Ex Libris 
 C. K. OGDEN 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 

 
 HAYING IN THE MEADOW
 
 AMONG THE MEADOW PEOPLE 
 
 CLARA DILLINGHAM PlERSON 
 
 Illustrated by F. C. GORDON 
 
 NEW AND ENLARGED EDITION 
 
 NEW YORK 
 E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 
 
 31 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET
 
 COPYRIGHT 
 E. P. DUTTON & CO. 
 
 COPYRIGHT 
 
 CLARA DILLINGHAM PIERSOS 
 1901 
 
 Vbe Knickerbocker (trees, flew fiord
 
 QL 
 
 7*11 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PACK 
 
 INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 THE BUTTERFLY THAT WENT CALLING . . 1 
 
 THE ROBINS BUILD A NEST .... 14 
 
 THE SELFISH TENT-CATERPILLAR ... 22 
 
 THE LAZY SNAIL 31 
 
 AN ANT THAT WORE WINGS .... 37 
 THE CHEERFUL HARVESTMEN ... 42 
 THE LITTLE SPIDER'S FIRST WEB ... 50 
 THE BEETLE WHO DID NOT LIKE CATERPIL- 
 LARS 56 
 
 THE YOUNG ROBIN WHO WAS AFRAID TO FLY. 6l 
 
 THE CRICKETS' SCHOOL 71 
 
 THE CONTENTED EARTHWORMS ... 76 
 
 THE MEASURING WORM'S JOKE . . 8 1 
 
 A PUZZLED CICADA 87 
 
 THE TREE FROG'S STORY .... 93 
 
 THE DAY WHEN THE GRASS WAS CUT . . IOI 
 THE GRASSHOPPER AND THE MEASURING WORM 
 
 RUN A RACE 109 
 
 MR. GREEN FROG AND HIS VISITORS . .114 
 
 THE DIGNIFIED WALKING-STICKS . . . I2O 
 
 3 
 
 1023386
 
 4 Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE DAY OF THE GREAT STORM . . .128 
 
 THE STORY OF LILY-PAD ISLAND . . . 134 
 
 THE GRASSHOPPER WHO WOULD N'T BE 
 
 SCARED . 142 
 
 THE EARTHWORM HALF-BROTHERS . 15! 
 
 A GOSSIPING FLY 156 
 
 THE FROG-HOPPERS GO OUT INTO THE WORLD. l6l 
 THE MOSQUITO TRIES TO TEACH HIS NEIGH- 
 BORS 171 
 
 THE FROG WHO THOUGHT HERSELF SICK . 177 
 
 THE KATYDID'S QUARREL .... 183 
 
 THE LAST PARTY OF THE SEASON . 1 88
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 MANY of these stories of field life were 
 written for the little ones of my kinder- 
 garten, and they gave so much pleasure, 
 and aroused 'such a new interest in "the 
 meadow people," that it has seemed wise 
 to collect and add to the original number 
 and send them out to a larger circle of 
 boys and girls. 
 
 All mothers and teachers hear the cry 
 for "just one more," and find that there 
 are times when the bewitching tales of 
 animals, fairies, and " really truly " children 
 are all exhausted, and tired imagination 
 will not supply another. In selecting the 
 tiny creatures of field and garden for the 
 characters in this book, I have remem- 
 bered with pleasure the way in which my 
 
 5
 
 6 Introduction. 
 
 loyal pupils befriended stray crickets and 
 grasshoppers, their intense appreciation of 
 the new realm of fancy and observation, 
 and the eagerness and attention with which 
 they sought Mother Nature, the most won- 
 derful and tireless of all story-tellers. 
 
 CLARA DILLINGHAM PIERSON. 
 
 Stanton, Michigan, 
 April 8th, 1897.
 
 WENT CALL1NO 
 
 As the warm August days 
 came, Mr. Yellow Butterfly 
 wriggled and pushed in his 
 snug little green chrysalis and 
 wished he could get out to see 
 the world. He remembered 
 the days when he was a hairy 
 little Caterpillar, crawling 
 slowly over grass and leaves, 
 and he remembered how beau- 
 tiful the sky and all the flowers 
 were. Then he thought of 
 the new wings which had been 
 growing from his back, and he 
 
 7
 
 8 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 tried to move them, just to see how it 
 would feel. He had only six legs since 
 his wings grew, and he missed all the 
 sticky feet which he had to give up when 
 he began to change into a Butterfly. 
 
 The more he thought about it the more 
 he squirmed, until suddenly he heard a 
 faint little sound, too faint for larger 
 people to hear, and found a tiny slit in 
 the wall of his chrysalis. It was such a 
 dainty green chrysalis with white wrinkles, 
 that it seemed almost a pity to have it 
 break. Still it had held him for eight 
 days already and that was as long as any 
 of his family ever hung in the chrysalis, 
 so it was quite time for it to be torn open 
 and left empty. Mr. Yellow Butterfly 
 belonged to the second brood that had 
 hatched that year and he wanted to be 
 out while the days were still fine and hot. 
 Now he crawled out of the newly-opened 
 doorway to take his first flight. 
 
 Poor Mr. Butterfly ! He found his wings
 
 The Butterfly that Went Calling. 9 
 
 so wet and crinkled that they would n't 
 work at all, so he had to sit quietly in the 
 sunshine all day drying them. And just 
 as they got big, and smooth, and dry, it 
 grew dark, and Mr. Butterfly had to crawl 
 under a leaf to sleep. 
 
 The next morning, bright and early, he 
 flew away to visit the flowers. First he 
 stopped to see the Daisies by the road- 
 side. They were all dancing in the wind, 
 and their bright faces looked as cheerful 
 as anyone could wish. They were glad 
 to see Mr. Butterfly, and wished him to 
 stay all day with them. He said: "You 
 are very kind, but I really could n't think 
 of doing it. You must excuse my saying 
 it, but I am surprised to think you will 
 grow here. It is very dusty and dry, and 
 then there is no shade. I am sure I could 
 have chosen a better place." 
 
 The Daisies smiled and nodded to each 
 other, saying, " This is the kind of place 
 we were made for, that 's all."
 
 io Among the Meadow People. 
 
 Mr. Butterfly shook his head very doubt- 
 fully, and then bade them a polite " Good- 
 morning," and flew away to call on the 
 Cardinals. 
 
 The Cardinals are a very stately family, 
 as everybody knows. They hold their 
 heads very high, and never make deep 
 bows, even to the wind, but for all that 
 they are a very pleasant family to meet. 
 They gave Mr. Butterfly a dainty lunch 
 of honey, and seemed much pleased when 
 he told them how beautiful the river 
 looked in the sunlight. 
 
 " It is a delightful place to grow," said 
 they. 
 
 " Ye-es," said Mr. Butterfly, " it is very 
 pretty, still I do not think it can be health- 
 ful. I really cannot understand why you 
 flowers choose such strange homes. Now, 
 there are the Daisies, where I just called. 
 They are in a dusty, dry place, where there 
 is no shade at all. I spoke to them about 
 it, and they acted quite uppish."
 
 The Butterfly that Went Calling. 1 1 
 
 " But the Daisies always do choose such 
 places," said the Cardinals. 
 
 " And your family," said Mr. Butterfly, 
 " have lived so long in wet places that it 
 is a wonder you are alive. Your color is 
 good, but to stand with one's roots in 
 water all the time ! It is shocking." 
 
 " Cardinals and Butterflies live differ- 
 ently," said the flowers. " Good-morn- 
 ing." 
 
 Mr. Butterfly left the river and flew 
 over to the woods. He was very much 
 out of patience. He was so angry that 
 his feelers quivered, and now you know 
 how angry he must have been. He knew 
 that the Violets were a very agreeable 
 family, who never put on airs, so he went 
 at once to them. 
 
 He had barely said "Good-morning" 
 to them when he began to explain what 
 had displeased him. 
 
 " To think," he said, " what notions 
 some flowers have ! Now, you have a
 
 12 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 pleasant home here in the edge of the 
 woods. I have been telling the Daisies 
 and the Cardinals that they should grow 
 in such a place, but they would n't 
 listen to me. The Daisies were quite 
 uppish about it, and the Cardinals were 
 very stiff." 
 
 " My dear friend," answered a Violet, 
 " they could never live if they moved up 
 into our neighborhood. Every flower has 
 his own place in this world, and is happiest 
 in that place. Everything has its own 
 place and its own work, and every flower 
 that is wise will stay in the place for which 
 it was intended. You were exceedingly 
 kind to want to help the flowers, but sup- 
 pose they had been telling you what to 
 do. Suppose the Cardinals had told you 
 that flying around was not good for your 
 health, and that to be truly well you 
 ought to grow planted with your legs in 
 the mud and water." 
 
 "Oh!" said Mr. Butterfly, " Oh ! I
 
 The Butterfly that Went Calling. 13 
 
 never thought of that. Perhaps Butter- 
 flies don't know everything." 
 
 " No," said the Violet, " they don't know 
 everything, and you have n't been out of 
 your chrysalis very long. But those who 
 are ready to learn can always find some- 
 one to tell them. Won't you eat some 
 honey ? " 
 
 And Mr. Butterfly sipped honey and 
 was happy.
 
 THE ROBINS BUILD A NEST. 
 
 WHEN Mr. and Mrs. Robin built in the 
 spring, they were not quite agreed as to 
 where the nest should be. Mr. Robin 
 was a very decided bird, and had made 
 up his mind that the lowest crotch of a 
 maple tree would be the best place. He 
 even went so far as to take three billfuls 
 of mud there, and stick in two blades of 
 dry grass. Mrs. Robin wanted it on the 
 end of the second rail from the top of 
 the split-rail fence. She said it was high 
 enough from the ground to be safe and 
 dry, and not so high that a little bird 
 falling out of it would hurt himself very 
 much. Then, too, the top rail was broad 
 at the end and would keep the rain off 
 so well. 
 
 14
 
 The Robins Build a Nest. 15 
 
 " And the nest will be just the color 
 of the rails," said she, " so that even a 
 Red Squirrel could hardly see it." She 
 disliked Red Squirrels, and she had 
 reason to, for she had been married be- 
 fore, and if it had not been for a Red 
 Squirrel, she might already have had 
 children as large as she was. 
 
 " I say that the tree is the place for it," 
 said Mr. Robin, " and I wear the bright- 
 est breast feathers." He said this because 
 in bird families the one who wears the 
 brightest breast feathers thinks he has 
 the right to decide things. 
 
 Mrs. Robin was wise enough not to 
 answer back when he spoke in this way. 
 She only shook her feathers, took ten 
 quick running steps, tilted her body for- 
 ward, looked hard at the ground, and 
 pulled out something for supper. After 
 that she fluttered around the maple tree 
 crotch as though she had never thought 
 of any other place. Mr. Robin wished
 
 1 6 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 he had not been quite so decided, or 
 reminded her of his breast feathers. 
 " After all," thought he, " I don't know 
 but the fence-rail would have done." He 
 thought this, but he did n't say it. It is 
 not always easy for a Robin to give up 
 and let one with dull breast feathers know 
 that he thinks himself wrong. 
 
 That night they perched in the maple- 
 tree and slept with their heads under 
 their wings. Long before the sun was 
 in sight, when the first beams were just 
 touching the tops of the forest trees, they 
 awakened, bright-eyed and rested, preened 
 their feathers, sang their morning song, 
 " Cheerily, cheerily, cheer-up," and flew 
 off to find food. After breakfast they 
 began to work on the nest. Mrs. Robin 
 stopped often to look and peck at the 
 bark. " It will take a great deal of mud," 
 said she, " to fill in that deep crotch until 
 we reach a place wide enough for the 
 nest."
 
 The Robins Build a Nest. 17 
 
 At another time she said : "My dear, 
 I am afraid that the dry grass you are 
 bringing is too light-colored. It shows 
 very plainly against the maple bark. 
 Can't you find some that is darker ? " 
 
 Mr. Robin hunted and hunted, but 
 could find nothing which was darker. As 
 he flew past the fence, he noticed that it 
 was almost the color of the grass in his 
 bill. 
 
 After a while, soft gray clouds began to 
 cover the sky. " I wonder," said Mrs. 
 Robin, "if it will rain before we get this 
 done. The mud is soft enough now to 
 work well, and this place is so open that 
 the rain might easily wash away all that 
 we have done." 
 
 It did rain, however, and very soon. 
 The great drops came down so hard that 
 one could only think of pebbles falling. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Robin oiled their feathers 
 as quickly as they could, taking the oil 
 from their back pockets and putting it
 
 1 8 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 onto their feathers with their bills. This 
 made the finest kind of waterproof and 
 was not at all heavy to wear. When the 
 rain was over they shook themselves and 
 looked at their work. 
 
 " I believe," said Mrs. Robin to her 
 husband, "that you are right in saying 
 that we might better give up this place 
 and begin over again somewhere else." 
 
 Now Mr. Robin could not remember 
 having said that he thought anything of 
 the sort, and he looked very sharply at 
 his wife, and cocked his black head on 
 one side until all the black and white 
 streaks on his throat showed. She did 
 not seem to know that he was watching 
 her as she hopped around the partly built 
 nest, poking it here and pushing it there, 
 and trying her hardest to make it look 
 right. He thought she would say some- 
 thing, but she did n't. Then he knew he 
 must speak first. He flirted his tail and 
 tipped his head and drew some of his
 
 The Robins Build a Nest. 19 
 
 brown wing-feathers through his bill. 
 Then he held himself very straight and 
 tall, and said, " Well, if you do agree with 
 me, I think you might much better stop 
 working here and begin in another place." 
 
 " It seems almost too bad," said she. 
 " Of course there are other places, 
 but " 
 
 By this time Mr. Robin knew exactly 
 what to do. " Plenty of them," said he. 
 " Now don't fuss any longer with this. 
 That place on the rail fence is an excellent 
 one. I wonder that no other birds have 
 taken it." As he spoke he flew ahead to 
 the very spot which Mrs. Robin had first 
 chosen. 
 
 She was a very wise bird, and knew far 
 too much to say, " I told you so." Say- 
 ing that, you know, always makes things 
 go wrong. She looked at the rail fence, 
 ran along the top of it, toeing in prettily 
 as she ran, looked around in a surprised 
 way, and said, " Oh, that place ? "
 
 2O Among the Meadow People. 
 
 "Yes, Mrs. Robin," said her husband, 
 " that place. Do you see anything wrong 
 about it ? " 
 
 " No-o," she said. " I think I could 
 make it do." 
 
 Before long another nest was half built, 
 and Mrs. Robin was working away in the 
 happiest manner possible, stopping every 
 little while to sing her afternoon song : 
 " Do you think what you do ? Do you 
 think what you do? Do you thi-ink?" 
 
 Mr. Robin was also at work, and such 
 billfuls of mud, such fine little twigs, and 
 such big wisps of dry grass as went into 
 that home ! Once Mr. Robin was gone a 
 long time, and when he came back he had 
 a beautiful piece of white cotton string 
 dangling from his beak. That they put 
 on the outside. "Not that we care to 
 show off," said they, " but somehow that 
 seemed to be the best place to put it." 
 
 Mr. Robin was very proud of his nest 
 and of his wife. He never went far away
 
 The Robins Build a Nest. 21 
 
 if he could help it. Once she heard him 
 'tell Mr. Goldfinch that, " Mrs. Robin was 
 very sweet about building where he chose, 
 and that even after he insisted on chang- 
 ing places from the tree to the fence she 
 was perfectly good-natured." 
 
 " Yes," said Mrs. Robin to Mrs. Gold- 
 finch, " I was perfectly good-natured." 
 Then she gave a happy, chirpy little laugh, 
 and Mrs. Goldfinch laughed, too. They 
 were perfectly contented birds, even if they 
 did n't wear the brightest breast feathers 
 or insist on having their own way. And 
 Mrs. Robin had been married before.
 
 THE SELFISH TENT-CATER- 
 PILLAR. 
 
 ONE could hardly call the Tent-Cater- 
 pillars meadow people, for they did not 
 often leave their trees to crawl upon the 
 ground. Yet the Apple-Tree Tent-Cater- 
 pillars would not allow anybody to call 
 them forest people. " We live on apple 
 and wild cherry trees," they said, "and 
 you will almost always find us in the 
 orchards or on the roadside trees. There 
 are Forest Tent-Caterpillars, but please 
 don't get us mixed with them. We be- 
 long to another branch of the family, the 
 Apple-Tree branch." 
 
 The Tree Frog said that he remembered 
 perfectly well when the eggs were laid on 
 the wild cherry tree on the edge of the
 
 The Selfish Tent-Caterpillar. 23 
 
 meadow. "It was early last summer," 
 he said, " and the Moth who laid them was 
 a very agreeable reddish-brown person, 
 about as large as a common Yellow But- 
 terfly. I remember that she had two light 
 yellow lines on each forewing. Another 
 Moth came with her, but did not stay. 
 He was smaller than she, and had the 
 same markings. After he had gone, she 
 asked me if we were ever visited by the 
 Yellow-Billed Cuckoos." 
 
 "Why did she ask that?" said the 
 Garter Snake. 
 
 " Don't you know ? " exclaimed the 
 Tree Frog. And then he whispered 
 something to the Garter Snake. 
 
 The Garter Snake wriggled with sur- 
 prise and cried, " Really ? " 
 
 All through the fall and winter the 
 many, many eggs which the reddish- 
 brown Moth had laid were kept snug and 
 warm on the twig where she had put them. 
 They were placed in rows around the
 
 24 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 twig, and then well covered to hold them 
 together and keep them warm. The 
 winter winds had blown the twig to and 
 fro, the cold rain had frozen over them, 
 the soft snowflakes had drifted down from 
 the clouds and covered them, only to melt 
 and trickle away again in shining drops. 
 One morning the whole wild cherry tree 
 was covered with beautiful long, glistening 
 crystals of hoar-frost ; and still the ring 
 of eggs stayed in its place around the 
 twig, and the life in them slept until 
 spring sunbeams should shine down and 
 quicken it. 
 
 But when the spring sunbeams did 
 come ! Even before the leaf-buds were 
 open, tiny Larvae, or Caterpillar babies, 
 came crawling from the ring of eggs and 
 began feeding upon the buds. They 
 took very, very small bites, and that 
 looked as though they were polite chil- 
 dren. Still, you know, their mouths were 
 so small that they could not take big ones,
 
 The Selfish Tent-Caterpillar. 25 
 
 and it may not have been politeness after 
 all which made them eat daintily. 
 
 When all the Tent-Caterpillars were 
 hatched, and they had eaten every leaf- 
 bud near the egg-ring, they began fo 
 crawl down the tree toward the trunk. 
 Once they stopped by a good-sized crotch 
 in the branches. " Let 's build here," 
 said the leader ; " this place is all right." 
 
 Then some of the Tent-Caterpillars 
 said, " Let 's ! " and some of them said, 
 " Don't let 's ! " One young fellow said, 
 " Aw, come on ! There 's a bigger crotch 
 farther down." Of course he should have 
 said, " I think you will like a larger crotch 
 better," but he was young, and, you know, 
 these Larvae had no father or mother to 
 help them speak in the right way. They 
 were orphans, and it is wonderful how 
 they ever learned to talk at all. 
 
 After this, some of the Tent-Caterpil- 
 lars went on to the larger crotch and 
 some stayed behind. More went than
 
 26 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 stayed, and when they saw this, those by 
 the smaller crotch gave up and joined 
 their brothers and sisters, as they should 
 have done. It was right to do that 
 which pleased most of them. 
 
