The Cheerful Cricket and Others Part 3

"O, I don't know," said Chirk, "let's ask him to sing it, then we'll find out."

"All right, you do," said Chee.

Father Cricky was very glad to sing it, and this was the song he sang:

_Tree-Top Cantata

Moderately fast_

Swing tree top, swing, This morning bright Swing gold and green In gay sunlight Swing, tree-top, swing.

Swing tree top, swing In night time too, There's s.h.i.+ning stars, And falling dew, Swing, tree-top, swing.

THE WALKING STICK

The Walking Stick was soberly walking down the path looking spindly in every way: long, thin legs and a long thin body that were for all the world like a stick. Probably you have seen the Walking Stick many times and thought him just a twig. If you hadn't been in such a hurry you might have seen something interesting. Each time he picked up a leg, he seemed to wave it in the air before he put it down again. That was, I suppose, because he had to, each leg was so very long. The Walking Stick had been given the name of the "Parson" by some naughty little crickets, for no other reason, I am sure, than that he was so exceedingly grave.

Chee and Chirk and Chirp were the naughty crickets who gave him the name, and although Mrs. Cricky said it was unkind, yet other people took it up. Now Chee and Chirk were waiting for the "Parson" when they saw him come out of Gra.s.s Cottage, where he had been visiting Mrs. Cricky.

"Ss.h.!.+" said Chee, "don't make so much noise, he'll hear us. There!

Chirk, take that blade of gra.s.s and stretch it across the path. He'll never see it. They say he's always thinking about things that folks don't think about at all."

"Say," said Chirk, tugging at the blade of gra.s.s, "if I wind it around this b.u.t.tercup stalk, will that do?"

"Yes," replied Chee, "here he comes. Oh! I wish Chirp was here!"

Along came the "Parson," gravely swinging one leg after the other in the air and thinking with much pleasure of the kindliness of Mrs. Cricky who was always a very cordial hostess.

"Ss.h.!.+" whispered Chirk, "he's thinking of Miss K. T. Did. They say--"

But the sentence was never finished, for with a sprawl, the "Parson"

stumbled over the blade of gra.s.s and came down on the other side with a clatter.

"Tee-hee! Tee-hee! Tee-hee!" chirruped both Chee and Chirk, so amused at the funny tangle of legs in which the Walking Stick was, that they forgot to run away.

Now the "Parson's" long legs made great strides, and before they knew what had happened Chee was being soundly beaten. "Whack! Whack! Whack!"

went the Walking Stick on his little s.h.i.+ny black back.

"O! O! O!" cried Chee, "I'll never do it again!"

"No," said the "Parson," in a high thin voice, "I think you won't, you black imp!"

By this time Mrs. Cricky had come out to see what all the noise was about. When she heard the explanation, she said in a sorrowful tone:

"Chee and Chirk, is this the way I've brought you up? When your father hears of this he will be very angry. Come into the house with me at once." And into Gra.s.s Cottage they were marched.

When they were inside Gra.s.s Cottage Mrs. Cricky said in a sad way, that the worst thing anybody could do in his own house was to be inhospitable to strangers; that they had been rude to Mr. Walking Stick upon their own grounds. Then Mrs. Cricky went on to say that she feared they would never grow up to be gentle crickets if this was the way they intended to behave.

Both Chee and Chirk were too unhappy for words, and said they would never do it again, and that really they did not want to hurt anybody's feelings.

"Well," said Mrs. Cricky, "I don't see how you could forget so soon after that song your father taught you. We will sing it together again, and perhaps you will remember next time." And this was the song they sang:

_The Cricket Rule

Rather slow_

Chirp, for chirp is all our song Cheerful chirps Will help a long.

Do not say What will not cheer Try to soothe Each tiny fear

Chirp, for chirp is all our song Cheerful chirps Will help a long.

LADY BUG AND MRS. POE TATO-BUG

"Well," said Mrs. Poe Tato-Bug, "it's a pity such things have to go on.

What those horrid black Road-worms mean by eating up all the apple leaves is more than I can see."

Lady Bug listened to this outburst quietly, as if she had been accustomed to such words from her kinswoman. Finally she said:

"Really, I can't see that they do any more harm than--"

"Crack! Crack! Crack!" spluttered Mrs. Poe Tato-Bug, forgetting entirely the dignity of a hyphenated name; "hum! why, there won't be a single leaf on a single apple tree left to shade me and my family by time July comes. Hum, indeed!"

"Yes, my dear," said Lady Bug, who was always reasonable as well as gentle, "I understand all you say, but you know yourself that _we_ eat leaves."

"Huh!" sniffed Mrs. Poe Tato-Bug, "I can't see that it's the same thing at all. What good's a leaf to a Potato, now, just tell me that!"

"I only know this," replied Lady Bug, "last year Mrs. Cricket overheard Farmer Hayseed say that if he could get rid of the Poe Tato-Bug family he'd live twenty years longer. He said we ate up the leaves and made the roots good for nothing. I presume he meant our family"

"For a quiet body you can say the meanest things," exclaimed Mrs. Poe Tato-Bug. Just then Mrs. Cricket, head down, went hurrying by and said as she pa.s.sed,

"You'd better go home. Farmer Hayseed is pouring white stuff all over your houses. Most of your folks have left, but I saw little Poe and Tato still there."

"Dear me! O! O!" they both cried, "those children will be choked to death!" No two mothers could have hurried home faster. Lady Bug tried to give a little comfort on the way.

"I think," said she, "that Rose Bug will help the children, for all she lives in such a beautiful new home. Rose is so fond of Poe and Tato; and then, too, Bush Manor is not so far away."

Not one word did Mrs. Poe Tato-Bug say, but flying and jumping she hurried home. Her red speckled wings kept cracking louder and louder as she hurried along faster and faster.

"I wish you would not hurry so fast," said Lady Bug, gently, "really I am quite out of breath; and see! there is Farmer Hayseed way up at the other end of the patch. He hasn't reached our home yet."