Chapter 1

Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

THE CHEERFUL CRICKET AND OTHERS

JEANNETTE MARKS

ILLUSTRATED BY EDITH BROWN

TO

MY NEPHEW

HENRY DOUGLAS BACON

AND TO OTHER CHILDREN AS GOOD AND BAD

BIG OR LITTLE

THESE STORIES AND TALES ARE INSCRIBED

CONTENTS

THE CHEERFUL CRICKET THE SLOTHFUL TOAD THE SULLEN CATERPILLAR THE GREEN INCH WORM THE MEAN SPIDER THE MARSH GRASS VESPER QUARTETTE THE NOISY FLY THE DIZZY MOTH THE HONEST ANT THE WALKING STICK LADY BUG & MRS. POE TATO-BUG THE TUNEFUL HUMMING BIRD

CHEERFUL CRICKET

The Cheerful Cricket had been running around anxiously in the grass all the morning. Mrs. Cricky carried her head down, and when she ran she scuttled, and when she stopped she was absolutely still, except for her eyes, which she turned about brightly in every direction. Mrs. Cricky was looking for food for Chee, Chirk and Chirp. Usually Mr. Cricky brought home the food, but he was a member of the Marsh Grass Vesper Quartette--made up of himself, Miss K. T. Did, Mr. Frisky Frog and Mr. Tree Toad Todson, first cousin to Toadie Todson--and they had all been out very late the night before, so Mrs. Cricky didn't wish to disturb him.

At last Mrs. Cricky found what she wanted, and home she came. Chirp and Chee and Chirk were fed, and then it was time to begin school. Mrs. Cricky always taught her own children. She had rented three little toad-stools, not any bigger than tacks, from Toadie Todson, and these the children used for desks. She often said that she thought round-top desks better than flat, for then the children were not so likely to lean their elbows on them. School began promptly as the sun rose; nine o'clock would have seemed a lazy hour to the little Cricketses. The principal study Mrs. Cricky taught was Cheerfulness, much the same as you are taught reading and writing. She said that the whole duty of a cricket was to be cheerful. After this she gave them some lessons in Fear. These lessons were something like the things your mother tells you, such as, "Don't go near the water," "Fire burns," "Don't put beans in your ears," "Look before you leap;" only Mrs. Cricky told Chirp and Chee and Chirk never to go near one of old Stingy's spider-webs, and when they saw a giant coming with a fish pole in his hand, to hop away as fast as they could. Then, too, she said there was a four-footed animal, called a cat, that caught little crickets to eat them up. After this they all chirruped together as she waved a blade of grass to keep time, then she rang a blue-bell and school was over. She put three little clover-leaf sunbonnets on them and sent them out into the sun to play.

Now Chirp and Chee and Chirk were like other little boys and girls who do not learn their lessons very well. And Chee was careless about listening to his lessons in Fear. They went right out with their three little clover-leaf sunbonnets on and down to the edge of the lake. Chee climbed way up to the top end of a large blade of grass, and was balancing there, much as you like to on a spring-board, when accidentally he fell into the lake. Chirp and Chirk ran to and fro, frightened to death, calling for help. But nobody heard them. In the meantime Chee was kicking in the water and making a great fuss, when a big oak leaf floated by, and Chee scrambled on. If, however, the leaf had not come at just that moment Chee would have drowned. When the leaf floated in shore they all went home and told Mother Cricky. She stopped chirruping for quite a long time and didn't say anything at all. When Mrs. Cricky began to chirrup again she said it served them just right, and she hoped it had taught them all a lesson. Then they all chirruped together, because Chee was safe, and Mrs. Cricky said: "Now let us all sing a little song to show that we are happy." And this is the song they sang:

_Jump, Jump_

_Rather Fast_

Jump, jump everywhere, How we like the summer air, Chirp, chirp, chirp in tune, On the grass beneath the moon.

THE SLOTHFUL TOAD

The slothful Toad (his real name was Toadie Todson) crawled out of his hole and looked about. He saw a Bee near by buzzing busily over a rich large clover blossom, and a sturdy Ant dragging a white parcel marked "Food" toward a round sandy house, and a cheery little Cricket marching rapidly up a green stalk in search of a dinner for three hungry little Cricketses. It was a busy time for all except Toadie Todson.

