Chapter 4

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.