert all
+summer long."
+
+Mr. Meadow Mouse said that that would be a great pity.
+
+"Don't you suppose"--Chirpy asked him hopefully--"don't you suppose I
+could jump out of Simon Screecher's reach if he tried to catch me?"
+
+"You could find out by trying," said Mr. Meadow Mouse.
+
+So Chirpy Cricket began to feel more cheerful. He even fiddled a bit,
+thinking that he had no special reason to worry. And then all at once he
+stopped making music.
+
+Mr. Meadow Mouse had been searching about on the ground for seeds, while
+he was enjoying Chirpy's fiddling. And when the music came to a sudden
+end he looked up and saw that something was troubling the fiddler.
+
+"What's the matter now?" he inquired.
+
+"An unpleasant idea has just come into my head," Chirpy told him. "It
+would be very unlucky for me if I found that I wasn't spry enough to
+escape Simon Screecher!"
+
+Mr. Meadow Mouse had to admit that there was a good deal of truth in
+Chirpy's remark. But he said he was ready with another suggestion. "It's
+a good one, too," he declared.
+
+"What is it?" Chirpy asked him.
+
+"You'll have to think of some other way"--said Mr. Meadow Mouse--"some
+other way of being safe from Simon Screecher."
+
+
+
+
+XXIV
+
+FRIGHTENING SIMON SCREECHER
+
+
+Mr. Meadow Mouse acted as if he thought he had been a great help when he
+said that Chirpy Cricket would have to think of another way to avoid
+Simon Screecher's cruel talons. But the more Chirpy turned the matter
+over in his mind the further he seemed to be from any plan. For several
+days and nights he puzzled over his problem. And every time he heard
+Simon Screecher's unearthly wail he shivered so hard that his fiddling
+actually seemed to shiver too.
+
+Mr. Meadow Mouse inquired regularly whether Chirpy had hit upon any plan.
+And at last Mr. Meadow Mouse announced that he would have to think of one
+himself. So he sat down and looked very wise, while Chirpy Cricket
+fiddled for him, because Mr. Meadow Mouse explained that his wits always
+worked better when somebody made music for him.
+
+"Didn't you notice his cry a little while ago?" Mr. Meadow Mouse asked.
+"Didn't you notice how his voice trembled?"
+
+"Yes!" Chirpy said. "Yes! Now that you speak of it, I remember that his
+voice shook a good deal."
+
+"Ah!" Mr. Meadow Mouse exclaimed. "Something had frightened him. Now, you
+had just begun to fiddle before he cried out. And there's no doubt in my
+mind that your music scared Simon Screecher. So all you need do to feel
+safe from him is to fiddle a plenty every night."
+
+Chirpy Cricket felt so happy all at once that he began a lively tune. And
+sure enough! Simon Screecher squalled almost immediately.
+
+"That proves it!" Mr. Meadow Mouse exclaimed. And then he said good
+evening and ran off to the place where Farmer Green had been threshing
+oats, feeling very well pleased with himself.
+
+Chirpy Cricket took pains to follow Mr. Meadow Mouse's advice. And
+neither Simon Screecher--nor his cousin Solomon Owl--troubled Chirpy all
+the rest of the summer. He fiddled the nights away with more pleasure
+than ever before. And by the time fall came all his neighbors agreed that
+he had done even more than his part to make the summer gay for
+everybody.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF CHIRPY CRICKET***
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