 It took a great deal of work to make 
 the tent. All helped, spinning hundreds 
 and thousands of white silken threads, 
 laying them side by side, criss-crossing 
 them, fastening the ends to branches and 
 twigs, not forgetting to leave places 
 through which one could crawl in and 
 out. They never worked all day at this, 
 because unless they stopped to eat they 
 would soon have been weak and unable 
 to spin. There were nearly always a few 
 Caterpillars in the tent, but only in the 
 early morning or late afternoon or during 
 the night were they all at home. The 
 rest of the time they were scattered 
 around the tree feeding. Of course 
 there were some cold days when they 
 stayed in. When the weather was chilly
 
 The Selfish Tent-Caterpillar. 27 
 
 they moved slowly and cared very little 
 for food. 
 
 There was one young Tent-Caterpillar 
 who happened to be the first hatched, and 
 who seemed to think that because he was 
 a minute older than any of the other chil- 
 dren he had the right to his own way. 
 Sometimes he got it, because the others 
 did n't want to have any trouble. Some- 
 times he did n't get it, and then he was 
 very sulky and disagreeable, even refusing 
 to answer when he was spoken to. 
 
 One cold day, when all the Caterpillars 
 stayed in the tent, this oldest brother 
 wanted the warmest place, that in the 
 very middle. It should have belonged 
 to the younger brothers and sisters, for 
 they were not so strong, but he pushed 
 and wriggled his hairy black and brown 
 and yellow body into the very place 
 he wanted, and then scolded everybody 
 around because he had to push to get 
 there. It happened as it always does
 
 28 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 when a Caterpillar begins to say mean 
 things, and he went on until he was say- 
 ing some which were really untrue. No- 
 body answered back, so he scolded and 
 fussed and was exceedingly disagreeable. 
 
 All day long he thought how wretched 
 he was, and how badly they treated him, 
 and how he guessed they 'd be sorry 
 enough if he went away. The next 
 morning he went. As long as the warm 
 sunshine lasted he did very well. When 
 it began to grow cool, his brothers and 
 sisters crawled past him on their way to 
 the tent. " Come on ! " they cried. " It 's 
 time to go home." 
 
 "Uh-uh!" said the eldest brother 
 (and that meant "No"), "I'm not 
 going." 
 
 "Why not?" they asked. 
 
 " Oh, because," said he. 
 
 When the rest were all together in the 
 tent they talked about him. " Do you 
 suppose he 's angry ? " said one.
 
 The Selfish Tent-Caterpillar. 29 
 
 " What should he be angry about ? " 
 said another. 
 
 " I just believe he is," said a third. 
 " Did you notice the way his hairs bris- 
 tled?" 
 
 " Don't you think we ought to go to 
 get him ? " asked two or three of the 
 youngest Caterpillars. 
 
 " No," said the older ones. " We 
 have n't done anything. Let him get 
 over it." 
 
 So the oldest brother, who had thought 
 that every other Caterpillar in the tent 
 would crawl right out and beg and coax 
 him to come back, waited and waited and 
 waited, but nobody came. The tent was 
 there and the door was open. All he had 
 to do was to crawl in and be at home. 
 He waited so long that at last he had to 
 leave the tree and spin his cocoon with- 
 out ever having gone back to his brothers 
 and sisters in the tent. He spun his co- 
 coon and mixed the silk with a yellowish-
 
 30 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 white powder, then he lay down in it 
 to sleep twenty-one days and grow his 
 wings. The last thought he had before 
 going to sleep was an unhappy and self- 
 ish one. Probably he awakened an un- 
 happy and selfish Moth. 
 
 His brothers and sisters were sad when- 
 ever they thought of him. " But," they 
 said, " what could we do ? It was n't fair 
 for him to have the best of everything, 
 and we never answered when he said 
 mean things. He might have come back 
 at any time and we would have been kind 
 to him." 
 
 And they were right. What could 
 they have done ? It was very sad, but 
 when a Caterpillar is so selfish and sulky 
 that he cannot live happily with other 
 people, it is much better that he should 
 live quite alone.
 
 IN the lower part of the 
 meadow, where the grass grew 
 tall and tender, there lived a 
 fine and sturdy young Snail ; 
 that is to say, a fine-looking Snail. 
 His shell was a beautiful soft 
 gray, and its curves were regular 
 and perfect. His body was soft 
 and moist, and just what a Snail's 
 body should be. Of course, 
 when it came to travelling, he 
 could not go fast, for none of his 
 family are rapid travellers, still, if 
 he had been plucky and patient, 
 31
 
 32 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 he might have seen much of the meadow, 
 and perhaps some of the world outside. 
 His friends and neighbors often told him 
 that he ought to start out on a little jour- 
 ney to see the sights, but he would always 
 answer, " Oh, it is too hard work ! " 
 
 There was nobody who liked stories of 
 meadow life better than this same Snail, 
 and he would often stop some friendly 
 Cricket or Snake to ask for the news. 
 After they had told him, they would say, 
 " Why, don't you ever get out to see these 
 things for yourself ? " and he would give a 
 little sigh and answer, " It is too far to go." 
 
 " But you need n't go the whole distance 
 in one day," his visitor would say, " only 
 a little at a time." 
 
 "Yes, and then I would have to keep 
 starting on again every little while," the 
 Snail would reply. " What of that ?" said 
 the visitor ; " you would have plenty of rest- 
 ing spells, when you could lie in the shade 
 of a tall weed and enjoy yourself."
 
 The Lazy Snail. 33 
 
 "Well, what is the use?" the Snail 
 would say. " I can't enjoy resting if I 
 know I Ve got to go to work again," and 
 he would sigh once more. 
 
 So there he lived, eating and sleeping, 
 and wishing he could see the world, and 
 meet the people in the upper part of the 
 meadow, but just so lazy that he would n't 
 start out to find them. 
 
 He never thought that the Butterflies 
 and Beetles might not like it to have him 
 keep calling them to him and making them 
 tell him the news. Oh, no indeed ! If he 
 wanted them to do anything for him, he 
 asked them quickly enough, and they, be- 
 ing happy, good-natured people, would 
 always do as he asked them to. 
 
 There came a day, though, when he 
 asked too much. The Grasshoppers had 
 been telling him about some very deli- 
 cious new plants that grew a little distance 
 away, and the Snail wanted some very 
 badly. "Can't you bring me some?" he
 
 34 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 said. " There are so many of you, and you 
 have such good, strong legs. I should 
 think you might each bring me a small 
 piece in your mouths, and then I should 
 have a fine dinner of it." 
 
 The Grasshoppers did n't say anything 
 then, but when they were so far away that 
 he could not hear them, they said to each 
 other, "If the Snail wants the food so 
 much, he might better go for it. We 
 have other things to do," and they hopped 
 off on their own business. 
 
 The Snail sat there, and wondered and 
 wondered that they did not come. He kept 
 thinking how he would like some of the new 
 food for dinner, but there it ended. He 
 did n't want it enough to get it for himself. 
 
 The Grasshoppers told all their friends 
 about the Snail's request, and everybody 
 thought, " Such a lazy, good-for-nothing 
 fellow deserves to be left quite alone." 
 So it happened that for a very long time 
 nobody went near the Snail.
 
 The Lazy Snail. 35 
 
 The weather grew hotter and hotter. 
 The clouds, which blew across the sky, 
 kept their rain until they were well past 
 the meadow, and so it happened that the 
 river grew shallower and shallower, and 
 the sunshine dried the tiny pools and rivu- 
 lets which kept the lower meadow damp. 
 The grass began to turn brown and dry, 
 and, all in all, it was trying weather for 
 Snails. 
 
 One day, a Butterfly called some of her 
 friends together, and told them that she 
 had seen the Snail lying in his old place, 
 looking thin and hungry. " The grass is 
 all dried around him," she said ; " I believe 
 he is starving, and too lazy to go nearer 
 the river, where there is still good food 
 for him." 
 
 They all talked it over together, and 
 some of them said it was of no use to help 
 a Snail who was too lazy to do anything 
 for himself. Others said, " Well, he is too 
 weak to help himself now, at all events,
 
 36 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 and we might help him this once." And 
 that is exactly what they did. The But- 
 terflies and the Mosquitoes flew ahead to 
 find the best place to put the Snail, and 
 all the Grasshoppers, and Beetles, and 
 other strong crawling creatures took 
 turns in rolling the Snail down toward 
 the river. 
 
 They left him where the green things 
 were fresh and tender, and he grew strong 
 and plump once more. It is even said 
 that he was not so lazy afterward, but one 
 cannot tell whether to believe it or not, 
 for everybody knows that when people let 
 themselves grow up lazy, as he did, it is 
 almost impossible for them to get over it 
 when they want to. One thing is sure : 
 the meadow people who helped him were 
 happier and better for doing a kind thing, 
 no matter what became of the Snail.
 
 IN one of the Ant-hills in the 
 highest part of the meadow, 
 were a lot of young Ants talk- 
 ing together. " I," said one, 
 " am going to be a soldier, 
 and drive away anybody who 
 comes to make us trouble. I 
 try biting hard things every 
 day to make my jaws strong, 
 so that I can guard the home 
 better." 
 
 "I," said another and smaller 
 Ant, " want to be a worker. I 
 want to help build and repair 
 the home. I want to get the 
 food for the family, and feed 
 
 37
 
 38 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 the Ant babies, and clean them off when 
 they crawl out of their old coats. If I 
 can do those things well, I shall be the 
 happiest, busiest Ant in the meadow." 
 
 " We don't want to live that kind of 
 life," said a couple of larger Ants with 
 wings. " We don't mean to stay around 
 the Ant-hill all the time and work. We 
 want to use our wings, and then you may 
 be very sure that you won't see us around 
 home any more." 
 
 The little worker spoke up : " Home is 
 a pleasant place. You may be very glad 
 to come back to it some day." But the 
 Ants with the wings turned their backs 
 and would n't listen to another word. 
 
 A few days after this there were excit- 
 ing times in the Ant-hill. All the winged 
 Ants said " Good-bye" to the soldiers and 
 workers, and flew off through the air, flew 
 so far that the little ones at home could 
 no longer see them. All day long they 
 were gone, but the next morning when
 
 An Ant that Wore Wings. 39 
 
 the little worker (whom we heard talking) 
 went out to get breakfast, she found the 
 poor winged Ants lying on the ground 
 near their home. Some of them were 
 dead, and the rest were looking for food. 
 
 The worker Ant ran up to the one who 
 had said she didn't want to stay around 
 home, and asked her to come back to 
 the Ant-hill. " No, I thank you," she an- 
 swered. " I have had my breakfast now, 
 and am going to fly off again." She 
 raised her wings to go, but after she had 
 given one flutter, they dropped off, and 
 she could never fly again. 
 
 The worker hurried back to the Ant- 
 hill to call some of her sister workers, and 
 some of the soldiers, and they took the 
 Ant who had lost her wings and carried 
 her to another part of the meadow. There 
 they went to work to build a new home 
 and make her their queen. 
 
 First, they looked <for a good, sandy 
 place, on which the sun would shine all
 
 4O Among the Meadow People. 
 
 day. Then the worker Ants began to 
 dig in the ground and bring out tiny 
 round pieces of earth in their mouths. 
 The soldiers helped them, and before 
 night they had a cosy little home in the 
 earth, with several rooms, and some food 
 already stored. They took their queen in, 
 and brought her food to eat, and waited 
 on her, and she was happy and contented. 
 By and by the Ant eggs began to hatch, 
 and the workers had all they could do to 
 take care of their queen and her little Ant 
 babies, and the soldier Ants had to help. 
 The Ant babies were little worms or 
 grubs when they first came out of the 
 eggs ; after a while they curled up in tiny, 
 tiny cases, called pupa-cases, and after an- 
 other while they came out of these, and 
 then they looked like the older Ants, with 
 their six legs, and their slender little 
 waists. But whatever they were, whether 
 eggs, or grubs, or curled up in the pupa- 
 cases, or lively little Ants, the workers fed
 
 An Ant that Wore Wings. 41 
 
 and took care of them, and the soldiers 
 fought for them, and the queen-mother 
 loved them, and they all lived happily to- 
 gether until the young Ants were ready 
 to go out into the great world and learn 
 the lessons of life for themselves.
 
 THE CHEERFUL HARVESTMEN. 
 
 SOME of the meadow people are gay 
 and careless, and some are always worry- 
 ing. Some work hard every day, and 
 some are exceedingly lazy. There, as 
 everywhere else, each has his own way of 
 thinking about things. It is too bad that 
 they cannot all learn to think brave and 
 cheerful thoughts, for these make life 
 happy. One may have a comfortable 
 home, kind neighbors, and plenty to eat, 
 yet if he is in the habit of thinking dis- 
 agreeable thoughts, not even all these 
 good things can make him happy. Now 
 there was the young Frog who thought 
 herself sick but that is another story. 
 
 Perhaps the Harvestmen were the most 
 cheerful of all the meadow people. The 
 42
 
 The Cheerful Harvestmen. 43 
 
 old Tree Frog used to say that it made 
 him feel better just to see their knees 
 coming toward him. Of course, when he 
 saw their knees, he knew that the whole 
 insect was also coming. He spoke in that 
 way because the Harvestmen always 
 walked or ran with their knees so much 
 above the rest of their bodies that one 
 could see those first. 
 
 The Harvestmen were not particularly 
 fine-looking, not nearly so handsome as 
 some of their Spider cousins. One never 
 thought of that, however. They had 
 such an easy way of moving around on 
 their eight legs, each of which had a 
 great many joints. It is the joints, or 
 bending-places, you know, which make 
 legs useful. Besides being graceful, they 
 had very pleasant manners. When a 
 Harvestman said "Good-morning" to 
 you on a rainy day, you always had a 
 feeling that the sun was shining. It 
 might be that the drops were even then
 
 44 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 falling into your face, but for a moment 
 you were sure to feel that everything was 
 bright and warm and comfortable. 
 
 Sometimes the careless young Grasshop- 
 pers and Crickets called the Harvestmen 
 by their nicknames, " Daddy Long-Legs " 
 or " Grandfather Graybeard." Even 
 then the Harvestmen were good-natured, 
 and only said with a smile that the young 
 people had not yet learned the names of 
 their neighbors. The Grasshoppers never 
 seemed to think how queer it was to call 
 a young Harvestman daughter " Grand- 
 father Graybeard." When they saw how 
 good-natured they were, the Grasshop- 
 pers soon stopped trying to tease the 
 Harvestmen. People who are really 
 good-natured are never teased very long, 
 you know. 
 
 The Walking-Sticks were exceedingly 
 polite to the Harvestmen. They thought 
 them very slender and genteel-looking. 
 Once the Five-Legged Walking-Stick
 
 The Cheerful Harvestmen. 45 
 
 said to the largest Harvestman, " Why 
 do you talk so much with the common 
 people in the meadow ? " 
 
 The Harvestman knew exactly what the 
 Walking-Stick meant, but he was not go- 
 ing to let anybody make fun of his kind 
 and friendly neighbors, so he said : " I 
 think we Harvestmen are rather common 
 ourselves. There are a great, great many 
 of us here. It must be very lonely to be 
 uncommon." 
 
 After that the Walking-Stick had noth- 
 ing more to say. He never felt quite 
 sure whether the Harvestman was too 
 stupid to understand or too wise to gos- 
 sip. Once he thought he saw the Har- 
 vestman's eyes twinkle. The Harvestman 
 did n't care if people thought him stupid. 
 He knew that he was not stupid, and 
 he would rather seem dull than to lis- 
 ten while unkind things were said about 
 his neighbors. 
 
 Some people would have thought it
 
 46 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 very hard luck to be Harvestmen. The 
 Garter Snake said that if he were one, he 
 should be worried all the time about his 
 legs. " I 'm thankful I have n't any," he 
 said, " for if I had I should be forever 
 thinking I should lose some of them. A 
 Harvestman without legs would be badly 
 off. He could never in the world crawl 
 around on his belly as I do." 
 
 How the Harvestmen did laugh when 
 they heard this ! The biggest one said, 
 " Well, if that is n't just like some people ! 
 Never want to have anything for fear 
 they '11 lose it. I wonder if he worries 
 about his head ? He might lose that, you 
 know, and then what would he do ? " 
 
 It was only the next day that the lar- 
 gest Harvestman came home on seven 
 legs. His friends all cried out, " Oh, how 
 did it ever happen ? " 
 
 " Cows," said he. 
 
 "Did they step on you?" asked the 
 Five-Legged Walking-Stick. He had not
 
 The Cheerful Harvestmen. 47 
 
 lived long enough in the meadow to un- 
 derstand all that the Harvestman meant. 
 He was sorry for him, though, for he 
 knew what it was to lose a leg. 
 
 " Huh ! " said a Grasshopper, interrupt- 
 ing in a very rude way, " are n't any Cows 
 in this meadow now ! " 
 
 Then the other Harvestmen told the 
 Walking-Stick all about it, how sometimes 
 a boy would come to the meadow, catch 
 a Harvestman, hold him up by one leg, 
 and say to him, " Grandfather Graybeard, 
 tell me where the Cows are, or I '11 kill 
 you." Then the only thing a Harvestman 
 could do was to struggle and wriggle 
 himself free, and he often broke off a leg 
 in doing so. 
 
 "How terrible! " said the three Walk- 
 ing-Sticks all together. " But why don't 
 you tell them?" 
 
 " We do," answered the Harvestmen. 
 " We point with our seven other legs, 
 and we point every way there is. Some-
 
 48 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 times we don't know where they are, so 
 we point everywhere, to be sure. But it 
 does n't make any difference. Our legs 
 drop off just the same." 
 
 " Is n't a boy clever enough to find 
 Cows alone ? " asked the Walking-Sticks. 
 
 " Oh, it is n't that," cried all the meadow 
 people together. " Even after you tell, 
 and sometimes when the Cows are right 
 there, they walk off home without them." 
 
 " I 'd sting them," said a Wasp, waving 
 his feelers fiercely and raising and lower- 
 ing his wings. " I 'd sting them as hard 
 as I could." 
 
 " You would n't if you had no sting," 
 said the Tree Frog. 
 
 " N-no," stammered the Wasp, " I sup- 
 pose I would n't." 
 
 " You poor creature ! " said the biggest 
 Katydid to the biggest Harvestman. 
 " What will you do ? Only seven legs ! " 
 
 " Do ? " answered the biggest Harvest- 
 man, and it was then one could see how
 
 The Cheerful Harvestmen. 49 
 
 truly brave and cheerful he was. " Do ? 
 I '11 walk on those seven. If I lose one 
 of them I '11 walk on six, and if I lose one 
 of them I '11 walk on five. Have n't I my 
 mouth and my stomach and my eyes and 
 my two feelers, and my two food-pincers ? 
 I may not be so good-looking, but I am a 
 Harvestman, and I shall enjoy the grass 
 and the sunshine and my kind neighbors 
 as long as I live. I must leave you now. 
 Good-day." 
 
 He walked off rather awkwardly, for 
 he had not yet learned to manage him- 
 self since his accident. The meadow 
 people looked after him very thoughtfully. 
 They were not noticing his awkwardness, 
 or thinking of his high knees or of his 
 little low body. Perhaps they thought 
 what the Cicada said, " Ah, that is the 
 way to live ! "
 
 THE first thing our 
 little Spider remem- 
 Dere d was being crowd- 
 ed with a lot of other 
 little Spiders in a tiny brown 
 house. This tiny house had 
 no windows, and was very 
 warm and dark and stuffy. 
 When the wind blew, the lit- 
 tle Spiders would hear it rushing 
 through the forest near by, and 
 would feel their round brown 
 house swinging like a cradle. It 
 was fastened to a bush by the 
 edge of the forest, but they could 
 not know that, so they just wiggled and 
 50
 
 The Little Spider's First Web. 5 1 
 
 pushed and ate the food that they found 
 in the house, and wondered what it all 
 meant. They did n't even guess that a 
 mother Spider had made the brown house 
 and put the food in it for her Spider 
 babies to eat when they came out of 
 their eggs. She had put the eggs in, 
 too, but the little Spiders did n't remem- 
 ber the time when they lay curled up in 
 the eggs. They did n't know what had 
 been nor what was to be they thought 
 that to eat and wiggle and sleep was all 
 of life. You see they had much to learn. 
 One morning the little . Spiders found 
 that the food was all gone, and they 
 pushed and scrambled harder than ever, 
 because they were hungry and wanted 
 more. Exactly what happened nobody 
 knew, but suddenly it grew light, and 
 some of them fell out of the house. All 
 the rest scrambled after, and there they 
 stood, winking and blinking in the bright 
 sunshine, and feeling a little bit dizzy, be-
 
 52 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 cause they were on a shaky web made of 
 silvery ropes. 
 
