Part 3 (1/2)

”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 fas.h.i.+on. But that happened only when Johnnie Green led old Ebenezer, or some other horse, to the watering-trough, pa.s.sing 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 c.o.c.k 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 gra.s.s 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!