The Cheerful Cricket and Others
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Jeannette Marks >> The Cheerful Cricket and Others
Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading
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THE CHEERFUL CRICKET AND OTHERS
JEANNETTE MARKS
ILLUSTRATED BY EDITH BROWN
TO
MY NEPHEW
HENRY DOUGLAS BACON
AND TO OTHER CHILDREN AS GOOD AND BAD
BIG OR LITTLE
THESE STORIES AND TALES ARE INSCRIBED
CONTENTS
THE CHEERFUL CRICKET
THE SLOTHFUL TOAD
THE SULLEN CATERPILLAR
THE GREEN INCH WORM
THE MEAN SPIDER
THE MARSH GRASS VESPER QUARTETTE
THE NOISY FLY
THE DIZZY MOTH
THE HONEST ANT
THE WALKING STICK
LADY BUG & MRS. POE TATO-BUG
THE TUNEFUL HUMMING BIRD
CHEERFUL CRICKET
The Cheerful Cricket had been running around anxiously in the grass all
the morning. Mrs. Cricky carried her head down, and when she ran she
scuttled, and when she stopped she was absolutely still, except for her
eyes, which she turned about brightly in every direction. Mrs. Cricky
was looking for food for Chee, Chirk and Chirp. Usually Mr. Cricky
brought home the food, but he was a member of the Marsh Grass Vesper
Quartette--made up of himself, Miss K. T. Did, Mr. Frisky Frog and Mr.
Tree Toad Todson, first cousin to Toadie Todson--and they had all been
out very late the night before, so Mrs. Cricky didn't wish to disturb
him.
At last Mrs. Cricky found what she wanted, and home she came. Chirp and
Chee and Chirk were fed, and then it was time to begin school. Mrs.
Cricky always taught her own children. She had rented three little
toad-stools, not any bigger than tacks, from Toadie Todson, and these
the children used for desks. She often said that she thought round-top
desks better than flat, for then the children were not so likely to lean
their elbows on them. School began promptly as the sun rose; nine
o'clock would have seemed a lazy hour to the little Cricketses. The
principal study Mrs. Cricky taught was Cheerfulness, much the same as
you are taught reading and writing. She said that the whole duty of a
cricket was to be cheerful. After this she gave them some lessons in
Fear. These lessons were something like the things your mother tells
you, such as, "Don't go near the water," "Fire burns," "Don't put beans
in your ears," "Look before you leap;" only Mrs. Cricky told Chirp and
Chee and Chirk never to go near one of old Stingy's spider-webs, and
when they saw a giant coming with a fish pole in his hand, to hop away
as fast as they could. Then, too, she said there was a four-footed
animal, called a cat, that caught little crickets to eat them up. After
this they all chirruped together as she waved a blade of grass to keep
time, then she rang a blue-bell and school was over. She put three
little clover-leaf sunbonnets on them and sent them out into the sun to
play.
Now Chirp and Chee and Chirk were like other little boys and girls who
do not learn their lessons very well. And Chee was careless about
listening to his lessons in Fear. They went right out with their three
little clover-leaf sunbonnets on and down to the edge of the lake. Chee
climbed way up to the top end of a large blade of grass, and was
balancing there, much as you like to on a spring-board, when
accidentally he fell into the lake. Chirp and Chirk ran to and fro,
frightened to death, calling for help. But nobody heard them. In the
meantime Chee was kicking in the water and making a great fuss, when a
big oak leaf floated by, and Chee scrambled on. If, however, the leaf
had not come at just that moment Chee would have drowned. When the leaf
floated in shore they all went home and told Mother Cricky. She stopped
chirruping for quite a long time and didn't say anything at all. When
Mrs. Cricky began to chirrup again she said it served them just right,
and she hoped it had taught them all a lesson. Then they all chirruped
together, because Chee was safe, and Mrs. Cricky said: "Now let us all
sing a little song to show that we are happy." And this is the song they
sang:
_Jump, Jump_
_Rather Fast_
Jump, jump everywhere,
How we like the summer air,
Chirp, chirp, chirp in tune,
On the grass beneath the moon.
THE SLOTHFUL TOAD
The slothful Toad (his real name was Toadie Todson) crawled out of his
hole and looked about. He saw a Bee near by buzzing busily over a rich
large clover blossom, and a sturdy Ant dragging a white parcel marked
"Food" toward a round sandy house, and a cheery little Cricket marching
rapidly up a green stalk in search of a dinner for three hungry little
Cricketses. It was a busy time for all except Toadie Todson.
The spring had just come, that much Toadie Todson knew, and all these
neighbors were busy putting their houses in order. Well, the Bee was
stocking his honeycomb house, the Ant was putting her summer pantry into
order and filling it with cookies, cream cheese, cake, and honey that
her Majesty, the Queen Bee, sent over every day. And the Cricket,
although his house was out of doors under a big green oak leaf that had
dropped to the ground, was busy piling up all the food he could find for
Mrs. Cricky to guard while she nursed the three little Cricketses.