 Just then the web began to shake even 
 more, and a beautiful great mother Spider 
 ran out on it. She was dressed in black 
 and yellow velvet, and her eight eyes 
 glistened and gleamed in the sunlight. 
 They had never dreamed of such a won- 
 derful creature. 
 
 " Well, my children," she exclaimed, " I 
 know you must be hungry, and I have 
 breakfast all ready for you." So they 
 began eating at once, and the mother 
 Spider told them many things about the 
 meadow and the forest, and said they 
 must amuse themselves while she worked 
 to get food for them. There was no 
 father Spider to help her, and, as she 
 said, " Growing children must have plenty 
 of good plain food." 
 
 You can just fancy what a good time 
 the baby Spiders had. There were a 
 hundred and seventy of them, so they
 
 The Little Spider's First Web. 53 
 
 had no chance to grow lonely, even when 
 their mother was away. They lived in 
 this way for quite a while, and grew big- 
 ger and stronger every day. One morn- 
 ing the mother Spider said to her biggest 
 daughter, " You are quite old enough to 
 work now, and I will teach you to spin 
 your web." 
 
 The little Spider soon learned to draw 
 out the silvery ropes from the pocket in 
 her body where they were made and kept, 
 and very soon she had one fastened at 
 both ends to branches of the bush. Then 
 her mother made her walk out to the 
 middle of her rope bridge, and spin and 
 fasten two more, so that it looked like a 
 shining cross. After that was done, the 
 mother showed her something like a comb, 
 which is part of a Spider's foot, and taught 
 her how to measure, and put more ropes 
 out from the middle of the cross, until it 
 looked like the spokes of a wheel. 
 
 The little Spider got much discouraged,
 
 54 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 and said, " Let me finish it some other 
 time ; I am tired of working now." 
 
 The mother Spider answered, " No, I 
 cannot have a lazy child." 
 
 The little one said, " I can't ever do it, 
 I know I can't." 
 
 " Now," said the mother, " I shall have 
 to give you a Spider scolding. You have 
 acted as lazy as the Tree Frog says boys 
 and girls sometimes do. He has been up 
 near the farm-house, and says that he has 
 seen there children who do not like to 
 work. The meadow people could hardly 
 believe such a thing at first. He says 
 they were cross and unhappy children, and 
 no wonder ! Lazy people are never happy. 
 You try to finish the web, and see if I am 
 not right. You are not a baby now, and 
 you must work and get your own food." 
 
 So the little Spider spun the circles of 
 rope in the web, and made these ropes 
 sticky, as all careful spiders do. She ate 
 the loose ends and pieces that were left
 
 The Little Spider's First Web. 55 
 
 over, to save them for another time, and 
 when it was done, it was so fine and per- 
 fect that her brothers and sisters crowded 
 around, saying, " Oh ! oh ! oh ! how beauti- 
 ful ! " and asked the mother to teach them. 
 The little web-spinner was happier than 
 she had ever been before, and the mother 
 began to teach her other children. But 
 it takes a long time to teach a hundred 
 and seventy children.
 
 THE DEETLEWHD 
 
 DID NOT UKt CATOJPILIAI$$ 
 
 ONE morning early 
 in June, a fat and shin- 
 ing May Beetle lay on 
 his back among the 
 grasses, kicking his 
 six legs in the air, 
 and wriggling around 
 while he tried to catch 
 hold of a grass-blade 
 by which to pull him- 
 self up. Now, Beetles 
 do not like to lie on 
 their backs in the sun- 
 shine, and this one was 
 hot and tired from 
 his long struggle. Be- 
 side that, he was very 
 cross because he was 
 late in getting his 
 breakfast, so when he 
 56
 
 Beetle who did not like Caterpillars. 57 
 
 did at last get right side up, and saw a 
 brown and black Caterpillar watching 
 him, he grew very ill-mannered, and said 
 some things of which he should have been 
 ashamed. 
 
 " Oh, yes," he said, " you are quick 
 enough to laugh when you think some- 
 body else is in a fix. I often lie on my 
 back and kick, just for fun." (Which was 
 not true, but when Beetles are cross they 
 are not always truthful.) 
 
 " Excuse me," said the Caterpillar, " I 
 did not mean to hurt your feelings. If I 
 smiled, it was because I remembered be- 
 ing in the same plight myself yesterday, 
 and what a time I had smoothing my fur 
 afterwards. Now, you won't have to 
 smooth your fur, will you?" she asked 
 pleasantly. 
 
 " No, I 'm thankful to say I have n't 
 any fur to smooth," snapped the Beetle. 
 " I am not one of the crawling, furry kind. 
 My family wear dark brown, glossy coats,
 
 58 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 and we always look trim and clean. When 
 we want to hurry, we fly ; and when tired 
 of flying, we walk or run. We have two 
 kinds of wings. We have a pair of dainty, 
 soft ones, that carry us through the air, 
 and then we have a pair of stiff ones to 
 cover over the soft wings when we come 
 down to the earth again. We are the 
 finest family in the meadow." 
 
 " I have often heard of you," said the 
 Caterpillar, " and am very glad to become 
 acquainted." 
 
 " Well," answered the Beetle, " I am 
 willing to speak to you, of course, but 
 we can never be at all friendly. A May 
 Beetle, indeed, in company with a Cater- 
 pillar ! I choose my friends among the 
 Moths, Butterflies, and Dragon-flies, in 
 fact, / move in the upper circles." 
 
 " Upper circles, indeed ! " said a croak- 
 ing voice beside him, which made the 
 Beetle jump, " I have hopped over your 
 head for two or three years, when you
 
 Beetle who did not like Caterpillars. 59 
 
 were nothing but a fat, white worm. 
 You 'd better not put on airs. The fine 
 family of May Beetles were all worms 
 once, and they had to live in the earth 
 and eat roots, while the Caterpillars 
 were in the sunshine over their heads, 
 dining on tender green leaves and flower 
 buds." 
 
 The May Beetle began to look very 
 uncomfortable, and squirmed as though 
 he wanted to get away, but the Tree 
 Frog, for it was the Tree Frog, went on : 
 " As for your not liking Caterpillars, they 
 don't stay Caterpillars. Your new ac- 
 quaintance up there will come out with 
 wings one of these days, and you will be 
 glad enough to know him." And the 
 Tree Frog hopped away. 
 
 The May Beetle scraped his head with 
 his right front leg, and then said to the 
 Caterpillar, who was nibbling away at the 
 milkweed: "You know, I was n't really in 
 earnest about our not being friends. I
 
 60 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 shall be very glad to know you, and all 
 your family." 
 
 " Thank you," answered the Caterpillar, 
 " thank you very much, but I have been 
 thinking it over myself, and I feel that I 
 really could not be friendly with a May 
 Beetle. Of course, I don't mind speak- 
 ing to you once in a while, when I am 
 eating, and getting ready to spin my co- 
 coon. After that it will be different. You 
 see, then I shall belong to one of the 
 finest families in the meadow, the Milk- 
 weed Butterflies. We shall eat nothing 
 but honey, and dress in soft orange and 
 black velvet. We shall not blunder and 
 bump around when we fly. We shall en- 
 joy visiting with the Dragon-flies and 
 Moths. I shall not forget you altogether, 
 I dare say, but I shall feel it my duty to 
 move in the upper circles, where I belong. 
 Good-morning."
 
 THE YOUNG ROBIN WHO WAS 
 AFRAID TO FLY. 
 
 DURING the days when the four beauti- 
 ful green-blue eggs lay in the nest, Mrs. 
 Robin stayed quite closely at home. She 
 said it was a very good place, for she 
 could keep her eggs warm and still see 
 all that was happening. The rail-end on 
 which they had built was on the meadow 
 side of the fence, over the tallest grasses 
 and the graceful stalks of golden-rod. 
 Here the Garter Snake drew his shining 
 body through the tangled green, and here 
 the Tree Frog often came for a quiet 
 nap. 
 
 Just outside the fence the milkweeds 
 grew, with every broad, pale green leaf 
 slanting upward in their spring style. 
 
 61
 
 62 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 Here the Milkweed Caterpillars fed, and 
 here, too, when the great balls of tiny dull 
 pink blossoms dangled from the stalks, 
 the Milkweed Butterflies hung all day 
 long. All the teams from the farmhouse 
 passed along the quiet, grass-grown road, 
 and those which were going to the farm 
 as well. When Mrs. Robin saw a team 
 coming, she always settled herself more 
 deeply into her nest, so that not one of 
 her brick-red breast feathers showed. 
 Then she sat very still, only turning her 
 head enough to watch the team as it 
 came near, passed, and went out of sight 
 down the road. Sometimes she did not 
 even have to turn her head, for if she 
 happened to be facing the road, she could 
 with one eye watch the team come near, 
 and with the other watch it go away. No 
 bird, you know, ever has to look at any- 
 thing with both eyes at once. 
 
 After the young Robins had outgrown 
 their shells and broken and thrown them
 
 The Robin who was Afraid to Fly. 63 
 
 off, they were naked and red and blind. 
 They lay in a heap in the bottom of the 
 nest, and became so tangled that nobody 
 but a bird could tell which was which. 
 If they heard their father or their mother 
 flying toward them, they would stretch up 
 their necks and open their mouths. Then 
 each would have some food poked down 
 his throat, and would lie still until another 
 mouthful was brought to him. 
 
 When they got their eyes open and be- 
 gan to grow more down, they were good 
 little Robins and did exactly as they were 
 told. It was easy to be good then, for 
 they were not strong enough to want to 
 go elsewhere, and they had all they wanted 
 to eat. At night their mother sat in the 
 nest and covered them with her soft 
 feathers. When it rained she also did 
 this. She was a kind and very hard- 
 working mother. Mr. Robin worked 
 
 c5 
 
 quite as hard as she, and was exceedingly 
 proud of his family.
 
 64 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 But when their feathers began to grow, 
 and each young Robin's sharp quills 
 pricked his brothers and sisters if they 
 pushed against him, then it was not so 
 easy to be good. Four growing children 
 in one little round bed sometimes found 
 themselves rather crowded. One night 
 Mrs. Robin said to her husband : " I am 
 all tired out. I work as long as daylight 
 lasts getting food for those children, and 
 I cannot be here enough to teach them 
 anything." 
 
 " Then they must learn to work for 
 themselves," said Mr. Robin decidedly. 
 " They are surely old enough." 
 
 " Why, they are just babies ! " ex- 
 claimed his wife. " They have hardly 
 any tails yet." 
 
 " They don't need tails to eat with," 
 said he, " and they may as well begin 
 now. I will not have you get so tired for 
 this one brood." 
 
 Mrs. Robin said nothing more. In-
 
 The Robin who was Afraid to Fly. 65 
 
 deed, there was nothing more to be said, 
 for she knew perfectly well that her chil- 
 dren would not eat with their tails if they 
 had them. She loved her babies so that 
 she almost disliked to see them grow up, 
 yet she knew it was right for them to 
 leave the nest. They were so large that 
 they spread out over the edges of it al- 
 ready, and they must be taught to take 
 care of themselves before it was time for 
 her to rear her second brood. 
 
 The next morning all four children 
 were made to hop out on to the rail. 
 Their legs were not very strong and their 
 toes sprawled weakly around. Some- 
 times they lurched and almost fell. Be- 
 fore leaving the nest they had felt big 
 and very important ; now they suddenly 
 felt small and young and helpless. Once 
 in a while one of them would hop feebly 
 along the rail for a few steps. Then he 
 would chirp in a frightened way, let his 
 head settle down over his speckled breast,
 
 66 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 slide his eyelids over his eyes, and wait 
 for more food to be brought to him. 
 
 Whenever a team went by, the oldest 
 child shut his eyes. He thought they 
 could n't see him if he did that. The 
 other children kept theirs open and 
 watched to see what happened. Their 
 father and mother had told them to 
 watch, but the timid young Robin always 
 shut his eyes in spite of that. 
 
 " We shall have trouble with him," 
 said Mrs. Robin, " but he must be made 
 to do as he is told, even if he is afraid." 
 She shut her bill very tightly as she 
 spoke, and Mr. Robin knew that he could 
 safely trust the bringing-up of his timi<-l 
 son to her. 
 
 Mrs. Robin talked and talked to him, 
 and still he shut his eyes every time that 
 he was frightened. " I can't keep them 
 open," he would say, " because when I 
 am frightened I am always afraid, and * 
 can't be brave when I am afraid."
 
 The Robin who was Afraid to Fly. 67 
 
 " That is just when you must be 
 brave," said his mother. " There is no 
 use in being brave when there is nothing 
 to fear, and it is a great deal braver to be 
 brave when you are frightened than to 
 be brave when you are not." You can 
 see that she was a very wise Robin and a 
 good mother. It would have been dread- 
 ful for her to let him grow up a coward. 
 
 At last the time came when the young 
 birds were to fly to the ground and hop 
 across the road. Both their father and 
 their mother were there to show them how. 
 " You must let go of the rail," they said. 
 " You will never fly in the world unless 
 you let go of the rail." 
 
 Three of the children fluttered and 
 lurched and flew down. The timid young 
 Robin would not try it. His father or- 
 dered and his mother coaxed, yet he only 
 clung more closely to his rail and said, 
 " I can't ! I 'm afraid ! " 
 
 At last his mother said : " Very well.
 
 68 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 You shall stay there as long as you wish, 
 but we cannot stay with you." 
 
 Then she chirped to her husband, and 
 they and the three brave children went 
 across the road, talking as they went. 
 " Careful ! " she would say. " Now an- 
 other hop! That was fine! Now another!" 
 And the father fluttered around and said : 
 " Good ! Good ! You '11 be grown-up be- 
 fore you know it." When they were 
 across, the parents hunted food and fed 
 their three brave children, tucking the 
 mouthfuls far into their wide-open bills. 
 
 The timid little Robin on the fence 
 felt very, very lonely. He was hungry, 
 too. Whenever he saw his mother pick 
 up a mouthful of food, he chirped loudly : 
 " Me ! Me ! Me ! " for he wanted her to 
 bring it to him. She paid no attention 
 to him for a long time. Then she called : 
 " Do you think you can fly ? Do you 
 think you can fly? Do you think?" 
 
 The timid little Robin hopped a few
 
 The Robin who was Afraid to Fly. 69 
 
 steps and chirped but never lifted a wing. 
 Then his mother gave each of the other 
 children a big mouthful. 
 
 The Robin on the fence huddled down 
 into a miserable little bunch, and thought : 
 " They don't care whether I ever have 
 anything to eat. No, they don't ! " Then 
 he heard a rush of wings, and his mother 
 stood before him with a bunch in her bill 
 for him. He hopped toward her and she 
 ran away. Then he sat down and cried. 
 She hopped back and looked lovingly at 
 him, but could n't speak because her bill 
 was so full. Across the road the Robin 
 father stayed with his brave children and 
 called out, " Earn it, my son, earn it ! " 
 
 The young Robin stretched out his 
 neck and opened his bill but his mother 
 flew to the ground. He was so hungry 
 so very, very hungry, that for a minute 
 he quite forgot to be afraid, and he leaned 
 toward her and toppled over. He flut- 
 tered his wings without thinking, and the
 
 70 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 first he knew he had flown to the ground. 
 He was hardly there before his mother 
 was feeding him and his father was sing- 
 ing : " Do you know what you did ? Do 
 you know what you did ? Do you 
 know ? " 
 
 Before his tail was grown the timid 
 Robin had become as brave as any of the 
 children, for, you know, after you begin 
 to be brave you always want to go on. 
 But the Garter Snake says that Mrs. 
 Robin is the bravest of the family.
 
 IN one corner of the meadow lived a 
 fat old Cricket, who thought a great deal 
 of himself. He had such a big, shining 
 body, and a way of chirping so very loudly, 
 that nobody could ever forget where he 
 lived. He was a very good sort of Cricket, 
 too, ready to say the most pleasant things 
 to everybody, yet, sad to relate, he had a 
 dreadful habit of boasting. He had not 
 always lived in the meadow, and he liked 
 to tell of the wonderful things he had seen 
 and done when he was younger and lived 
 up near the white farm-house. 
 
 When he told these stories of what he 
 had done, the big Crickets around him 
 71
 
 72 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 would not say much, but just sit and look 
 at each other. The little Crickets, how- 
 ever, loved to hear him talk, and would 
 often come to the door of his house 
 (which was a hole in the ground), to beg 
 him to tell them more. 
 
 One evening he said he would teach 
 them a few things that all little Crickets 
 should know. He had them stand in a 
 row, and then began : " With what part 
 of your body do you eat ? " 
 
 " With our mouths," all the little Crick- 
 ets shouted. 
 
 " With what part of your body do you 
 run and leap ? " 
 
 " Our legs," they cried. 
 
 " Do you do anything else with your 
 legs?" 
 
 "We clean ourselves with them," said 
 one. 
 
 "We use them and our mouths to 
 make our houses in the ground," said 
 another.
 
 The Crickets' School. 73 
 
 " Oh yes, and we hear with our two 
 front legs," cried one bright little fellow. 
 
 " That is right," answered the fat old 
 Cricket. " Some creatures hear with 
 things called ears, that grow on the sides of 
 their heads, but for my part, I think it much 
 nicer to hear with one's legs, as we do." 
 
 " Why, how funny it must be not to 
 hear with one's legs, as we do," cried all 
 the little Crickets together. 
 
 " There are a great many queer things 
 to be seen in the great world," said their 
 teacher. " I have seen some terribly big 
 creatures with only two legs and no wings 
 whatever." 
 
 " How dreadful !" all the little Crickets 
 cried. "We would n't think they could 
 move about at all." 
 
 "It must be very hard to do so," said 
 their teacher ; " I was very sorry for them," 
 and he spread out his own wings and 
 stretched his six legs to show how he en- 
 joyed them.
 
 74 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 " But how can they sing if they have no 
 wings ? " asked the bright little Cricket. 
 
 " They sing through their mouths, in 
 much the same way that the birds have 
 to. I am sure it must be much easier to 
 sing by rubbing one's wings together, as 
 we do," said the fat old teacher. " I could 
 tell you many queer things about these 
 two-legged creatures, and the houses in 
 which they live, and perhaps some day I 
 will. There are other large four-legged 
 creatures around their homes that are very 
 terrible, but, my children, I was never 
 afraid of any of them. I am one of the 
 truly brave people who are never fright- 
 ened, no matter how terrible the sight. I 
 hope, children, that you will always be 
 brave, like me. If anything should scare 
 you, do not jump or run away. Stay right 
 where you are, and 
 
 But the little Crickets never heard the 
 rest of what their teacher began to say, for 
 at that minute Brown Bess, the Cow, came
 
 The Crickets' School. 75 
 
 through a broken fence toward the spot 
 where the Crickets were. The teacher 
 gave one shrill " chirp," and scrambled 
 down his hole. The little Crickets fairly 
 tumbled over each other in their hurry to 
 get away, and the fat old Cricket, who 
 had been out in the great world, never 
 again talked to them about being brave.
 