The spring had just come, that much Toadie Todson knew, and all these neighbors were busy putting their houses in order. Well, the Bee was stocking his honeycomb house, the Ant was putting her summer pantry into order and filling it with cookies, cream cheese, cake, and honey that her Majesty, the Queen Bee, sent over every day. And the Cricket, although his house was out of doors under a big green oak leaf that had dropped to the ground, was busy piling up all the food he could find for Mrs. Cricky to guard while she nursed the three little Cricketses.

Toadie Todson was tired to see so much going on. He wished they would all be quiet and stop hurrying around. He drew a long sigh, which made him swell up and look rounder and fatter than ever. Why couldn't his neighbors feed as he did? He just sat there and opened his big red slit of a mouth, gave a lazy snap, and a noisy fly, still buzzing, was swallowed up. He moved a little further away from his hole, dragging one fat, squashy leg after the other, then down he squatted again.

A little ball of green inch-worm dropped off the bush on to Toadie Todson's back and began to measure its length over Toadie's big warts and veins. It made him feel very important to have an inch-worm all to himself to tickle his back, as important as an Egyptian Queen with a slave to tickle the sole of her foot all the hot afternoon long. Toadie Todson swelled with pride as the green inch-worm went measuring up and down, up and down his back.

The Busy Bee just then flew buzzing by and buzzed to Toadie as he went: "There's a sand-slide rolling down this way. I'm getting out's fast as I can." When the Bee said sand-slide it sounded just like "Sz-sz-sz--z-z-z-z--ide." Toadie Todson opened his fat eyes and dropped his mouth in an ugly laugh. It made him sick to see any one in such a hurry. Then the Honest Ant went scurrying past and very kindly gave him the same message. But Toadie only sneered the more. He had been living in this very spot for years, almost as many as you have lived, and nothing had ever happened to him. No, he would stay right there, it was too much trouble to move for anybody. The green inch-worm was very green, and went on measuring Toadie Todson's back, for it didn't understand a word the Bee and Ant had said,

Suddenly, gravel, gravel, gravel, slip, slip, slip--and Toadie Todson was under mountains of sand with a great big rock square on his back. The green inch-worm began to bore its way out of the sand; it could hear Toadie Todson groaning and saying:

"O! O! I wish I'd never been so lazy. I might have lived an' been as happy and rich as the Bee or the Ant. O, O!"

And the green inch-worm knew that Toadie Todson was dead.

Not more than six hours after this Mrs. Cricky overheard the green inch-worm practising a tune. It pleased her so much that she tried to sing it again to Father Cricky for the Marsh Grass Vesper Quartette. Of course it was all about Toadie Todson, and this was it:

_A Lament

Very slowly_

Mournful, mournful notes, In our little throats we sing Flowers, flowers dead, For our Toadie's head we bring

THE SULLEN CATERPILLAR

All the little green Inch-Worms and the energetic, thin Road-Worms called him Glummie for short, although his whole name was Longinus Rotundus Caterpillar. That's a very long, hard name, and they couldn't be bothered with a name like that for such a sulky fellow as he. And for fear I shall take too long telling my story about him, we also will call him, not Longinus Rotundus Caterpillar, but Glummie. Glummie was born into a most talented and attractive family--that means a family that could do many things very well and was pretty to look at; but from the time he went out to eat his own leaves he was sullen. Nobody knew exactly what was the matter. It is true his sisters were prettier than he, for they had long yellow hair that waved all over a silky green body, and they had dark yellow-brown eyes. But a boy should not mind having his sisters prettier than he. And he had an older brother they all called "Squirm." He was very much liked; he was browner and larger than Glummie, and he was always doing nice things for his brother, and Glummie shouldn't have been jealous.

But, however all that might be, this day Glummie was sulking away in the grass, and making himself generally disliked. Two Katydids had said a pleasant "Good-morning" to him, and almost jumped out of their green coats when he snapped out, "It ain't" Mrs. Cricky in passing by chirped pleasantly, and Glummie glowered so out of his great, fierce red-brown eyes at her that she hurried on, in terror of her life. There was only one thing snappier than he on the grass by the lake shore that morning, and that was the Snapping Turtle. Presently a Locust came along and turned on his buzzing hum right in Glummie's ear. Then Glummie was furious, raised his head and struck at the Locust. Now the Locust was a tease, and this pleased him immensely. So he cracked his wings right in the very face of Glummie and began to sing:

_The Firefly Song

Not too fast_

Dancing, dancing, Fire--flies dancing, Flash your wings, Frog-gie sings, Dance my little wings, dance.