 THE CONTENTED 
 
 AFTER a long and soaking 
 rain, the Earthworms came 
 out of their burrows, or 
 rather, they came part way 
 out, for each Earthworm put 
 out half of his body, and, as 
 there were many of them 
 and they lived near to each 
 other, they could easily visit 
 without leaving their own 
 homes. Two of these long, 
 slimy people were talking, 
 when a Potato Bug strolled 
 by. "You poor things," 
 said he, "what a wretched 
 life you must lead. Spend- 
 ing one's days in the dark 
 earth must be very dreary." 
 76
 
 The Contented Earthworms. 77 
 
 " Dreary ! " exclaimed one of the Earth- 
 worms, " it is delightful. The earth is a 
 snug and soft home. It is warm in cold 
 weather and cool in warm weather. There 
 are no winds to trouble us, and no sun to 
 scorch us." 
 
 " But," said the Potato Bug, " it must 
 be very dull. Now, out in the grass, one 
 finds beautiful flowers, and so many fam- 
 ilies of friends." 
 
 " And down here," answered the Worm, 
 " we have the roots. Some are brown and 
 woody, like those of the trees, and some 
 are white and slender and soft. They 
 creep and twine, until it is like passing 
 through a forest to go among them. And 
 then, there are the seeds. Such busy times 
 as there are in the ground in spring-time ! 
 Each tiny seed awakens and begins to 
 grow. Its roots must strike downward, 
 and its stalk upward toward the light. 
 Sometimes the seeds are buried in the 
 earth with the root end up, and then they
 
 78 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 have a great time getting twisted around 
 and ready to grow." 
 
 " Still, after the plants are all growing 
 and have their heads in the air, you must 
 miss them." 
 
 " We have the roots always," said the 
 Worm. " And then, when the summer 
 is over, the plants have done their work, 
 helping to make the world beautiful and 
 raise their seed babies, and they wither 
 and droop to the earth again, and little 
 by little the sun and the frost and the rain 
 help them to melt back into the earth. 
 The earth is the beginning and the end of 
 plants." 
 
 " Do you ever meet the meadow people 
 in it ? " asked the Potato Bug. 
 
 " Many of them live here as babies," 
 said the Worm. " The May Beetles, the 
 Grasshoppers, the great Humming-bird 
 Moths, and many others spend their baby- 
 hood here, all wrapped in eggs or cocoons. 
 Then, when they are strong enough, and
 
 The Contented Earthworms. 79 
 
 their legs and wings are grown, they push 
 their way out and begin their work. It is 
 their getting-ready time, down here in the 
 dark. And then, there are the stones, 
 and they are so old and queer. I am 
 often glad that I am not a stone, for to 
 have to lie still must be hard to bear. Yet I 
 have heard that they did not always lie so, 
 and that some of the very pebbles around 
 us tossed and rolled and ground for years 
 in the bed of a river, and that some of 
 them were rubbed and broken off of great 
 rocks. Perhaps they are glad now to just 
 lie and rest." 
 
 " Truly," said the Potato Bug, " you 
 have a pleasant home, but give me the 
 sunshine and fresh air, my six legs, and 
 my striped wings, and you are welcome 
 to it all." 
 
 "You are welcome to them all," an- 
 swered the Worms, " We are contented 
 with smooth and shining bodies, with 
 which we can bore and wriggle our way
 
 8o Among the Meadow People. 
 
 through the soft, brown earth. We like 
 our task of keeping the earth right for 
 the plants, and we will work and rest 
 happily here." 
 
 The Potato Bug went his way, and said 
 to his brothers, " What do you think ? I 
 have been talking with Earthworms who 
 would not be Potato Bugs if they could." 
 And they all shook their heads in wonder, 
 for they thought that to be Potato Bugs 
 was the grandest and happiest thing in 
 the world.
 
 THE MEASURING WOI^D JOKCf] I 
 
 ONE day there crawled 
 over the meadow fence a 
 jolly young Measuring 
 Worm. He came from a 
 bush by the roadside, and 
 although he was still a 
 young Worm he had 
 kept his eyes open and 
 had a very good idea how 
 things go in this world. 
 " Now," thought he, as 
 he rested on the top rail 
 of the fence, " I shall 
 meet some new friends. 
 I do hope they will be 
 Si
 
 82 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 pleasant. I will look about me and see if 
 anyone is in sight." So he raised his 
 head high in the air and, sure enough, 
 there were seven Caterpillars of different 
 kinds on a tall clump of weeds near by. 
 
 The Measuring Worm hurried over to 
 where they were, and making his best 
 bow said : " I have just come from the 
 roadside and think I shall live in the 
 meadow. May I feed with you ? " 
 
 The Caterpillars were all glad to have 
 him, and he joined their party. He 
 asked many questions about the meadow, 
 and the people who lived there, and the 
 best place to find food. The Caterpillars 
 said, " Oh, the meadow is a good place, 
 and the people are nice enough, but they 
 are not at all fashionable not at all." 
 
 " Why," said the Measuring Worm, " if 
 you have nice people and a pleasant place 
 in which to live, I don't see what more 
 you need." 
 
 ' That is all very well," said a black and
 
 The Measuring Worm's Joke. 83 
 
 yellow Caterpillar, " but what we want 
 is fashionable society. The meadow peo- 
 ple always do things in the same way, 
 and one gets so tired of that. Now can 
 you not tell us something different, some- 
 thing that Worms do in the great world 
 from which you come ? " 
 
 Just at this minute the Measuring 
 Worm had a funny idea, and he wondered 
 if the Caterpillars would be foolish enough 
 to copy him. He thought it would be a 
 good joke if they did, so he said very sober- 
 ly, "I notice that when you walk you keep 
 your body quite close to the ground. I 
 have seen many Worms do the same 
 thing, and it is all right if they wish to, 
 but none of my family ever do so. Did 
 you notice how I walk ? " 
 
 "Yes, yes," cried the Caterpillars, "show 
 us again." 
 
 So the Measuring Worm walked back 
 and forth for them, arching his body as 
 high as he could, and stopping every little
 
 84 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 while to raise his head and look haughtily 
 around. 
 
 " What grace ! " exclaimed the Cater- 
 pillars. " What grace, and what style ! " 
 and one black and brown one tried to walk 
 in the same way. 
 
 The Measuring Worm wanted to laugh 
 to see how awkward the black and brown 
 Caterpillar was, but he did not even smile, 
 and soon every one of the Caterpillars 
 was trying the same thing, and saying 
 "Look at me. Don't I do well?" or, 
 "How was that?" 
 
 You can just imagine how those seven 
 Caterpillars looked when trying to walk 
 like the Measuring Worm. Every few 
 minutes one of them would tumble over, 
 and they all got warm and tired. At last 
 they thought they had learned it very well, 
 and took a long rest, in which they planned 
 to take a long walk and show the other 
 meadow people the fashion they had re- 
 ceived from the outside world.
 
 The Measuring Worm's Joke. 85 
 
 " We will walk in a line," they said, " as 
 far as we can, and let them all see us. 
 Ah, it will be a great day for the meadow 
 when we begin to set the fashions ! " 
 
 The mischievous young Measuring 
 Worm said not a word, and off they 
 started. The big black and yellow Cater- 
 pillar went first, the black and brown one 
 next, and so on down to the smallest one at 
 the end of the line, all arching their bodies 
 as high as they could. All the meadow 
 people stared at them, calling each other 
 to come and look, and whenever the 
 Caterpillars reached a place where there 
 were many watching them, they would all 
 raise their heads and look around exactly 
 as the Measuring Worm had done. When 
 they got back to their clump of bushes, 
 they had the most dreadful backaches, but 
 they said to each other, " Well, we have 
 been fashionable for once." 
 
 And, at the same time, out in the 
 grass, the meadow people were saying,
 
 86 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 " Did you ever see anything so ridicu- 
 lous in your life?" All of which goes 
 to show how very silly people some- 
 times are when they think too much of 
 being fashionable.
 
 A PUZZLED CICADA 
 
 SEVENTEEN years is a long, 
 long time to be getting ready 
 to fly ; yet that is what the 
 Seventeen-year Locusts, or 
 Cicadas, have to expect. 
 First, they lie for a long 
 time in eggs, down in 
 the earth. Then, when 
 they awaken, and crawl 
 out of their shells, they 
 must grow strong 
 enough to dig before 
 they can make their 
 way out to where the 
 87
 
 88 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 beautiful green grass is growing and wav- 
 ing in the wind. 
 
 The Cicada who got so very much puz- 
 zled had not been long out of his home in 
 the warm, brown earth. He was the only 
 Cicada anywhere around, and it was very 
 lonely for him. However, he did not 
 mind that so much when he was eating, 
 or singing, or resting in the sunshine, and 
 as he was either eating, or singing, or rest- 
 ing in the sunshine most of the time, he 
 got along fairly well. 
 
 Because he was young and healthy he 
 grew fast. He grew so very fast that 
 after a while he began to feel heavy and 
 stiff, and more like sitting still than like 
 crawling around. Beside all this, his skin 
 got tight, and you can imagine how un- 
 comfortable it must be to have one's skin 
 too tight. He was sitting on the branch 
 of a bush one day, thinking about the 
 wonderful great world, when pop ! his 
 skin had cracked open right down the
 
 A Puzzled Cicada. 89 
 
 middle of his back ! The poor Cicada 
 was badly frightened at first, but then it 
 seemed so good and roomy that he took a 
 deep breath, and pop! the crack was 
 longer still ! 
 
 The Cicada found that he had another 
 whole skin under the outside one which 
 had cracked, so he thought, " How much 
 cooler and more comfortable I shall be if 
 I crawl out of this broken covering," and 
 out he crawled. 
 
 It was n't very easy work, because he 
 did n't have anybody to help him. He 
 had to hook the claws of his outer skin 
 into the bark of the branch, hook them 
 in so hard that they could n't pull out, 
 and then he began to wriggle out of the 
 back of his own skin. It was exceedingly 
 hard work, and the hardest of all was the 
 pulling his legs out of their cases. He 
 was so tired when he got free that he 
 could hardly think, and his new skin was 
 so soft and tender that he felt limp and
 
 90 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 queer. He found that he had wings of a 
 pretty green, the same color as his legs. 
 He knew these wings must have been grow- 
 ing under his old skin, and he stretched 
 them slowly out to see how big they were. 
 This was in the morning, and after he had 
 stretched his wings he went to sleep for a 
 long time. 
 
 When he awakened, the sun was in the 
 western sky, and he tried to think who he 
 was. He looked at himself, and instead 
 of being green he was a dull brown and 
 black. Then he saw his old skin clinging 
 to the branch and staring him in the face. 
 It was just the same shape as when he was 
 in it, and he thought for a minute that he 
 was dreaming. He rubbed his head hard 
 with his front legs to make sure he was 
 awake, and then he began to wonder which 
 one he was. Sometimes he thought that 
 the old skin which clung to the bush was 
 the Cicada that had lain so long in the 
 ground, and sometimes he thought that
 
 A Puzzled Cicada. 91 
 
 the soft, fat, new-looking one was the 
 Cicada. Or were both of them the Ci- 
 cada ? If he were only one of the two, 
 what would he do with the other ? 
 
 While he was wondering about this in 
 a sleepy way, an old Cicada from across 
 the river flew down beside him. He 
 thought he would ask her, so he waved 
 his feelers as politely as he knew how, and 
 said, " Excuse me, Madam Cicada, for I 
 am much puzzled. It took me seventeen 
 years to grow into a strong, crawling Ci- 
 cada, and then in one day I separated. 
 The thinking, moving part of me is here, 
 but the outside shell of me is there on 
 that branch. Now, which part is the real 
 Cicada?" 
 
 " Why, that is easy enough," said the 
 Madam Cicada; "You arejy^% of course. 
 The part that you cast off and left cling- 
 ing to the branch was very useful once. 
 It kept you warm on cold days and cool 
 on warm days, and you needed it while
 
 92 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 you were only a crawling creature. But 
 when your wings were ready to carry you 
 off to a higher and happier life, then the 
 skin that had been a help was in your way, 
 and you did right to wriggle out of it. It 
 is no longer useful to you. Leave it 
 where it is and fly off to enjoy your new 
 life. You will never have trouble if you 
 remember that the thinking part is the 
 real you." 
 
 And then Madam Cicada and her new 
 friend flew away to her home over the 
 river, and he saw many strange sights be- 
 fore he returned to the meadow.
 
 m 
 
 *r 
 
 ' ?sSfc 
 
 K. 
 
 Jl 
 
 THE 
 
 FRpG^ 
 
 IN all the meadow there was 
 nobody who could tell such 
 interesting stories as the old 
 Tree Frog. Even the Garter 
 Snake, who had been there the 
 longest, and the old Cricket, who 
 had lived in the farm-yard, could 
 tell no such exciting tales as the 
 Tree Frog. All the wonderful 
 things of which he told had hap- 
 pened before he came to the 
 meadow, and while he was still a young 
 Frog. None of his friends had known 
 him then, but he was an honest fellow, 
 
 93
 
 94 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 and they were sure that everything he 
 told was true : besides, they must be true, 
 for how could a body ever think out such 
 remarkable tales from his own head ? 
 
 When he first came to his home by the 
 elm tree he was very thin, and looked as 
 though he had been sick. The Katydids 
 who stayed near said that he croaked in 
 his sleep, and that, you know, is not what 
 well and happy Frogs should do. 
 
 One day when many of the meadow 
 people were gathered around him, he told 
 them his story. " When I was a little 
 fellow," he said, " I was strong and well, 
 and could leap farther than any other 
 Frog of my size. I was hatched in the 
 pond beyond the farm-house, and ate my 
 way from the egg to the water outside 
 like any other Frog. Perhaps I ought to 
 say, * like any other Tadpole,' for, of course, 
 I began life as a Tadpole. I played and 
 ate with my brothers and sisters, and little 
 dreamed what trouble was in store for me
 
 The Tree Frog's Story. 95 
 
 when I grew up. We were all in a hurry 
 to be Frogs, and often talked of what we 
 would do and how far we would travel 
 when we were grown. 
 
 " Oh, how happy we were then ! I re* 
 member the day when my hind legs began 
 to grow, and how the other Tadpoles 
 crowded around me in the water and swam 
 close to me to feel the two little bunches 
 that were to be legs. My fore legs did 
 not grow until later, and these bunches 
 came just in front of my tail." 
 
 " Your tail ! " cried a puzzled young 
 Cricket ; " why, you have n't any tail ! " 
 
 "I did have when I was a Tadpole," 
 said the Tree Frog. " I had a beautiful, 
 wiggly little tail with which to swim 
 through the waters of the pond; but as 
 my legs grew larger and stronger, my tail 
 grew littler and weaker, until there was n't 
 any tail left. By the time my tail was 
 gone I had four good legs, and could 
 breathe through both my nose and my
 
 96 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 skin. The knobs on the ends of my toes 
 were sticky, so that I could climb a tree, 
 and then I was ready to start on my 
 travels. Some of the other Frogs started 
 with me, but they stopped along the way, 
 and at last I was alone. 
 
 " I was a bold young fellow, and when 
 I saw a great white thing among the trees 
 up yonder, I made up my mind to see 
 what it was. There was a great red thing 
 in the yard beside it, but I liked the white 
 one better. I hopped along as fast as I 
 could, for I did not then know enough to 
 be afraid. I got close up to them both, 
 and saw strange, big creatures going in 
 and out of the red thing the barn, as I 
 afterward found it was called. The largest 
 creatures had four legs, and some of them 
 had horns. The smaller creatures had 
 only two legs on which to walk, and two 
 other limbs of some sort with which they 
 lifted and carried things. The queerest 
 thing about it was, that the smaller creat-
 
 The Tree Frog's Story. 97 
 
 ures seemed to make the larger ones do 
 whatever they wanted them to. They 
 even made some of them help do their 
 work. You may not believe me, but what 
 I tell you is true. I saw two of the larger 
 ones tied to a great load of dried grass 
 and pulling it into the barn. 
 
 " As you may guess, I stayed there a 
 long time, watching these strange creat- 
 ures work. Then I went over toward 
 the white thing, and that, I found out, 
 was the farm-house. Here were more of 
 the two-legged creatures, but they were 
 dressed differently from those in the barn. 
 There were some bright-colored flowers 
 near the house, and I crawled in among 
 them. There I rested until sunset, and 
 then began my evening song. While I 
 was singing, one of the people from the 
 house came out and found me. She 
 picked me up and carried me inside. Oh, 
 how frightened I was ! My heart thumped 
 as though it would burst, and I tried my
 
 98 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 best to get away from her. She did n't 
 hurt me at all, but she would not let me 
 
 " She put me in a very queer prison. 
 At first, when she put me down on a stone 
 in some water, I did not know that I was 
 in prison. I tried to hop away, and 
 bump ! went my head against something. 
 Yet when I drew back, I could see no wall 
 there. I tried it again and again, and 
 every time I hurt my head. I tell you 
 the truth, my friends, those walls were 
 made of something which one could see 
 through." 
 
 " Wonderful !" exclaimed all the meadow 
 people ; "wonderful, indeed!" 
 
 " And at the top," continued the Tree 
 Frog, " was something white over the 
 doorway into my prison. In the bottom 
 were water and a stone, and from the bot- 
 tom to the top was a ladder. There I 
 had to live for most of the summer. I 
 had enough to eat ; but anybody who has
 
 The Tree Frog's Story. 99 
 
 been free cannot be happy shut in. I 
 watched my chance, and three times I got 
 out when the little door was not quite 
 closed. Twice I was caught and put back. 
 In the pleasant weather, of course, I went 
 to the top of the ladder, and when it was 
 going to rain I would go down again. 
 Every time that I went up or down, those 
 dreadful creatures would put their faces 
 up close to my prison, and I could hear a 
 roaring sound which meant they were 
 talking and laughing. 
 
 " The last time I got out, I hid near the 
 door of the house, and although they 
 hunted and hunted for me, they did n't 
 find me. After they stopped hunting, the 
 wind blew the door open, and I hopped 
 out." 
 
 "You don't say!" exclaimed a Grass- 
 hopper. 
 
 " Yes, I hopped out and scrambled 
 away through the grass as fast as ever I 
 could. You people who have never been
 
 TOO Among the Meadow People. 
 
 in prison cannot think how happy I was. 
 It seemed to me that just stretching my 
 legs was enough to make me wild with 
 joy. Well, I came right here, and you 
 were all kind to me, but for a long time I 
 could not sleep without dreaming that I 
 was back in prison, and I would croak in 
 my sleep at the thought of it." 
 
 " I heard you," cried the Katydid, " and 
 I wondered what was the matter." 
 
 " Matter enough," said the Tree Frog. 
 " It makes my skin dry to think of it now. 
 And, friends, the best way I can ever re- 
 pay your kindness to me, is to tell you to 
 never, never, never, never go near the 
 farm-house." 
 
 And they all answered, "We never 
 will."
 
 THE DAY WHEN THE GRASS 
 WAS CUT. 
 
 THERE came a day when all the meadow 
 people rushed back and forth, waving 
 their feelers and talking hurriedly to 
 each other. The fat old Cricket was 
 nowhere to be seen. He said that one 
 of his legs was lame and he thought it 
 best to stay quietly in his hole. The 
 young Crickets thought he was afraid. 
 Perhaps he was, but he said that he 
 was lame. 
 
 All the insects who had holes crawled 
 into them carrying food. Everybody was 
 anxious and fussy, and some people were 
 even cross. It was all because the farmer 
 and his men had come into the meadow 
 to cut the grass. They began to work
 
 IO2 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 on the side nearest the road, but every 
 step which the Horses took brought the 
 mower nearer to the people who lived in 
 the middle of the meadow or down to- 
 ward the river. 
 
 " I have seen this done before," said 
 the Garter Snake. " I got away from 
 the big mower, and hid in the grass by the 
 trees, or by the stumps where the mower 
 could n't come. Then the men came and 
 cut that grass with their scythes, and I 
 had to wriggle away over the short, sharp 
 grass-stubble to my hole. When they 
 get near me this time, I shall go into my 
 hole and stay there." 
 
 " They are not so bad after all/' said 
 the Tree Frog. " I like them better out- 
 of-doors than I did in the house. They 
 saw me out here once and did n't try to 
 catch me." 
 
 A Meadow Mouse came hurrying along. 
 " I must get home to my babies," she said. 
 "They will be frightened if I am not there."
 
 The Day when the Grass was Cut. 103 
 
 " Much good you can do when you are 
 there ! " growled a voice down under her 
 feet. She was standing over the hole 
 where the fat old Cricket was with his 
 lame leg. 
 
 The mother Meadow Mouse looked 
 rather angry for a minute, and then she 
 answered : " I 'm not so very large and 
 strong, but I can squeak and let the 
 Horses know where the nest is. Then 
 they won't step on it. Last year I had 
 ten or twelve babies there, and one of 
 the men picked them up and looked at 
 them and then put them back. I was 
 so frightened that my fur stood on end 
 and I shook like June grass in the wind." 
 
 " Humph ! Too scared to run away," 
 said the voice under her feet. 
 
 " Mothers don't run away and leave 
 their children in danger, " answered the 
 Meadow Mouse. " I think it is a great 
 deal braver to be brave when you are 
 afraid than it is to be brave when you 're
 
 IO4 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 not afraid." She whisked her long tail 
 and scampered off through the grass. 
 She did not go the nearest way to her 
 nest because she thought the Garter 
 Snake might be watching. She did n't 
 wish him to know where she lived. She 
 knew he was fond of young Mice, and 
 did n't want him to come to see her babies 
 while she was away. She said he was 
 not a good friend for young children. 
 
 "We don't mind it at all," said the 
 Mosquitoes from the lower part of the 
 meadow. " We are unusually hungry to- 
 day anyway, and we shall enjoy having 
 the men come." 
 
 " Nothing to make such a fuss over," 
 said a Milkweed Butterfly. " Just crawl 
 into your holes or fly away." 
 
 " Sometimes they step on the holes 
 and close them," said an Ant. " What 
 would you do if you were in a hole and 
 it stopped being a hole and was just 
 earth ? "
 
 The Day when the Grass was Cut. 105 
 
 "Crawl out, I suppose," answered the 
 Milkweed Butterfly with a careless flutter. 
 
 " Yes," said the Ant, " but I don't see 
 what there would be to crawl out 
 through." 
 
 The Milkweed Butterfly was already 
 gone. Butterflies never worry about any- 
 thing very long, you know. 
 
 " Has anybody seen the Measuring 
 Worm ? " asked the Katydid. " Where 
 is he ? " 
 
 "Oh, I 'm up a tree," answered a 
 pleasant voice above their heads, " but I 
 sha'n't be up a tree very long. I shall 
 come down when the grass is cut." 
 
 " Oh, dear, dear, dear ! " cried the Ants, 
 hurrying around. " We can't think what 
 we want to do. We don't know what we 
 ought to do. We can't think and we 
 don't know, and we don't think that 
 we ought to ! " 
 
 " Click ! " said a Grasshopper, spring- 
 ing into the air. " We must hurry, hurry,
 
 106 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 hurry ! " He jumped from a stalk of 
 pepper-grass to a plantain. "We must 
 hurry," he said, and he jumped from the 
 plantain back to the pepper-grass. 
 
 Up in the tree where the Measuring 
 Worm was, some Katydids were sitting 
 on a branch and singing shrilly : " Did 
 you ever ? Did you ever ? Ever ? Ever ? 
 Ever? Did you ever ?" And this shows 
 how much excited they were, for they 
 usually sang only at night. 
 
 Then the mower came sweeping down 
 the field, drawn by the Blind Horse and 
 the Dappled Gray, and guided by the 
 farmer himself. The dust rose in clouds 
 as they passed, the Grasshoppers gave 
 mighty springs which took them out of 
 the way, and all the singing and shrilling 
 stopped until the mower had passed. The 
 nodding grasses swayed and fell as the 
 sharp knives slid over the ground. " We 
 are going to be hay," they said, "and 
 live in the big barn."
 
 The Day when the Grass was Cut. 107 
 
 " Now we shall grow some more tender 
 green blades," said the grass roots. 
 
 " Fine weather for haying," snorted the 
 Dappled Gray. "We '11 cut all the grass 
 in this field before noon." 
 
 " Good feeling ground to walk on," 
 said the Blind Horse, tossing his head 
 until the harness jingled. 
 
 Then the Horses and the farmer and 
 the mower passed far away, and the 
 meadow people came together again. 
 
 " Well," said the Tree Frog. " That 's 
 over for a while." 
 
 The Ants and the Grasshoppers came 
 back to their old places. " We did just 
 the right thing," they cried joyfully. 
 " We got out of the way." 
 
 The Measuring Worm and the Katy- 
 dids came down from their tree as the 
 Milkweed Butterfly fluttered past. " The 
 men left the grass standing around 
 the Meadow Mouse's nest," said the 
 Milkweed Butterfly, " and the Cows up
 
 io8 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 by the barn are telling how glad they 
 will be to have the hay when the cold 
 weather comes." 
 
 " Grass must grow and hay be cut," 
 said the wise old Tree Frog, " and when 
 the time comes we always know what to 
 do. Puk-rup ! Puk-r-r-rup ! " 
 
 " I think," said the fat old Cricket, as 
 he crawled out of his hole, " that my 
 lame leg is well enough to use. There 
 is nothing like rest for a lame leg."
 
 HOPPER And 
 theMEA5UR 
 
 INGWORM 
 
 A FEW days after the 
 
 Measuring Worm came 
 to the meadow he met the Grass- 
 hoppers. Everybody had heard of 
 the Caterpillars' wish to be fashion- 
 able, and some of the young Grass- 
 hoppers, who did not know that it was all 
 a joke, said they would like to teach the 
 Measuring Worm a few things. So when 
 they met him the young Grasshoppers be- 
 gan to make fun of him, and asked him 
 what he did if he wanted to run, and 
 whether he did n't wish his head grew on 
 109
 
 no Among the Meadow People. 
 
 the middle of his back so that he could 
 see better when walking. 
 
 The Measuring Worm was good-na- 
 tured, and only said that he found his 
 head useful where it was. Soon one fine- 
 looking Grasshopper asked him to race. 
 " That will show," said the Grasshopper, 
 " which is the better traveller." 
 
 The Measuring Worm said : " Cer- 
 tainly, I will race with you to-morrow, 
 and we will ask all our friends to look 
 on." Then he began talking about some- 
 thing else. He was a wise young fellow, 
 as well as a jolly one, and he knew the 
 Grasshoppers felt sure that he would be 
 beaten. "If I cannot win the race by 
 swift running," thought he, " I must try 
 to win it by good planning." So he got 
 the Grasshoppers to go with him to a 
 place where the sweet young grass grew, 
 and they all fed together. 
 
 The Measuring Worm nibbled only a 
 little here and there, but he talked a great
 
 Grasshopper and Measuring Worm. 1 1 1 
 
 deal about the sweetness of the grass, and 
 how they would not get any more for a 
 long time because the hot weather would 
 spoil it. And the Grasshoppers said to 
 each other : " He is right, and we must 
 eat all we can while we have it." So they 
 ate, and ate, and ate, and ate, until sun- 
 set, and in the morning they awakened 
 and began eating again. When the time 
 for the race came, they were all heavy 
 and stupid from so much eating, which 
 was exactly what the Measuring Worm 
 wanted. 
 
 The Tree Frog, the fat, old Cricket, 
 and a Caterpillar were chosen to be the 
 judges, and the race was to be a long 
 one, from the edge of the woods to the 
 fence. When the meadow people were 
 all gathered around to see the race, the 
 Cricket gave a shrill chirp, which meant 
 " Go ! " and off they started. That is to 
 say, the Measuring Worm started. The 
 Grasshopper felt so sure he could beat
 
 ii2 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 that he wanted to give the Measuring 
 Worm a little the start, because then, you 
 see, he could say he had won without half 
 trying. 
 
 The Measuring Worm started off at a 
 good, steady rate, and when he had gone 
 a few feet the Grasshopper gave a couple 
 of great leaps, which landed him far ahead 
 of the Worm. Then he stopped to nibble 
 a blade of grass and visit with some Katy- 
 dids who were looking on. By and by he 
 took a few more leaps and passed the 
 Measuring Worm again. This time he 
 began to show off by jumping up straight 
 into the air, and when he came down he 
 would call out to those who stood near to 
 see how strong he was and how easy it 
 would be for him to win the race. And 
 everybody said, " How strong he is, to be 
 sure ! " " What wonderful legs he has ! " 
 and " He could beat the Measuring Worm 
 with his eyes shut ! " which made the Grass- 
 hopper so exceedingly vain that he stopped
 
 Grasshopper and Measuring Worm. 113 
 
 more and more often to show his strength 
 and daring. 
 
 That was the way it went, until they 
 were only a short distance from the end 
 of the race course. The Grasshopper 
 was more and more pleased to think how 
 easily he was winning, and stopped for a 
 last time to nibble grass and make fun of 
 the Worm. He gave a great leap into 
 the air, and when he came down there 
 was the Worm on the fence ! All the 
 meadow people croaked, and shrilled, and 
 chirped to see the way in which the race 
 ended, and the Grasshopper was very 
 much vexed. " You should n't call him 
 the winner," he said ; " I can travel ten 
 times as fast as he, if I try." 
 
 "Yes," answered the judges, "we all 
 know that, yet the winning of the race is 
 not decided by what you might do, but by 
 what you did do." And the meadow people 
 all cried : " Long live the Measuring 
 Worm ! Long live the Measuring Worm ! "
 
 IMS GREEN 
 AND HIS MSITOIl$ 
 
 ONE day a young Frog 
 who lived down by the 
 river, came hopping up 
 through the meadow. He 
 was a fine-looking fellow, 
 all brown and green, with 
 a white vest, and he came 
 to see the sights. The 
 oldest Frog on the river 
 bank had told him that he
 
 Mr. Green Frog and his Visitors 115 
 
 ought to travel and learn to know the 
 world, so he had started at once. 
 
 Young Mr. Green Frog had very big 
 eyes, and they stuck out from his head 
 more than ever when he saw all the 
 strange sights and heard all the strange 
 sounds of the meadow. Yet he made one 
 great mistake, just as bigger and better 
 people sometimes do when they go on a 
 journey ; he did n't try to learn from the 
 things he saw, but only to show off to the 
 meadow people how much he already 
 knew, and he boasted a great deal of the 
 fine way in which he lived when at home. 
 
 Mr. Green Frog told those whom he 
 met that the meadow was dreadfully dry, 
 and that he really could not see how they 
 lived there. He said they ought to see 
 the lovely soft mud that there was in the 
 marsh, and that there the people could sit 
 all day with their feet in water in among 
 the rushes where the sunshine never came. 
 " And then," he said, "to eat grass as the
 
 u6 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 Grasshoppers did ! If they would go 
 home with him, he would show them how 
 to live." 
 
 The older Grasshoppers and Crickets 
 and Locusts only looked at each other 
 and opened their funny mouths in a smile, 
 but the young ones thought Mr. Green 
 Frog must be right, and they wanted to 
 go back with him. The old Hoppers told 
 them that they would n't like it down 
 there, and that they would be sorry that 
 they had gone ; still the young ones teased 
 and teased and teased and teased until 
 everybody said : " Well, let them go, and 
 then perhaps they will be contented when 
 they return." 
 
 At last they all set off together, Mr. 
 Green Frog and the young meadow peo- 
 ple. Mr. Green Frog took little jumps 
 all the way and bragged and bragged. 
 The Grasshoppers went in long leaps, the 
 Crickets scampered most of the way, and 
 the Locusts fluttered. It was a very gay
 
 Mr. Green Frog and his Visitors. 1 1 7 
 
 little party, and they kept saying to 
 each other, "What a fine time we shall 
 have!" 
 
 When they got to the marsh, Mr. Green 
 Frog went in first with a soft " plunk " in 
 the mud. The rest all followed and tried 
 to make believe that they liked it, but 
 they did n't they did n't at all. The 
 Grasshoppers kept bumping against the 
 tough, hard rushes when they jumped, 
 and then that would tumble them over on 
 their backs in the mud, and there they 
 would lie, kicking their legs in the air, 
 until some friendly Cricket pushed them 
 over on their feet again. The Locusts 
 could n't fly at all there, and the Crickets 
 got their shiny black coats all grimy and 
 horrid. 
 
 They all got cold and wet and tired 
 yes, and hungry too, for there were no 
 tender green things growing in among 
 the rushes. Still they pretended to have 
 a good time, even while they were think-
 
 1 1 8 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 ing how they would like to be in their 
 dear old home. 
 
 After the sun went down in the west it 
 grew colder still, and all the Frogs in the 
 marsh began to croak to the moon, croak- 
 ing so loudly that the tired little travellers 
 could not sleep at all. When the Frogs 
 stopped croaking and went to sleep in the 
 mud, one tired Cricket said : " If you like 
 this, stay. I am going home as fast as 
 my six little legs will carry me." And all 
 the rest of the travellers said : " So am I," 
 " So am I," " So am I." 
 
 Mr. Green Frog was sleeping soundly, 
 and they crept away as quietly as they 
 could out into the silvery moonlight and 
 up the bank towards home. Such a tired 
 little party as they were, and so hungry 
 that they had to stop and eat every little 
 while. The dew was on the grass and 
 they could not get warm. 
 
 The sun was just rising behind the 
 eastern forest when they got home. They
 
 Mr. Green Frog and his Visitors. 1 19 
 
 did not want to tell about their trip at all, 
 but just ate a lot of pepper-grass to make 
 them warm, and then rolled themselves 
 in between the woolly mullein leaves to 
 rest all day long. And that was the last 
 time any of them ever went away with a 
 stranger.
 
 THE DIGNIFIED WALKING- 
 STICKS. 
 
 THREE Walking-Sticks from the forest 
 had come to live in the big maple tree 
 near the middle of the meadow. Nobody 
 knew exactly why they had left the forest, 
 where all their sisters and cousins and 
 aunts lived. Perhaps they were not happy 
 with their relatives. But Hien, if one is 
 a Walking-Stick, you know, one does not 
 care so very much about one's family. 
 
 These Walking-Sticks had grown up 
 the best way they could, with no father 
 or mother to care for them. They had 
 never been taught to do anything useful, 
 or to think much about other people. 
 When they were hungry they ate some 
 leaves, and never thought what they
 
 The Dignified Walking-Sticks. 121 
 
 should eat the next time that they hap- 
 pened to be hungry. When they were 
 tired they went to sleep, and when they 
 had slept enough they awakened. They 
 had nothing to do but to eat and sleep, 
 and they did not often take the trouble to 
 think. They felt that they were a little bet- 
 ter than those meadow people who rushed 
 and scrambled and worked from morning 
 until night, and they showed very plainly 
 how they felt. They said it was not 
 genteel to hurry, no matter what happened. 
 
 One day the Tree Frog was under the 
 tree when the large Brown Walking-Stick 
 decided to lay some eggs. He saw her 
 dropping them carelessly around on the 
 ground, and asked, " Do you never fix 
 a place for your eggs ? " 
 
 " A place? "said the Brown Walking- 
 Stick, waving her long and slender feelers 
 to and fro. " A place ? Oh, no ! I think 
 they will hatch where they are. It is too 
 much trouble to find a place."
 
 122 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 " Puk-r-r-rup ! " said the Tree Frog. 
 " Some mothers do not think it too much 
 trouble to be careful where they lay eggs." 
 
 " That may be," said the Brown Walk- 
 ing-Stick, "but they do not belong to our 
 family." She spoke as if those who did 
 not belong to her family might be good 
 but could never be genteel. She had 
 once told her brother, the Five- Legged 
 Walking-Stick, that she would not want 
 to live if she could not be genteel. She 
 thought the meadow people very common. 
 
 The Five-Legged Walking-Stick looked 
 much like his sister. He had the same 
 long, slender body, the same long feelers, 
 and the same sort of long, slender legs. 
 If you had passed them in a hay-field, 
 you would surely have thought each a 
 stem of hay, unless you happened to see 
 them move. The other Walking-Stick, 
 their friend, was younger and green. You 
 would have thought her a blade of grass. 
 
 It is true that the brother had the same
 
 The Dignified VValking-Sticks. 123 
 
 kind of legs as his sister, but he did not 
 have the same number. When he was 
 young and green he had six, then came 
 a dreadful day when a hungry Nuthatch 
 saw him, flew down, caught him, and car- 
 ried him up a tree. He knew just what 
 to expect, so when the Nuthatch set him 
 down on the bark to look at him, he un- 
 hooked his feet from the bark and tum- 
 bled to the ground. The Nuthatch tried 
 to catch him and broke off one of his legs, 
 but she never found him again, although 
 she looked and looked and looked and 
 looked. That was because he crawled 
 into a clump of ferns and kept very still. 
 
 His sister came and looked at him and 
 said, " Now if you were only a Spider it 
 would not be long before you would have 
 six legs again." 
 
 Her brother waved first one feeler and 
 then the other, and said : " Do you think 
 I would be a Spider for the sake of grow- 
 ing legs ? I would rather be a Walking-
 
 1 24 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 Stick without any legs than to be a Spider 
 with a hundred." Of course, you know, 
 Spiders never do have a hundred, and a 
 Walking-Stick would n't be walking with- 
 out any, but that was just his way of 
 speaking, and it showed what kind of 
 insect he was. His relatives all waved 
 their feelers, one at a time, and said, " Ah, 
 he has the true Walking-Stick spirit ! " 
 Then they paid no more attention to him, 
 and after a while he and his sister and 
 their green little friend left the forest for 
 the meadow. 
 
 On the day when the grass was cut, they 
 had sat quietly in their trees and looked 
 genteel. Their feelers were held quite 
 close together, and they did not move 
 their feet at all, only swayed their bodies 
 gracefully from side to side. Now they 
 were on the ground, hunting through the 
 flat piles of cut grass for some fresh and 
 juicy bits to eat. The Tree Frog was 
 also out, sitting in a cool, damp corner of
 
 The Dignified Walking-Sticks. 125 
 
 the grass rows. The young Grasshop- 
 pers were kicking up their feet, the Ants 
 were scrambling around as busy as ever, 
 and life went on quite as though neither 
 men nor Horses had ever entered the 
 meadow. 
 
 " See !" cried a Spider who was busily 
 looking after her web, " there comes a 
 Horse drawing something, and the farmer 
 sitting on it and driving." 
 
 When the Horse was well into the 
 meadow, the farmer moved a bar, and 
 the queer-looking machine began to kick 
 the grass this way and that with its many 
 stiff and shining legs. A frisky young 
 Grasshopper kicked in the same way, and 
 happened just happened, of course to 
 knock over two of his friends. Then 
 there was a great scrambling and the 
 Crickets frolicked with them. The young 
 Walking-Stick thought it looked like 
 great fun and almost wished herself some 
 other kind of insect, so that she could
 
 126 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 tumble around in the same way. She 
 did not quite wish it, you understand, and 
 would never have thought of it if she had 
 turned brown. 
 
 " Ah," said the Five-Legged Walking- 
 Stick," " what scrambling ! How very 
 common ! " 
 
 " Yes, indeed ! " said his sister. " Why 
 can't they learn to move slowly and grace- 
 fully ? Perhaps they can't help being fat, 
 but they might at least act genteel." 
 
 "What is it to be genteel?" asked a 
 Grasshopper suddenly. He had heard 
 every word that the Walking- Stick said. 
 