Glummie fairly raged, till the hairs all over his fat body stood up straight, and his long stiff whiskers--and he had whiskers on both his head and his tail--fairly bristled. He grumbled out that he didn't see why he couldn't live in peace in the grass; that all he wanted was to be let alone. Then he said he knew how he could get away from the society of worms and crickets and katydids he hated, and all the deafening noises they made to drive him crazy. Thereupon, with a sulky twist of his head, he crawled toward the road. He had just crawled into the first wheel-rut when a big, jouncing, yellow Kentucky cart came by and made an end of Longinus Rotundus Caterpillar.

Mrs. Cricky said the moral of his end was very plain to her. She told all the little Cricketses that you couldn't expect to speak sullenly to people and have them like you, and that you couldn't expect to live away from the society of other people without having something killed in you. Mrs. Cricky called it love; and then, perhaps a little inconsistently (ask your mother what that means), she added, she for one was glad Glummie was dead.

GREEN INCH-WORM

Greenie, Toadie Todson's Green Inch-Worm, was measuring his way carefully around a birch tree. Since Toadie Todson's death, he spent a large part of every day looking at trees and measuring distances, so that Stingy could spin his webs in the best manner possible.

All the rainbow qualities of web were spun on white birch trees. Greenie was humming over mournfully to himself the song which Mr. Tree Toad Todson had composed in memory of his cousin Toadie Todson--A Lament. Greenie sang the words over and over again and seemed, as his voice grew more and more mournful, to be happier and still happier. That is often the way with melancholy people. Greenie felt he had good reason to be unhappy. Not so long ago his first cousin, Longinus Rotundus Caterpillar, or by his more familiar name Glummie, had been killed. Then his master, Toadie Todson, with whom he at least had a lazy time, was killed in a sand slide. And now he spent all his days at work for Stingy, who was a very exacting master. If he so much as stopped to nibble a little from a tender green birch leaf, Stingy would fly at him and bid him go to work at once.

But one day Greenie discovered something about him which he intended to use to good advantage. Stingy was in love. Every day at certain hours Stingy went quietly off, and one day Greenie followed him. There down in the meadow under a big apple tree he found Stingy together with five other spiders. They were arranged in a row before Silken Web, more often called Silkie, whom they were courting, and Silkie was waiting, ready to accept the spider who did best. Out danced the first spider. The shining hairs all over his body glistened in the sun, now he seemed silver, now jet black, now crimson as he whirled, jumping lightly into the air. Silkie looked for a second and then turned her head away. It was plain she would have none of him. Off dejectedly crawled the first spider.

Greenie watched, fascinated by this bright colored little spectacle under the blossoming apple tree. Then his eyes grew dark and angry. He had to work when he was hungry. He had not had a single holiday for over a month, he had been spoken to crossly, his Family Tree had been scoffed at, he--well, he had had enough of this!

The last fine cobweb Stingy spun it was Greenie's business to fold and put away carefully in the centre of a buttercup. He would get it and be back before it was time for Stingy to dance. He measured his way quickly over to the buttercup, his little back fairly popped into the air every other half second as he went furiously humping himself along. He found the cobweb covered with the gold dust of the buttercup, and taking it up hastily he hurried back. He knew just the spot where Stingy would dance before Silkie, beside a tall piece of Timothy Grass.

The fifth spider was finishing his dance as Greenie reached the bottom of the Timothy Grass stalk. Out came Stingy with a fierce and self-confident air which plainly said, "All the other five have failed, now I am about to succeed." He looked at Silkie, then began to dance. First he whirled round madly, and so swift and light was he that he seemed to have wings. His broad back and thin, tufted legs shone with dusky, golden colors. After whirling around he hopped several times lightly into the air.