 " Why," said the Five-Legged Walking- 
 Stick, " it is just to be genteel. To act 
 as you see us act, and to " 
 
 Just here the hay-tedder passed over 
 them, and every one of the Walking- 
 Sticks was sent flying through the air and 
 landed on his back. The Grasshoppers 
 declare that the Walking-Sticks tumbled 
 and kicked and flopped around in a dread-
 
 The Dignified Walking-Sticks. 127 
 
 fully common way until they were right 
 side up. " Why," said the Measuring 
 Worm, " you act like anybody else when 
 the hay-tedder comes along ! " 
 
 The Walking-Sticks looked very un- 
 comfortable, and the brother and sister 
 could not think of anything to say. It 
 was the young green one who spoke at 
 last. "I think," said she, "that it is 
 much easier to act genteel when one is 
 right side up."
 
 THE OSV OF TTTt CHEAT STORM 
 
 EVERYTHING in the meadow 
 was dry and dusty. The leaves 
 on the milkweeds were turn- 
 ing yellow with thirst, the field 
 blossoms drooped their dainty 
 heads in the sunshine, and the 
 grass seemed to fairly rattle in 
 the wind, it was so brown and 
 dry. 
 
 All of the meadow people 
 when they met each other 
 would say, " Well, this is hot," 
 and the Garter Snake, who 
 
 had lived there longer than anyone else, 
 
 128
 
 The Day of the Great Storm. 129 
 
 declared that it was the hottest and driest 
 time that he had ever known. " Really," 
 he said, " it is so hot that I cannot eat, 
 and such a thing never happened before." 
 
 The Grasshoppers and Locusts were 
 very happy, for such weather was exactly 
 what they liked. They did n't see how 
 people could complain of such delightful 
 scorching days. But that, you know, is 
 always the way, for everybody cannot be 
 suited at once, and all kinds of weather 
 are needed to make a good year. 
 
 The poor Tree Frog crawled into the 
 coolest place he could find hollow trees, 
 shady nooks under the ferns, or even be- 
 neath the corner of a great stone. " Oh," 
 said he, "I wish I were a Tadpole again, 
 swimming in a shady pool. It is such a 
 long, hot journey to the marsh that I can- 
 not go. Last night I dreamed that I was 
 a Tadpole, splashing in the water, and it 
 was hard to awaken and find myself only 
 an uncomfortable old Tree Frog."
 
 130 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 Over his head the Katydids were singing, 
 " Lovely weather ! Lovely weather ! " and 
 the Tree Frog, who was a good-natured 
 old fellow after all, winked his eye at them 
 and said : " Sing away. This won't last 
 always, and then it will be my turn to sing." 
 
 Sure enough, the very next day a tiny 
 cloud drifted across the sky, and the Tree 
 Frog, who always knew when the weather 
 was about to change, began his rain-song. 
 " Pukr-r-rup !" sang he, " Pukr-r-rup ! It 
 will rain ! It will rain ! R-r-r-rain !" 
 
 The little white cloud grew bigger and 
 blacker, and another came following after, 
 then another, and another, and another, 
 until the sky was quite covered with rush- 
 ing black clouds. Then came a long, low 
 rumble of thunder, and all the meadow peo- 
 ple hurried to find shelter. The Moths and 
 Butterflies hung on the under sides of great 
 leaves. The Grasshoppers and their cousins 
 crawled under burdock and mullein plants. 
 The Ants scurried around to find their
 
 The Day of the Great Storm. 1 3 1 
 
 own homes. The Bees and Wasps, who 
 had been gathering honey for their nests, 
 flew swiftly back. Everyone was hurry- 
 ing to be ready for the shower, and above 
 all the rustle and stir could be heard the 
 voice of the old Frog, " Pukr-r-rup ! Pukr-r- 
 rup ! It will rain ! It will rain ! R-r-r-rain ! " 
 The wind blew harder and harder, the 
 branches swayed and tossed, the leaves 
 danced, and some even blew off of their 
 mother trees ; the hundreds of little clinging 
 creatures clung more and more tightly to 
 the leaves that sheltered them, and then the 
 rain came, and such a rain ! Great drops 
 hurrying down from the sky, crowding each 
 other, beating down the grass, flooding the 
 homes of the Ants and Digger Wasps until 
 they were half choked with water, knocking 
 over the Grasshoppers and tumbling them 
 about like leaves. The lightning flashed, 
 and the thunder pealed, and often a tree 
 would crash down in the forest near by 
 when the wind blew a great blast.
 
 132 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 When everybody was wet, and little 
 rivulets of water were trickling through 
 the grass and running into great puddles 
 in the hollows, the rain stopped, stopped 
 suddenly. One by one the meadow peo- 
 ple crawled or swam into sight. 
 
 The Digger Wasp was floating on a 
 leaf in a big puddle. He was too tired 
 and wet to fly, and the whirling of the 
 leaf made him feel sick and dizzy, but he 
 stood firmly on his tiny boat and tried to 
 look as though he enjoyed it. 
 
 The Ants were rushing around to put 
 their homes in shape, the Spiders were 
 busily eating their old webs, which had 
 been broken and torn in the storm, and 
 some were already beginning new ones. 
 A large family of Bees, whose tree-home 
 had been blown down, passed over the 
 meadow in search for a new dwelling, and 
 everybody seemed busy and happy in the 
 cool air that followed the storm. 
 
 The Snake went gliding through the
 
 The Day of the Great Storm. 133 
 
 wet grass, as hungry as ever, the Tree 
 Frog was as happy as when he was a 
 Tadpole, and only the Grasshoppers and 
 their cousins, the Locusts and Katydids, 
 were cross. " Such a horrid rain !" they 
 grumbled, " it spoiled all our fun. And 
 after such lovely hot weather too." 
 
 " Now don't be silly," said the Tree 
 Frog, who could be really severe when he 
 thought best, "the Bees and the Ants are 
 not complaining, and they had a good 
 deal harder time than you. Can't you 
 make the best of anything ? A nice, 
 hungry, cross lot you would be if it 
 did n't rain, because then you would have 
 no good, juicy food. It 's better for you 
 in the end as it is, but even if it were not, 
 you might make the best of it as I did of 
 the hot weather. When you have lived 
 as long as I have, you will know that 
 neither Grasshoppers nor Tree Frogs can 
 have their way all the time, but that it 
 always comes out all right in the end 
 without their fretting about it."
 
 THIS is the story of a 
 venturesome young Spider, 
 who left his home in the 
 meadow to seek his fortune 
 in the great world. 
 
 He was a beautiful Spi- 
 der, and belonged to one 
 of the best families in the 
 country around. He was 
 a worker, too, for, as he had 
 often said, there was n't a 
 lazy leg on his body, and 
 he could spin the biggest, 
 strongest, and shiniest web 
 in the meadow. All the 
 young people in the meadow liked him, 
 and he was invited to every party, or 
 134
 
 The Story of Lily- Pad Island. 135 
 
 dance, or picnic that they planned. If he 
 had been content to stay at home, as his 
 brothers and sisters were, he would in time 
 have become as important and well known 
 as the Tree Frog, or the fat, old Cricket, 
 or even as the Garter Snake. 
 
 But that would not satisfy him at all, 
 and one morning he said "Good-by" to 
 all his friends and relatives, and set sail 
 for unknown lands. He set sail, but not 
 on water. He crawled up a tree, and out 
 to the end of one of its branches. There 
 he began spinning a long silken rope, and 
 letting the wind blow it away from the 
 tree. He held fast to one end, and when 
 the wind was quite strong, he let go of 
 the branch and sailed off through the air, 
 carried by his rope balloon, and blown 
 along by the wind. 
 
 The meadow people, on the ground be- 
 low, watched him until he got so far away 
 that he looked about as large as a Fly, and 
 then he looked no bigger than an Ant,
 
 136 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 and then no bigger than a clover seed, and 
 then no bigger than the tiniest egg that 
 was ever laid, and then well, then you 
 could see nothing but sky, and the Spider 
 was truly gone. The other young Spiders 
 all wished that they had gone, and the old 
 Spiders said, " They might much better 
 stay at home, as their fathers and mothers 
 had done." There was no use talking 
 about it when they disagreed so, and very 
 little more was said. 
 
 Meanwhile, the young traveller was 
 having a very fine time. He was carried 
 past trees and over fences, down toward 
 the river. Under him were all the bright 
 flowers of the meadow, and the bushes 
 which used to tower above his head. After 
 a while, he saw the rushes of the marsh 
 below him, and wondered if the Frogs 
 there would see him as he passed over 
 them. 
 
 Next, he saw a beautiful, shining river, 
 and in the quiet water by the shore were
 
 The Story of Lily-Pad Island. 137 
 
 great white water-lilies growing, with their 
 green leaves, or pads, floating beside them. 
 "Ah," thought he, " I shall pass over the 
 river, and land on the farther side," and 
 he began to think of eating his rope bal- 
 loon, so that he might sink slowly to the 
 ground, when the wind suddenly stopped 
 blowing, and he began falling slowly down, 
 down, down, down. 
 
 How he longed for a branch to cling to ! 
 How he shivered at the thought of plung- 
 ing into the cold water ! How he wished 
 that he had always stayed at home ! How 
 he thought of all the naughty things that 
 he had ever done, and was sorry that he 
 had done them ! But it was of no use, for 
 still he went down, down, down. He gave 
 up all hope and tried to be brave, and at 
 that very minute he felt himself alight on 
 a great green lily-pad. 
 
 This was indeed an adventure, and he 
 was very joyful for a little while. But he 
 got hungry, and there was no food near.
 
 138 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 He walked all over the leaf, Lily-Pad 
 Island he named it, and ran around its 
 edges as many as forty times. It was just 
 a flat, green island, and at one side was a 
 perfect white lily, which had grown, so 
 pure and beautiful, out of the darkness 
 and slime of the river bottom. The lily 
 was so near that he jumped over to it. 
 There he nestled in its sweet, yellow cen- 
 tre, and went to sleep. 
 
 When he fell asleep it was late in the 
 afternoon, and, as the sun sank lower and 
 lower in the west, the lily began to close 
 her petals and get ready for the night. 
 She was just drawing under the water 
 when the Spider awakened. It was dark 
 and close, and he felt himself shut in and 
 going down. He scrambled and pushed, 
 and got out just in time to give a great 
 leap and alight on Lily Pad-Island once 
 more. And then he was in a sad plight. 
 He was hungry and cold, and night was 
 coming on, and, what was worst of all, in
 
 The Story of Lily-Pad Island. 139 
 
 his great struggle to free himself from the 
 lily he had pulled off two of his legs, so 
 he had only six left. 
 
 He never liked to think of that night 
 afterward, it was so dreadful. In the 
 morning he saw a leaf come floating down 
 the stream ; he watched it ; it touched 
 Lily-Pad Island for just an instant and he 
 jumped on. He did not know where it 
 would take him, but anything was better 
 than staying where he was and starving. 
 It might float to the shore, or against one 
 of the rushes that grew in the shallower 
 parts of the river. If it did that, he would 
 jump off and run up to the top and set sail 
 again, but the island, where he had been, 
 was too low to give him a start. 
 
 He went straight down-stream for a 
 while, then the leaf drifted into a little 
 eddy, and whirled around and around, 
 until the Spider was almost too dizzy to 
 stand on it. After that, it floated slowly, 
 very slowly, toward the shore, and at last
 
 140 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 came the joyful minute when the Spider 
 could jump to some of the plants that 
 grew in the shallow water, and, by making 
 rope bridges from one to another, get on 
 solid ground. 
 
 After a few days' rest he started back 
 to the meadow, asking his way of every 
 insect that he met. When he got home 
 they did not know him, he was so changed, 
 but thought him only a tramp Spider, and 
 not one of their own people. His mother 
 was the first one to find out who he was, 
 and when her friends said, "Just what I 
 expected ! He might have known better," 
 she hushed them, and answered : " The 
 poor child has had a hard time, and I 
 won't scold him for going. He has learned 
 that home is the best place, and that home 
 friends are the dearest. I shall keep him 
 quiet while his new legs are growing, and 
 then, I think, he will spin his webs near 
 the old place." 
 
 And so he did, and is now one of the
 
 The Story of LilyrPad Island. 141 
 
 steadiest of all the meadow people. When 
 anybody asks him his age, he refuses to 
 tell, " For," he says, " most of me is mid- 
 dle-aged, but these two new legs of mine 
 are still very young."
 
 THE GRASSHOPPER WHO 
 WOULDN'T BE SCARED. 
 
 THERE were more Ants in the meadow 
 than there were of any other kind of in- 
 sects. In their family there were not 
 only Ants, but great -aunts, cousins, 
 nephews, and nieces, until it made one 
 sleepy to think how many relatives 
 each Ant had. Yet they were small 
 people and never noisy, so perhaps the 
 Grasshoppers seemed to be the largest 
 family there. 
 
 There were many different families of 
 Grasshoppers, but they were all related. 
 Some had short horns, or feelers, and red 
 legs ; and some had long horns. Some 
 lived in the lower part of the meadow 
 where it was damp, and some in the upper 
 142
 
 Grasshopper Would'nt be Scared. 143 
 
 part. The Katydids, who really belong 
 to this family, you know, stayed in trees 
 and did not often sing in the daytime. 
 The*n there were the great Road Grass- 
 hoppers who lived only in places where 
 the ground was bare and dusty, and whom 
 you could hardly see unless they were 
 flying. When they lay in the dust their 
 wide wings were hidden and they showed 
 only that part of their bodies which was 
 dust-color. Let the farmer drive along, 
 however, and they rose into the air with a 
 gentle, whirring sound and fluttered to a 
 safe place. Then one could see them 
 plainly, for their large under wings were 
 black with yellow edges. 
 
 Perhaps those Grasshoppers who were 
 best known in the meadow were the 
 Clouded Grasshoppers, large dirty-brown 
 ones with dark spots, who seemed to be 
 everywhere during the autumn. The 
 fathers and brothers in this family always 
 crackled their wings loudly when they
 
 144 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 flew anywhere, so one could never forget 
 that they were around. 
 
 It was queer that they were always 
 spoken of as Grasshoppers. Their gYeat- 
 great-great-grandparents were called 
 Locusts, and that was the family name, 
 but the Cicadas liked that name and 
 wanted it for themselves, and made such 
 a fuss about it that people began to call 
 them Seventeen-Year-Locusts ; and then 
 because they had to call the real Locusts 
 something else, they called them Grass- 
 hoppers. The Grasshoppers did n't mind 
 this. They were jolly and noisy, and as 
 they grew older were sometimes very 
 pompous. And you know what it is to 
 be pompous. 
 
 When the farmer was drawing the last 
 loads of hay to his barn and putting them 
 away in the great mows there, three 
 young Clouded Grasshopper brothers 
 were frolicking near the wagon. They 
 had tried to see who could run the fastest, 

 
 Grasshopper Would'nt be Scared. 145 
 
 crackle the loudest, spring the highest, 
 flutter the farthest, and eat the most. 
 There seemed to be nothing more to do. 
 They could n't eat another mouthful, the 
 other fellows would n't play with them, 
 they would n't play with their sisters, and 
 they were not having any fun at all. 
 
 They were sitting on a hay-cock, watch- 
 ing the wagon as it came nearer and 
 nearer. The farmer was on top and one 
 of his men was walking beside it. When- 
 ever they came to a hay-cock the farmer 
 would stop the Horses, the man would 
 run a long-handled, shining pitch-fork into 
 the hay on the ground and throw it up to 
 the farmer. Then it would be trampled 
 down on to the load, the farmer's wife 
 would rake up the scattering hay which 
 was left on the ground, and that would be 
 thrown up also. 
 
 The biggest Clouded Grasshopper said 
 to his brothers, " You dare not sit still 
 while they put this hay on the load ! "
 
 146 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 The smallest Clouded Grasshopper said, 
 " I do too ! " 
 
 The second brother said, " Huh ! 
 Guess I dare do anything you do ! " He 
 said it in a rather mean way, and that may 
 have been because he had eaten too much. 
 Overeating will make any insect cross. 
 
 Now every one of them was afraid, but 
 each waited for the others to back out. 
 While they were waiting, the wagon 
 stopped beside them, the shining fork was 
 run into the hay, and they were shaken 
 and stood on their heads and lifted 
 through the air on to the wagon. There 
 they found themselves all tangled up with 
 hay in the middle of the load. It was 
 dark and they could hardly breathe. There 
 were a few stems of nettles in the hay, and 
 they had to crawl away from them. It 
 was no fun at all, and they didn't talk 
 very much. 
 
 When the wagon reached the barn, 
 they were pitched into the mow with the
 
 Grasshopper Would'nt be Scared. 147 
 
 hay, and then they hopped and fluttered 
 around until they were on the floor over 
 the Horses' stalls. They sat together on 
 the floor and wondered how they could 
 ever get back to the meadow. Because 
 they had come in the middle of the load, 
 they did not know the way. 
 
 " Oh ! " said they. " Who are those four- 
 legged people over there ? " 
 
 " Kittens !" sang a Swallow over their 
 heads. " Oh, tittle-ittle-ittle-ee ! " 
 
 The Clouded Grasshoppers had never 
 seen Kittens. It is true that the old Cat 
 often went hunting in the meadow, but 
 that was at night, when Grasshoppers 
 were asleep. 
 
 " Meouw ! " said the Yellow Kitten. 
 " Look at those queer little brown people 
 on the floor. Let's each catch one." 
 
 So the Kittens began crawling slowly 
 over the floor, keeping their bodies and 
 tails low, and taking very short steps. 
 Not one of them took his eyes off the
 
 148 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 Clouded Grasshopper whom he meant to 
 catch. Sometimes they stopped and 
 crouched and watched, then they went 
 on, nearer, nearer, nearer, still, while the 
 Clouded Grasshoppers were more and 
 more scared and wished they had never 
 left the meadow where they had been so 
 safe and happy. 
 
 At last the Kittens jumped, coming down 
 with their sharp little claws just where the 
 Clouded Grasshoppers had been. The 
 Clouded Grasshoppers had jumped too, but 
 they could not stay long in the air, and 
 when they came down the Kittens jumped 
 again. So it went until the poor Clouded 
 Grasshoppers were very, very tired and 
 could not jump half so far as they had done 
 at first. Sometimes the Kittens even tried 
 to catch them while they were fluttering, 
 and each time they came a little nearer than 
 before. They were so tired that they never 
 thought of leaping up on the wall of the barn 
 where the Kittens could n't reach them.
 
 Grasshopper Would'nt be Scared. 149 
 
 At last the smallest Clouded Grasshop- 
 per called to his brothers, " Let us chase 
 the Kittens." 
 
 The brothers answered, " They 're too 
 big." 
 
 The smallest Clouded Grasshopper, 
 who had always been the brightest one in 
 the family, called back, " We may scare 
 them if they are big." 
 
 Then all the Clouded Grasshoppers 
 leaped toward the Kittens and crackled 
 their wings and looked very, very fierce. 
 And the Kittens ran away as fast as they 
 could. They were in such a hurry to get 
 away that the Yellow Kitten tumbled 
 over the White Kitten and they rolled on 
 the floor in a furry little heap. The 
 Clouded Grasshoppers leaped again, and 
 the Kittens scrambled away to their nest 
 in the hay, and stood against the wall and 
 raised their backs and their pointed little 
 tails, and opened their pink mouths and 
 spat at them, and said, " Ha-ah-h-h !"
 
 1 50 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 " There ! " said the smallest Clouded 
 Grasshopper to them, "we won't do any- 
 thing to you this time, because you are 
 young and don't know very much, but 
 don't you ever bother one of us again. 
 We might have hopped right on to you, 
 and then what could you have done to 
 help yourselves ? " 
 
 The Clouded Grasshoppers started off 
 to find their way back to the meadow, 
 and the frightened Kittens looked at each 
 other and whispered : " Just supposing 
 they had hopped on to us ! What could 
 we have done ! "
 
 EARLY one wet morning, a long Earth- 
 worm came out of his burrow. He did 
 not really leave it, but he dragged most 
 of his body out, and let just the tip-end 
 of it stay in the earth. Not having any 
 eyes, he could not see the heavy, gray 
 clouds that filled the sky, nor the milk- 
 weed stalks, so heavy with rain-drops that 
 they drooped their pink heads. He could 
 not see these things, but he could feel the 
 soft, damp grass, and the cool, clear air, 
 and as for seeing, why, Earthworms never 
 do have eyes, and never think of wanting 
 them, any more than you would want six 
 legs, or feelers on your head. 
 151
 
 152 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 This Earthworm had been out of his 
 burrow only a little while, when there was 
 a flutter and a rush, and Something flew 
 down from the sky and bit his poor body 
 in two. Oh, how it hurt ! Both halves 
 of him wriggled and twisted with pain, 
 and there is no telling what might have 
 become of them if another and bigger 
 Something had not come rushing down 
 to drive the first Something away. So 
 there the poor Earthworm lay, in two 
 aching, wriggling pieces, and although it 
 had been easy enough to bite him in two, 
 nothing in the world could ever bite him 
 into one. 
 
 After a while the aching stopped, and 
 he had time to think. It was very hard 
 to decide what he ought to do. You can 
 see just how puzzling it must have been, 
 for, if you should suddenly find yourself 
 two people instead of one, you would not 
 know which one was which. At this very 
 minute, who should come along but the
 
 The Earthworm Half- Brothers. 153 
 
 Cicada, and one of the Earthworm pieces 
 asked his advice. The Cicada thought 
 that he was the very person to advise in 
 such a case, because he had had such a 
 puzzling time himself. So he said in a 
 very knowing way : " Pooh ! That is a 
 simple matter. I thought I was two Ci- 
 cadas once, but I was n't. The thinking, 
 moving part is the real one, whatever 
 happens, so that part of the Worm which 
 thinks and moves is the real Worm." 
 
 " I am the thinking part," cried each of 
 the pieces. 
 
 The Cicada rubbed his head with his 
 front legs, he was so surprised. 
 
 "And I am the moving part," cried 
 each of the pieces, giving a little wriggle 
 to prove it. 
 
 " Well, well, well, well !" exclaimed the 
 Cicada, " I believe I don't know how to 
 settle this. I will call the Garter Snake," 
 and he flew off to get him. 
 
 A very queer couple they made, the
 
 154 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 Garter Snake and the Cicada, as they 
 came hurrying back from the Snake's 
 home. The Garter Snake was quite ex- 
 cited. " Such a thing has not happened 
 in our meadow for a long time," he said, 
 " and it is a good thing there is somebody 
 here to explain it to you, or you would be 
 dreadfully frightened. My family is re- 
 lated to the Worms, and I know. Both 
 of you pieces are Worms now. The 
 bitten ends will soon be well, and you can 
 keep house side by side, if you don't want 
 to live together." 
 
 " Well," said the Earthworms, " if we 
 are no longer the same Worm, but two 
 Worms, are we related to each other ? 
 Are we brothers, or what ? " 
 
 "Why," answered the Garter Snake, 
 with a funny little smile, " I think you 
 might call yourselves half-brothers." And 
 to this day they are known as " the Earth- 
 worm half-brothers." They are very fond 
 of each other and are always seen together.
 
 The Earthworm Half-Brothers. 155 
 
 A jolly young Grasshopper, who is a 
 great eater and thinks rather too much 
 about food, said he would n't mind being 
 bitten into two Grasshoppers, if it would 
 give him two stomachs and let him eat 
 twice as much. 
 
 The Cicada told the Garter Snake this 
 one day, and the Garter Snake said : 
 " Tell him not to try it. The Earth- 
 worms are the only meadow people who 
 can live after being bitten in two that 
 way. The rest of us have to be one, or 
 nothing. And as for having two stomachs, 
 he is just as well off with one, for if he had 
 two, he would get twice as hungry."
 
 TOP 
 ING 
 
 IK 
 
 OF all the people who lived 
 and worked in the meadow by the 
 river, there was not one who gave 
 so much thought to other people's 
 business as a certain Blue-bottle 
 Fly. Why this should be so, no- 
 body could say ; perhaps it was 
 because he had nothing to do but 
 eat and sleep, for that is often the 
 way with those who do little work. 
 Truly his cares were light. To 
 be sure, he ate much, but then, 
 with nearly sixty teeth for nib- 
 bling and awonderful long tongue 
 for sucking, he could eat a great 
 
 deal in a very short time. And 
 
 156
 
 A Gossiping Fly. 157 
 
 as for sleeping well, sleeping was as easy 
 for him as for anyone else. 
 
 However it was, he saw nearly every- 
 thing that happened, and thought it over 
 in his queer little three-cornered head 
 until he was sure that he ought to go to 
 talk about it with somebody else. It was 
 no wonder that he saw so much, for he 
 had a great bunch of eyes on each side of 
 his head, and three bright, shining ones on 
 the very top of it. That let him see almost 
 everything at once, and beside this his 
 neck was so exceedingly slender that he 
 could turn his head very far around. 
 
 This particular Fly, like all other Flies, 
 was very fond of the sunshine and kept 
 closely at home in dark or wet weather. 
 He had no house, but stayed in a certain 
 elder bush on cloudy days and called that 
 his home. He had spent all of one stormy 
 day there, hanging on the under side of a 
 leaf, with nothing to do but think. Of 
 course, his head was down and his feet
 
 158 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 were up, but Blue-bottle Flies think in 
 that position as well as in any other, and 
 the two sticky pads on each side of his 
 six feet held him there very comfortably. 
 
 He thought so much that day, that 
 when the next morning dawned sunshiny 
 and clear, he had any number of things to 
 tell people, and he started out at once. 
 
 First he went to the Tree Frog. " What 
 do you suppose," said he, " that the Garter 
 Snake is saying about you ? It is very 
 absurd, yet I feel that you ought to know. 
 He says that your tongue is fastened at 
 the wrong end, and that the tip of it 
 points down your throat. Of course, I 
 knew it could n't be true, still I thought I 
 would tell you what he said, and then you 
 could see him and put a stop to it." 
 
 For an answer to this the Tree Frog 
 ran out his tongue, and, sure enough, it 
 was fastened at the front end. " The 
 Snake is quite right," he said pleasantly, 
 " and my tongue suits me perfectly. It is
 
 A Gossiping Fly. 159 
 
 just what I need for the kind of food I 
 eat, and the best of all is that it never 
 makes mischief between friends." 
 
 After that, the Fly could say nothing 
 more there, so he flew away in his noisiest 
 manner to find the Grasshopper who lost 
 the race. " It was a shame," said the Fly 
 to him, " that the judges did not give the 
 race to you. The idea of that little green 
 Measuring Worm coming in here, almost 
 a stranger, and making so much trouble ! 
 I would have him driven out of the 
 meadow, if I were you." 
 
 " Oh, that is all right," answered the 
 Grasshopper, who was really a good fel- 
 low at heart ; " I was very foolish about 
 that race for a time, but the Measuring 
 Worm and I are firm friends now. Are 
 we not ? " And he turned to a leaf just 
 back of him, and there, peeping around the 
 edge, was the Measuring Worm himself. 
 
 The Blue-bottle Fly left in a hurry, for 
 where people were so good-natured he
 
 160 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 could do nothing at all. He went this 
 time to the Crickets, whom he found all 
 together by the fat, old Cricket's hole. 
 
 " I came," he said, " to find out if it 
 were true, as the meadow people say, that 
 you were all dreadfully frightened when 
 the Cow came ? " 
 
 The Crickets answered never a word, 
 but they looked at each other and began 
 asking him questions. 
 
 "Is it true," said one, "that you do 
 nothing but eat and sleep ? " 
 
 " Is it true," said another, " that your 
 eyes are used most of the time for seeing 
 other people's faults ? " 
 
 "And is it true," said another, "that 
 with all the fuss you make, you do little 
 but mischief?" 
 
 The Blue-bottle Fly answered nothing, 
 but started at once for his home in the elder 
 bush, and they say that his three-cornered 
 head was filled with very different thoughts 
 from any that had been there before.
 
 THE FROG-HOPPERS GO OUT 
 INTO THE WORLD. 
 
 ALONG the upper edge of the meadow 
 and in the corners of the rail fence there 
 grew golden-rod. During the spring and 
 early summer you could hardly tell that 
 it was there, unless you walked close to it 
 and saw the slender and graceful stalks 
 pushing upward through the tall grass 
 and pointing in many different ways with 
 their dainty leaves. The Horses and 
 Cows knew it, and although they might 
 eat all around it they never pulled at it 
 with their lips or ate it. In the autumn, 
 each stalk was crowned with sprays of 
 tiny bright yellow blossoms, which nodded 
 in the wind and scattered their golden 
 pollen all around. Then it sometimes 
 
 161
 
 1 62 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 happened that people who were driving 
 past would stop, climb over the fence, 
 and pluck some of it to carry away. 
 Even then there was so much left that 
 one could hardly miss the stalks that were 
 gone. 
 
 It may have been because the golden- 
 rod was such a safe home that most of 
 the Frog- Hoppers laid their eggs there. 
 Some laid eggs in other plants and bushes, 
 but most of them chose the golden-rod. 
 After they had laid their eggs they wan- 
 dered around on the grass, the bushes, 
 and the few trees which grew in the 
 meadow, hopping from one place to 
 another and eating a little here and a little 
 there. 
 
 Nobody knows why they should have 
 been called Frog-Hoppers, unless it was 
 because when you look them in the face 
 they seem a very little like tiny Frogs. 
 To be sure, they have six legs, and teeth 
 on the front pair, as no real Frog ever
 
 The Frog-Hoppers Go out 163 
 
 thought of having. Perhaps it was only 
 a nickname because their own name was 
 so long and hard to speak. 
 
 The golden-rod was beginning to show 
 small yellow-green buds on the tips of its 
 stalks, and the little Frog- Hoppers were 
 now old enough to talk and wonder about 
 the great world. On one stalk four 
 Frog-Hopper brothers and sisters lived 
 close together. That was much pleasanter 
 than having to grow up all alone, as most 
 young Frog- Hoppers do, never seeing 
 their fathers and mothers or knowing 
 whether they ever would. 
 
 These four little Frog- Hoppers did not 
 know how lucky they were, and that, you 
 know, happens very often when people 
 have not seen others lonely or unhappy. 
 They supposed that every Frog-Hopper 
 family had two brothers and two sisters 
 living together on a golden-rod stalk. 
 They fed on the juice or sap of the 
 golden-rod, pumping it out of the stalk
 
 164 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 with their stout little beaks and eating or 
 drinking it. After they had eaten it, they 
 made white foam out of it, and this foam 
 was all around them on the stalk. Any 
 one passing by could tell at once by the 
 foam just where the Frog-Hoppers lived. 
 
 One morning the oldest Frog-Hopper 
 brother thought that the sap pumped very 
 hard. It may be that it did pump hard, 
 and it may be that he was tired or lazy. 
 Anyway, he began to grumble and find 
 fault. " This is the worst stalk of golden- 
 rod I ever saw in my life," he said. " It 
 does n't pay to try to pump any more sap, 
 and I just won't try, so there ! " 
 
 He was quite right in saying that it was 
 the worst stalk he had ever seen, because 
 he had never seen any other, but he was 
 much mistaken in saying that it didn't 
 pay to pump sap, and as for saying that 
 " it did n't pay, so there ! " we all know 
 that when insects begin to talk in that 
 way the best thing to do is to leave them
 
 The Frog-Hoppers Go out. 165 
 
 quite alone until they are better-natured. 
 
 The other Frog-Hopper children could 
 n't leave him alone, because they had n't 
 changed their skins for the last time. 
 They had to stay in their foam until that 
 was done. After the big brother spoke in 
 this way, they all began to wonder if the 
 sap did n't pump hard. Before long the 
 big sister wiggled impatiently and said, 
 " My beak is dreadfully tired." 
 
 Then they all stopped eating and be- 
 gan to talk. They called their home 
 stuffy, and said there was n't room to turn 
 around in it without hitting the foam. 
 They did n't say why they should mind 
 hitting the foam. It was soft and clean, 
 and always opened up a way when they 
 pushed against it. 
 
 " I tell you what ! " said the big brother, 
 " after I Ve changed my skin once more 
 and gone out into the great world, you 
 won't catch me hanging around this old 
 golden-rod."
 
 1 66 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 " Nor me ! " " Nor me ! " " Nor me ! " 
 said the other young Frog-Hoppers. 
 
 " I wonder what the world is like," said 
 the little sister. " Is it just bigger foam 
 and bigger golden-rod and more Frog- 
 Hoppers?" 
 
 " Huh ! " exclaimed her big brother. 
 " What lots you know ! If I did n't know 
 any more than that about it, I 'd keep still 
 and not tell anybody." That made her 
 feel badly, and she did n't speak again for 
 a long time. 
 
 Then the little brother spoke. "I 
 did n't know you had ever been out into 
 the world," he said. 
 
 " No," said the big brother, " I suppose 
 you did n't. There are lots of things you 
 don't know." That made him feel badly, 
 and he went off into the farthest corner 
 of the foam and stuck his head in between 
 a golden-rod leaf and the stalk. You see 
 the big brother was very cross. Indeed, 
 he was exceedingly cross.
 
 The Frog- Hoppers Go out. 167 
 
 For a long time nobody spoke, and 
 then the big sister said, " I wish you 
 would tell us what the world is like." 
 
 The big brother knew no more about 
 the world than the other children, but 
 after he had been cross and put on airs 
 he did n't like to tell the truth. He might 
 have known that he would be found out, 
 yet he held up his head and answered : " I 
 don't suppose that I can tell you so that 
 you will understand, because you have 
 never seen it. There are lots of things 
 there whole lots of them and it is very 
 big. Some of the things are like golden- 
 rod and some of them are not. Some of 
 them are not even like foam. And there 
 are a great many people there. They all 
 have six legs, but they are not so clever 
 as we are. We shall have to tell them 
 things." 
 
 This was very interesting and made the 
 little sister forget to pout and the little 
 brother come out of his foam-corner. He
 
 1 68 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 even looked as though he might ask a 
 few questions, so the big brother added, 
 "Now don't talk to me, for I must think 
 about something." 
 
 It was not long after this that the 
 young Frog-Hoppers changed their skins 
 for the last time. The outside part of 
 the foam hardened and made a little roof 
 over them while they did this. Then they 
 were ready to go out into the meadow. 
 The big brother felt rather uncomfortable, 
 and it was not his new skin which made 
 him so. It was remembering what he 
 had said about the world outside. 
 
 When they had left their foam and 
 their golden-rod, they had much to see 
 and ask about. Every little while one of 
 the smaller Frog-Hoppers would exclaim, 
 " Why, you never told us about this ! " 
 or, " Why did n't you tell us about 
 that ? " 
 
 Then the big brother would answer : 
 " Yes, I did. That is one of the things
 
 The Frog-Hoppers Go out. 169 
 
 which I said were not like either golden- 
 rod or foam." 
 
 For a while they met only Crickets, 
 Ants, Grasshoppers, and other six-legged 
 people, and although they looked at each 
 other they did not have much to say. At 
 last they hopped near to the Tree Frog, 
 who was sitting by the mossy trunk of a 
 beech tree and looked so much like the 
 bark that they did not notice him at first. 
 The big brother was very near the Tree 
 Frog's head. 
 
 " Oh, see ! " cried the others. " There 
 is somebody with only four legs, and he 
 does n't look as though he ever had any 
 more. Why, Brother, what does this 
 mean ? You said everybody had six." 
 
 At this moment the Tree Frog opened 
 his eyes a little and his mouth a great 
 deal, and shot out his quick tongue. 
 When he shut his mouth again, the big 
 brother of the Frog-Hoppers was nowhere 
 to be seen. They never had a chance to
 
 i 70 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 ask him that question again. If they had 
 but known it, the Tree Frog at that 
 minute had ten legs, for six and four are 
 ten. But then, they could n't know it, 
 for six were on the inside.
 
 
 MO5QUITOj 
 
 TRIDTO 
 
 IN this meadow, as in 
 every other meadow since 
 the world began, there were 
 some people who were al- 
 ways tired of the way things 
 were, and thought that, if 
 the world were only differ- 
 ent, they would be perfect- 
 ly happy. One of these 
 discontented ones was a 
 certain Mosquito, a fellow 
 with a whining voice and 
 disagreeable manners. He 
 had very little patience 
 with people who were not 
 like him, and thought that
 
 172 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 the world would be a much pleasanter 
 place if all the insects had been made 
 Mosquitoes. 
 
 " What is the use of Spiders, and 
 Dragon-flies, and Beetles, and Butter- 
 flies?" he would say, fretfully; "a Mos- 
 quito is worth more than any of them." 
 
 You can just see how unreasonable he 
 was. Of course, Mosquitoes and Flies do 
 help keep the air pure and sweet, but that 
 is no reason why they should set them- 
 selves up above the other insects. Do 
 not the Bees carry pollen from one flower 
 to another, and so help the plants raise 
 their Seed Babies ? And who would not 
 miss the bright, happy Butterflies, with 
 their work of making the world beautiful ? 
 
 But this Mosquito never thought of 
 those things, and he said to himself: 
 " Well, if they cannot all be Mosquitoes, 
 they can at least try to live like them, and 
 I think I will call them together and talk 
 it over." So he sent word all around, and
 
 The Mosquito Tries to Teach. 173 
 
 his friends and neighbors gathered to hear 
 what he had to say. 
 
 "In the first place," he remarked, "it is 
 unfortunate that you are not Mosquitoes, 
 but, since you are not, one must make the 
 best of it. There are some things, how- 
 ever, which you might learn from us 
 fortunate creatures who are. For in- 
 stance, notice the excellent habit of the 
 Mosquitoes in the matter of laying eggs. 
 Three or four hundred of the eggs are 
 fastened together and left floating on a 
 pond in such a way that, when the babies 
 break their shells, they go head first into 
 the water. Then they " 
 
 " Do you think I would do that if I 
 could?" interrupted a motherly old Grass- 
 hopper. " Fix it so my children would 
 drown the minute they came out of the egg ? 
 No, indeed ! " and she hurried angrily away, 
 followed by several other loving mothers. 
 
 " But they don't drown," exclaimed the 
 Mosquito, in surprise.
 
 1 74 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 " They don't if they 're Mosquitoes," 
 replied the Ant, " but I am thankful to say 
 my children are land babies and not water 
 babies." 
 
 " Well, I won't say anything more about 
 that, but I must speak of your voices, 
 which are certainly too heavy and loud to 
 be pleasant. I should think you might 
 speak and sing more softly, even if you 
 have no pockets under your wings like 
 mine. I flutter my wings, and the air 
 strikes these pockets and makes my sweet 
 voice." 
 
 "Humph!" exclaimed a Bee, "it is a 
 very poor place for pockets, and a very 
 poor use to make of them. Every Bee 
 knows that pockets are handiest on the 
 hind legs, and should be used for carrying 
 pollen to the babies at home." 
 
 " My pocket is behind," said a Spider, 
 " and my web silk is kept there. I could n't 
 live without a pocket." 
 
 Some of the meadow people were get-
 
 The Mosquito Tries to Teach. 175 
 
 ting angry, so the Garter Snake, who 
 would always rather laugh than quarrel, 
 glided forward and said : " My friends 
 and neighbors ; our speaker here has been 
 so kind as to tell us how the Mosquitoes 
 do a great many things, and to try to 
 teach us their way. It seems to me that 
 we might repay some of his kindness by 
 showing him our ways, and seeing that 
 he learns by practice. I would ask the 
 Spiders to take him with them and show 
 him how to spin a web. Then the Bees 
 could teach him how to build comb, and 
 the Tree Frog how to croak, and the 
 Earthworms how to burrow, and the 
 Caterpillars how to spin a cocoon. Each 
 of us will do something for him. Perhaps 
 the Measuring Worm will teach him to 
 walk as the Worms of his family do. I 
 understand he does that very well." Here 
 everybody laughed, remembering the joke 
 played on the Caterpillars, and the Snake 
 stopped speaking.
 