In the meantime Greenie climbed the stalk and was waiting. Stingy was just about to do a sideways-hop, when over him fell inches and inches of his own gold dusted cobweb. Down he tumbled, his legs all tangled up in the web. Fiercely he fought to get out, while off scuttled the other spiders leaving him to his Fate. For a minute, the little green hairs on Greenie's back stuck up straight with merriment. Then complacently he measured his way home to his own Family Tree. Mrs. Cricky as she passed him heard him muttering: "It's a long worm that has no turning, a _very_ long worm that has no turning!"

"Well," said Mrs. Cricky, "that may be true, but it is none of a cricket's business; it is just as well not to take part in other people's quarrels. Your Father says the _Cricket Rule_ is the best precept for living he has ever known, and your Father, children, is a very wise cricket. I dare say Greenie has had a hard time, but then, lazy worms often do. Now let us sing a little song about these flowers we've been hopping about in; it's pleasanter. Chirp, don't sing too loud, Chirk, not too fast, and Chee, don't mumble your words:"

_Golden Flowers

Fast_

"Everywhere you go You see them dancing, Flowers dancing In the sunlight.

"Nodding heads are shining Like the dew-drops, Sparkling dew-drops, Shining gayly."

THE MEAN SPIDER

Old Stingy sat in the midst of his spider-web, as some old Giant used to sit in his fortress waiting to pounce upon innocent people to kill them and eat them. Stingy's shoulders were all humped up, and his eight claws looked very ugly. He had already tangled up one Noisy Fly, and now he sat waiting for another. Everybody hated him; even Toadie Todson went out of his way to give a lazy snap at Stingy.

All day long Stingy spun webs, caught noisy flies and even other spiders, and yet nobody ever knew what he did with his webs or with the flies he caught. Stingy had never been heard to say one word, and when he wanted exercise, he hung by his leg to a thin cobweb and dangled up and down. But if he saw anything coming he gave a jump, and back he went again into his web. There he would sit with his shoulders humped and his big mean black eyes fairly popping out of his head.

For once in his life Stingy was feeling a little sleepy the evening that something happened to him. All day long the wind had been blowing very hard, and Stingy had to rebuild a great many cobwebs that were blown down. Suddenly he started up. Something was struggling in his web. What do you suppose it was? Nothing less than a beautiful little yellow-winged moth that was caught and was beating his wings and fluttering to get out. Stingy rose slowly and moved his humpy shoulders toward the moth. Quietly he stole on and in a minute more the moth would be choked to death. On, on went Stingy, the tiny yellow moth fluttering more and more feebly. But just at the moment Stingy was almost on the moth, a beak ripped open the web and Stingy went tumbling to the ground while the yellow moth fluttered away toward the waxy white flowers of the nearest syringa bush. The moth had time to see Hummy go whirring off, and that night she told the fireflies and glow-worms and other moths all about it. And each one had some other good deed of Hummy's to relate.

But perhaps you would like to know what became of Stingy? When the web was broken and he tumbled to the ground, he fell into the open mouth of the Frisky Frog, who gave a comfortable croak as he swallowed him. Nobody was sorry that Stingy was swallowed. Mrs. Cricky said it served him right, but then, poor Mrs. Cricky's good wishes were often lost in anxiety, lest harm should come to one of her own little Cricketses, for Stingy, fifteen days before, had been known to smother and eat a little cricket not more than a minute old. Mrs. Cricky herself would probably have been the last person to hurt Stingy, only she could not help feeling relieved; she said it wasn't in cricket-nature to feel otherwise.

Father Cricky was usually too busy singing songs for the Marsh Grass Vesper Quartette to make remarks. But this time he agreed with Mrs. Cricky and said they would all better have their evening song and go to sleep. And this was the song they sang:

_Lullabye

Not too fast_

Come, see where the night winds sleep And the dews fall on the ground, While the trees a-rustling keep, And the stars turn round and round. There little frogs leap and croak, And little eels slip and slide, And the crabs lie still and soak, While the marsh is singing wide. The sand hills sleep 'neath the moon And blink away at the sea, While they sing a little sand tune Which is plain as plain can be.

Lullabye, Sleep away, Say, my little one, Bye-bye to the day.

THE MARSH GRASS VESPER QUARTETTE

It was toward evening, and the Marsh Grass Vesper Quartette was seated at the edge of Shiner Pond. The Quartette always gathered here about dusk upon a broad flat toad-stool which grew at the foot of a spreading oak. Mr. Tree Toad Todson had leased this toad-stool for the summer season from his first cousin, the unfortunate Toadie Todson. From pieces of straw he had built up to the edge of it a short flight of steps so that Miss K. T. Did, their first soprano, found it easy to mount to the platform.

To-night was a special evening and the attendance was large. Out on the pond the Snapping Turtles were moving swiftly from one log to another, bearing upon their backs groups of Fireflies. The Fireflies were there in numbers this night, because one of the selections on the program was a "Firefly Dance," composed by Mr. Frisky Frog, and to be danced by Miss K. T. Did. The other members of the Quartette were to sing the song while Miss Katy danced. It spoiled the effect somewhat to lose her clear high soprano, but Mr. Tree Toad Todson filled in with his penetrating tenor, and it was rumored that the Composition would be a great success.

As nearly as I can remember it, this was the program for that evening.

_Sixth Annual In-Season Out of Door Concert

of

The Marsh Grass Vesper Quartette_

June the twenty-sixth,

Nineteen-hundred-and-six

Shiner Pond Pavilion

_Members_

Miss K. T. Did.... _Soprano_

Mr. Tree Toad Todson.... _Tenor_

Mr. Cricky... _Baritone_ Mr. Frisky Frog, 3d... _Bass_ Assisted by Miss Glo Worm Mr. Fiah Fli, Jr.

PROGRAM

I. _A Warm Night_ Herr June Bug Rendered by Mr. Cricky II. _The Firefly Dance_ Mr. Frisky Frog Danced by Miss K. T. Did III. _The Moonbeam Song_ Miss Glo Worm (Intermission) IV. _A Lullabye_ Mr. T. Toad Todson Mr. T. Toad Todson Assisted by Mrs. Frisky Frog V. _A Lament_ Mr. T. Toad Todson (In memory of Toadie Todson) Sung by T. Toad Todson VI. _Mosquito Aria_ Mr. Cricky Sung by Miss K. T. Did

VII. _There's Dreamland Coming_

The Quartette

Assisted by Miss Glo Worm and Mr. Fiah Fli, Jr.

It would be impossible to give the whole program without taking you right into the concert. The Lullabye Mrs. Frisky Frog sang together with Mr. T. Toad Todson, and sang very beautifully. She had sung it a great many times to her own little children while they were still polly-wogs. Only when she sang it to them she altered the chorus Mrs. Frisky Frog changed the chorus for her little ones because she knew well enough that her pollywogs never slept at night. At least I never saw any asleep at night of all those who swarm in black clumps there on the edge of Shiner's Pond in the moonlight. But I have not told you yet how Mrs. Frisky Frog sang the chorus.

Wiggle wog Woggle wig Sing my pollywog A tune to every jig.

Once while they were practising the lullabye at rehearsal, Mrs. Frisky Frog forgot, and through force of habit sang the chorus she had made up for her own little polly-woggles. But, dear me! Mr. T. Toad Todson flew into a towering rage and croaked at her till he was fairly hoarse. "Non-sense! Non-sense! Non-sense!" he jerked out, and when finally he could control himself he spluttered aloud that he had never in his life written such nonsense. You remember it was he who composed the song. Poor Mrs. Frisky Frog's eyes rolled back a little further than usual, and her throat jumped up and down with fear. It did not do to speak crossly to Mrs. Frisky, she was so tenderhearted and was never known to speak a cross word to her own little ones, or for that matter to any one. Mrs. Cricky, one day while she was talking with Mrs. Poe Tato-Bug, said that she knew of only one model mother in the community and that was the admirable mother of those ugly little pollywogs. Here Mrs. Cricky heaved a proud sigh as she thought of her own little darlings, Chee and Chirk and Chirp, decked out in their pretty little clover sun-bonnets.

But to go back to Mrs. Frisky Frog. Mr. Frisky Frog, who was a member of the Quartette, became so angry with Mr. T. Toad Todson for the angry croaking at his wife that his eyes fairly glowered at him. Mrs. Cricky always called that kind of anger in Mr. Cricky "righteous indignation." Peace was soon restored, however, as Mr. Tree Toad Todson, very much of a gentleman at heart, was most anxious to ask pardon for this display of temper.