 1 76 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 The Mosquito did not dare refuse to 
 be taught, and so he was taken from one 
 place to another, and told exactly how to 
 do everything that he could not possibly 
 do, until he felt so very meek and humble 
 that he was willing the meadow people 
 should be busy and happy in their own 
 way.
 
 BY the edge of the marsh 
 lived a young Frog, who 
 thought a great deal about 
 herself and much less about 
 other people. Not that it 
 was wrong to think so much 
 of herself, but it certainly was 
 unfortunate that she should 
 have so little time left in 
 which to think of others and 
 of the beautiful world. 
 
 Early in the morning this 
 Frog would awaken and lean 
 far over the edge of a pool to see how 
 
 177
 
 1 78 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 she looked after her night's rest. Then 
 she would give a spring, and come down 
 with a splash in the cool water for her 
 morning bath. For a while she would 
 swim as fast as her dainty webbed feet 
 would push her, then she would rest, sit- 
 ting in the soft mud with just her head 
 above the water. 
 
 When her bath was taken, she had her 
 breakfast, and that was the way in which 
 she began her day. She did nothing but 
 bathe and eat and rest, from sunrise to 
 sunset. She had a fine, strong body, and 
 had never an ache or a pain, but one day 
 she got to thinking, "What if sometime 
 I should be sick?" And then, because 
 she thought about nothing but her own 
 self, she was soon saying, " I am afraid I 
 shall be sick." In a little while longer it 
 was, " I certainly am sick." 
 
 She crawled under a big toadstool, and 
 sat there looking very glum indeed, until 
 a Cicada came along. She told the Cicada
 
 The Frog who Thought herself Sick. 1 79 
 
 how sick she felt, and he told his cousins, 
 the Locusts, and they told their cousins, 
 the Grasshoppers, and they told their 
 cousins, the Katydids, and then everybody 
 told somebody else, and started for the 
 toadstool where the young Frog sat. The 
 more she had thought of it, the worse she 
 felt, until, by the time the meadow people 
 came crowding around, she was feeling 
 very sick indeed. 
 
 " Where do you feel badly ?" they cried, 
 and, "How long have you been sick?" 
 and one Cricket stared with big eyes, and 
 said, " How dr-r-readfully she looks !" The 
 young Frog felt weaker and weaker, and 
 answered in a faint little voice that she 
 had felt perfectly well until after break- 
 fast, but that now she was quite sure her 
 skin was getting dry, and "Oh dear!" and 
 "Oh dear!" 
 
 Now everybody knows that Frogs 
 breathe through their skins as well as 
 through their noses, and for a Frog's skin
 
 i8o Among the Meadow People. 
 
 to get dry is very serious, for then he can- 
 not breathe through it ; so, as soon as she 
 said that, everybody was frightened and 
 wanted to do something for her at once. 
 Some of the timid ones began to weep, 
 and the others bustled around, getting in 
 each other's way and all trying to do some- 
 thing different. One wanted to wrap her 
 in mullein leaves, another wanted her to 
 nibble a bit of the peppermint which grew 
 near, a third thought she should be kept 
 moving, and that was the way it went 
 
 Just when everybody was at his wits' 
 end, the old Tree Frog came along. 
 " Pukr-r-rup ! What is the matter with 
 you ? " he said. 
 
 " Oh!" gasped the young Frog, weakly, 
 " I am sure my skin is getting dry, and I 
 feel as though I had something in my 
 head." 
 
 "Umph!" grunted the Tree Frog to 
 himself, " I guess there is n't enough in 
 her head to ever make her sick ; and, as
 
 The Frog who Thought herself Sick. 181 
 
 for her skin, it is n't dry yet, and nobody 
 knows that it ever will be." 
 
 But as he was a wise old fellow and had 
 learned much about life, he knew he must 
 not say such things aloud. What he did 
 say was, " I heard there was to be a great 
 race in the pool this morning." 
 
 The young Frog lifted her head quite 
 quickly, saying: "You did? Who are 
 the racers ? " 
 
 "Why, all the young Frogs who live 
 around here. It is too bad that you can- 
 not go." 
 
 " I don't believe it would hurt me any," 
 she said. 
 
 " You might take cold," the Tree Frog 
 said ; "besides, the exercise would tire you." 
 
 " Oh, but I am feeling much better," 
 the young Frog said, " and I am certain 
 it will do me good." 
 
 " You ought not to go," insisted all the 
 older meadow people. " You really ought 
 not."
 
 1 82 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 " I don't care," she answered, " I am 
 going anyway, and I am just as well as 
 anybody." 
 
 And she did go, and it did seem that 
 she was as strong as ever. The people 
 all wondered at it, but the Tree Frog 
 winked his eyes at them and said, " I 
 knew that it would cure her." And then 
 he, and the Garter Snake, and the fat, old 
 Cricket laughed together, and all the 
 younger meadow people wondered at what 
 they were laughing.
 
 KATVDID5' 
 
 QUARREL 
 
 THE warm summer days 
 were past, and the Katy- 
 dids came again to the 
 meadow. Everybody was 
 glad to see them, and the 
 Grasshoppers, who are 
 cousins of the Katydids, 
 gave a party in their honor. 
 
 Such a time as the 
 meadow people had getting 
 ready for that party ! They 
 did not have to change 
 their dresses, but they 
 scraped and cleaned them- 
 selves, and all the young 
 Grasshoppers went off by 
 183
 
 1 84 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 the woods to practise jumping and get 
 their knees well limbered, because there 
 might be games and dancing at the party, 
 and then how dreadful it would be if any 
 young Grasshopper should find that two 
 or three of his legs would n't bend easily ! 
 
 The Grasshoppers did not know at just 
 what time they ought to have the party. 
 Some of the meadow people whom they 
 wanted to invite were used to sleeping all 
 day, and some were used to sleeping all 
 night, so it really was hard to find an hour 
 at which all would be wide-awake and 
 ready for fun. At last the Tree Frog 
 said: "Pukr-r-rup! Pukr-r-rup ! Have it 
 at sunset ! " And at sunset it was. 
 
 Everyone came on time, and they 
 hopped and chattered and danced and 
 ate a party supper of tender green leaves. 
 Some of the little Grasshoppers grew 
 sleepy and crawled among the plantains 
 for a nap. Just then a big Katydid said 
 he would sing a song which was a very
 
 The Katydids' Quarrel. 185 
 
 kind thing for him to do, because he really 
 did it to make the others happy, and not 
 to show what a fine musician he was. All 
 the guests said, " How charming ! " or, 
 " We should be delighted !" and he seated 
 himself on a low swinging branch. You 
 know Katydids sing with the covers of 
 their wings, and so when he alighted on 
 the branch he smoothed down his pale 
 green suit and rubbed his wing-cases a 
 little to make sure that they were in tune. 
 Then he began loud and clear, " Katy 
 did ! Katy did ! ! Katy did ! ! ! " 
 
 Of course he did n't mean any real 
 Katy, but was just singing his song. 
 However, there was another Katydid 
 there who had a habit of contradicting, 
 and he had eaten too much supper, and 
 that made him feel crosser than ever ; so 
 when the singer said " Katy did ! " this 
 cross fellow jumped up and said, " Katy 
 did n't ! Katy did n't ! ! Katy did n't ! ! ! " 
 and they kept at it, one saying that she
 
 1 86 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 did and the other that she did n't, until 
 everybody was ashamed and uncomfort- 
 able, and some of the little Grasshoppers 
 awakened and wanted to know what was 
 the matter. 
 
 Both of the singers got more and more 
 vexed until at last neither one knew just 
 what he was saying and that, you know, 
 is what almost always happens when peo- 
 ple grow angry. They just kept saying 
 something as loud and fast as possible 
 and thought all the while that they were 
 very bright which was all they knew 
 about it. 
 
 Suddenly somebody noticed that the 
 one who began to say " Katy did ! " was 
 screaming " Katy did n't ! " and the one 
 who had said " Katy did n't !" was roaring 
 " Katy did ! " Then they all laughed, and 
 the two on the branch looked at each 
 other in a very shamefaced way. 
 
 The Tree Frog always knew the right 
 thing to do, and he said " Pukr-r-rup ! "
 
 The Katydids' Quarrel. 187 
 
 so loudly that all stopped talking at once. 
 When they were quiet he said : " We will 
 now listen to a duet, ' Katy,' by the two 
 singers who are up the tree. All please 
 join in the chorus." So it was begun 
 again, and both the leaders were good- 
 natured, and all the Katydids below joined 
 in with " did or did n't, did or did n't, did 
 or did n't." And that was the end of the 
 quarrel.
 
 OF THE > 
 REASON 
 
 SUMMER had been a joy- 
 ful time in the meadow. 
 It had been a busy time, 
 too, and from morning till 
 night the chirping and 
 humming of the happy 
 people there had mingled 
 with the rustle of the 
 leaves, and the soft "swish, 
 swish," of the tall grass, as 
 the wind passed over it. 
 
 True, there had been a 
 few quarrels, and some un- 
 pleasant things to remem- 
 
 188
 
 The Last Party of the Season. 189 
 
 ber, but these little people were wise 
 enough to throw away all the sad mem- 
 ories and keep only the glad ones. And 
 now the summer was over. The leaves 
 of the forest trees were turning from green 
 to scarlet, orange, and brown. The beech 
 and hickory nuts were only waiting for a 
 friendly frost to open their outer shells, 
 and loosen their stems, so that they could 
 fall to the earth. 
 
 The wind was cold now, and the meadow 
 people knew that the time had come to 
 get ready for winter. One chilly Cater- 
 pillar said to another, " Boo-oo ! How 
 cold it is ! I must find a place for my 
 cocoon. Suppose we sleep side by side this 
 winter, swinging on the same bush ? " 
 
 And his friend replied: "We must hurry 
 then, or we shall be too old and stiff to 
 spin good ones." 
 
 The Garter Snake felt sleepy all the 
 time, and declared that in a few days he 
 would doze off until spring.
 
 190 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 The Tree Frog had chosen his winter 
 home already, and the Bees were making 
 the most of their time in visiting the last 
 fall flowers, and gathering every bit of 
 honey they could find for their cold- 
 weather stock. 
 
 The last eggs had been laid, and the 
 food had been placed beside many of 
 them for the babies that would hatch out 
 in the spring. Nothing was left but to say 
 " Good-by," and fall asleep. So a message 
 was sent around the meadow for all to 
 come to a farewell party under the elm tree. 
 
 Everybody came, and all who could sing 
 did so, and the Crickets and Mosquitoes 
 made music for the rest to dance by. 
 
 The Tree Frog led off with a black and 
 yellow Spider, the Garter Snake followed 
 with a Potato Bug, and all the other crawl- 
 ing people joined in the dance on the 
 grass, while over their heads the Butter- 
 flies and other light-winged ones fluttered 
 to and fro with airy grace.
 
 The Last Party 'of the Season. 191 
 
 The Snail and the fat, old Cricket had 
 meant to look on, and really did so, for a 
 time, from a warm corner by the tree, but 
 the Cricket could n't stand it to not join 
 in the fun. First, his eyes gleamed, his 
 feelers waved, and his feet kept time to 
 the music, and, when a frisky young Ant 
 beckoned to him, he gave a great leap 
 and danced with the rest, balancing, jump- 
 ing, and circling around in a most surpris- 
 ing way. 
 
 When it grew dark, the Fireflies' lights 
 shone like tiny stars, and the dancing went 
 on until all were tired and ready to sing 
 together the last song of the summer, for 
 on the morrow they would go to rest. 
 And this was their song : 
 
 The autumn leaves lying 
 So thick on the ground, 
 
 The summer Birds flying 
 The meadow around, 
 
 Say, " Good-by."
 
 192 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 The Seed Babies dropping 
 Down out of our sight, 
 
 The Dragon-flies stopping 
 A moment in flight, 
 
 Say, " Good-by." 
 
 The red Squirrels bearing 
 Their nuts to the tree, 
 
 The wild Rabbits caring 
 For babies so wee, 
 
 Say, " Good-by." 
 
 The sunbeams now showing 
 
 Are hazy and pale, 
 The warm breezes blowing 
 
 Have changed to a gale, 
 So, " Good-by." 
 
 The season for working 
 
 Is passing away. 
 Both playing and shirking 
 
 Are ended to day, 
 
 So, "Good-by." 
 
 The Garter Snake creeping 
 
 So softly to rest, 
 The fuzzy Worms sleeping 
 
 Within their warm nest, 
 Say, " Good-by."
 
 The Last Party of the Season. 193 
 
 The Honey Bees crawling 
 
 Around the full comb, 
 The tiny Ants calling 
 
 Each one to the home, 
 Say, " Good-by." 
 
 We Ve ended our singing, 
 
 Our dancing, and play, 
 And Nature's voice ringing 
 
 Now tells us to say 
 
 Our " Good-by." 
 
 THE END.
 
 "Many a mother and teacher will accord a -vote 
 of thanks to the author. ' ' 
 
 Among the Meadow People. 
 
 STORIES OF FIELD LIFE, WRITTEN FOR THE LITTLE ONES. 
 
 By CLARA D. P1ERSON. 
 
 Illustrated by F. C. GORDON. 
 New Edition, i2mo, 194 pages, cloth, gilt top, $1.25 
 
 " One of the daintiest and in many ways most attractive 
 of the many books of nature study which the past year has 
 brought forth." Boston Advertiser. 
 
 "They are like Mrs. Gatty's well-known 'Parables from 
 Nature,' written in the best of English, as fascinating as fairy 
 tales, and yet ' really true,' a quality which we all know 
 appeals to the childish mind." N. Y. Evangelist. 
 
 "We have seen nothing better for its purpose, and hope 
 many a teacher of kindergartens and many a mother may 
 avail herself of the privilege of using these little tales." 
 N. Y. Christian Advocate. 
 
 " It will be a great advance in the work of education in the 
 school and the home when such books are more generally 
 utilized." Zion's Herald. 
 
 "These charming stories of field life will delight many a 
 child of kindergarten age ; and it is safe to say that older 
 brothers and sisters will also want to claim a share in them." 
 Christian Register. 
 
 Sent by mail, post-paid, on receipt of price. 
 
 E. P. BUTTON & CO., Publishers, 
 31 West 23d Street New York.
 
 Among the Forest People 
 
 By CLARA D. PIERSON 
 
 Illustrated by F. C. GORDON 
 lamo, 220 pages, cloth, gilt top $1.25 
 
 " A thoroughly charming book for the little people, which 
 grown folks can read, also, with many a satisfied chuckle at 
 its slily insinuated ' morals,' and inimitable mingling of human 
 sentiments and affairs in the wild life of ' the Forest People.' 
 The illustrations have really artistic value ; thoroughly well 
 done, with a pleasing combination of the conventional in form 
 and light and shade, they are also clever and accurate in 
 drawing." Living Church. 
 
 "A most charming series of stories for children yes, and 
 for children of all ages, both young and old is given us in the 
 volume before us. No one can read these realistic conver- 
 sations of the little creatures of the wood without being most 
 tenderly drawn toward them, and each story teaches many 
 entertaining facts regarding the lives and habits of these little 
 people. Mothers and teachers must welcome this book most 
 cordially. One cannot speak too strongly in praise of it." 
 Boston Transcript. 
 
 " I declare I really feel tempted to adopt or borrow a nice 
 little girl of six or seven, just for the pleasure of reading this 
 perfect book to her while she snuggles down in my lap." 
 
 KATE SANBORN. 
 
 "The telling is conceived with decided originality." 
 
 Outlook. 
 
 " There has not been such a book for many a year, and it 
 makes the old folks long to be young again." N. Y. Observer. 
 
 " Is an utterly delightful book for the little folk." 
 
 Interior. 
 
 Sent by mail, post-paid, on receipt of price 
 
 E. P. DUTTON & CO., Publishers 
 31 West 23d Street ....... New York
 
 Among the Farmyard People 
 
 By CLARA D. PIERSON 
 
 Illustrated by F. C. GORDON 
 i2mo, 256 pages, cloth, gilt top, $1.25 
 
 "The very pretty stories of animal life, 'Among the 
 Forest People,' and ' Among the Meadow People,' are con- 
 tinued in Clara D. Pierson's ' Among the Farmyard People.' 
 To those who know the earlier volumes, this needs no intro- 
 duetion or praise. To those who may still have that pleasure 
 in store, we can commend heartily these tenderly realistic 
 conversations, which show a sympathetic knowledge at once 
 of animals and of children, who will be amused and taught 
 and edified by these dainty little tales that never obtrude the 
 always healthy moral of this genuine Child's Book of Nature." 
 Churchman. 
 
 " They will be found valuable for use by mothers and kin- 
 dergarten teachers. The beautiful illustrations furnished by 
 F. C. Gordon are distinctively instructive. Altogether the 
 book is one of the most desirable works that can be found to 
 train the child's imagination, affection, and powers of obser- 
 vation." Boston Beacon. 
 
 ' ' We heartily recommend the book for its thoroughly 
 healthy tone, far better adapted to a sweet and simple child- 
 hood than much of the rather stimulating juvenile literature 
 of the day." N. Y. Commercial Advertiser. 
 
 ' ' A helpful book for young readers, teaching first lessons 
 in natural history, and inculcating principles of love for ani- 
 mals." Philadelphia Evening Telegram. 
 
 " A charming and pretty book for young children. It will 
 help them to observe, and it will also help them to think. 
 Nearly every story ends with something unsaid, which the nurs- 
 ery people are to think out for themselves." Church Standard. 
 
 Sent by mail, post-paid, on receipt of price 
 
 E. P. DUTTON & CO., Publishers 
 31 West aad Street - - New York
 
 Among the Pond People 
 
 By CLARA D. PIERSON 
 
 With 12 full- page illustrations by F. C. GORDON 
 tamo, aaa pages, cloth, gilt top - - $1.25 
 
 This last book of Mrs. Pierson's has all the charm of the 
 earlier volumes. The adventures of Mother Eel, the Playful 
 Muskrat, the Snappy Snapping Turtle, and the other Pond 
 People, will be eagerly followed by children, whether they 
 are naturalists or ordinary readers. The fact that one does 
 not continually feel that she is writing for the purpose of in- 
 structing the young, gives Mrs. Pierson her hold on so many 
 boys and girls. The books teach a great many lessons, but 
 one does not feel that the author is lying in wait to enlighten 
 the unwary youngster. 
 
 " In it, as in the old Greek comedies, the frogs have a voice 
 and speak their little orations and crack their jokes and play 
 their pranks. The ' science ' is elementary but the entertain- 
 ment genuine, and the little people to whom it is read will 
 ever cherish a kindly interest in the denizens of the ponds 
 and their floral homes and environments." Interior. 
 
 " One lays down the book with quickened sympathy for 
 everything that crawls and creeps and swims." Critic. 
 
 " The Pond People are quite as real and as fascinating as 
 were the Meadow People and the Barnyard People of pre- 
 vious books. They are genuine stories, full of a humor that 
 will appeal to boys and girls, yet cleverly conveying infor- 
 mation about the frogs, turtles, minnows, etc., and often sug- 
 gesting a moral in a delicate manner which no child could 
 resent. " Congregationalist. 
 
 " In its way the work is very daintily done." Churchman. 
 
 Sent by mail, post-paid, on receipt of price 
 E. P. BUTTON & CO., Publishers 
 
 West 23d Street ....... New York
 
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