Toadie Todson was tired to see so much going on. He wished they would
all be quiet and stop hurrying around. He drew a long sigh, which made
him swell up and look rounder and fatter than ever. Why couldn't his
neighbors feed as he did? He just sat there and opened his big red slit
of a mouth, gave a lazy snap, and a noisy fly, still buzzing, was
swallowed up. He moved a little further away from his hole, dragging one
fat, squashy leg after the other, then down he squatted again.
A little ball of green inch-worm dropped off the bush on to Toadie
Todson's back and began to measure its length over Toadie's big warts
and veins. It made him feel very important to have an inch-worm all to
himself to tickle his back, as important as an Egyptian Queen with a
slave to tickle the sole of her foot all the hot afternoon long. Toadie
Todson swelled with pride as the green inch-worm went measuring up and
down, up and down his back.
The Busy Bee just then flew buzzing by and buzzed to Toadie as he went:
"There's a sand-slide rolling down this way. I'm getting out's fast as I
can." When the Bee said sand-slide it sounded just like
"Sz-sz-sz--z-z-z-z--ide." Toadie Todson opened his fat eyes and dropped
his mouth in an ugly laugh. It made him sick to see any one in such a
hurry. Then the Honest Ant went scurrying past and very kindly gave him
the same message. But Toadie only sneered the more. He had been living
in this very spot for years, almost as many as you have lived, and
nothing had ever happened to him. No, he would stay right there, it was
too much trouble to move for anybody. The green inch-worm was very
green, and went on measuring Toadie Todson's back, for it didn't
understand a word the Bee and Ant had said,
Suddenly, gravel, gravel, gravel, slip, slip, slip--and Toadie Todson
was under mountains of sand with a great big rock square on his back.
The green inch-worm began to bore its way out of the sand; it could hear
Toadie Todson groaning and saying:
"O! O! I wish I'd never been so lazy. I might have lived an' been as
happy and rich as the Bee or the Ant. O, O!"
And the green inch-worm knew that Toadie Todson was dead.
Not more than six hours after this Mrs. Cricky overheard the green
inch-worm practising a tune. It pleased her so much that she tried to
sing it again to Father Cricky for the Marsh Grass Vesper Quartette. Of
course it was all about Toadie Todson, and this was it:
_A Lament
Very slowly_
Mournful, mournful notes,
In our little throats we sing
Flowers, flowers dead,
For our Toadie's head we bring
THE SULLEN CATERPILLAR
All the little green Inch-Worms and the energetic, thin Road-Worms
called him Glummie for short, although his whole name was Longinus
Rotundus Caterpillar. That's a very long, hard name, and they couldn't
be bothered with a name like that for such a sulky fellow as he. And for
fear I shall take too long telling my story about him, we also will call
him, not Longinus Rotundus Caterpillar, but Glummie. Glummie was born
into a most talented and attractive family--that means a family that
could do many things very well and was pretty to look at; but from the
time he went out to eat his own leaves he was sullen. Nobody knew
exactly what was the matter. It is true his sisters were prettier than
he, for they had long yellow hair that waved all over a silky green
body, and they had dark yellow-brown eyes. But a boy should not mind
having his sisters prettier than he. And he had an older brother they
all called "Squirm." He was very much liked; he was browner and larger
than Glummie, and he was always doing nice things for his brother, and
Glummie shouldn't have been jealous.
But, however all that might be, this day Glummie was sulking away in the
grass, and making himself generally disliked. Two Katydids had said a
pleasant "Good-morning" to him, and almost jumped out of their green
coats when he snapped out, "It ain't" Mrs. Cricky in passing by chirped
pleasantly, and Glummie glowered so out of his great, fierce red-brown
eyes at her that she hurried on, in terror of her life. There was only
one thing snappier than he on the grass by the lake shore that morning,
and that was the Snapping Turtle. Presently a Locust came along and
turned on his buzzing hum right in Glummie's ear. Then Glummie was
furious, raised his head and struck at the Locust. Now the Locust was a
tease, and this pleased him immensely. So he cracked his wings right in
the very face of Glummie and began to sing:
_The Firefly Song
Not too fast_
Dancing, dancing,
Fire--flies dancing,
Flash your wings,
Frog-gie sings,
Dance my little wings, dance.
Glummie fairly raged, till the hairs all over his fat body stood up
straight, and his long stiff whiskers--and he had whiskers on both his
head and his tail--fairly bristled. He grumbled out that he didn't see
why he couldn't live in peace in the grass; that all he wanted was to be
let alone. Then he said he knew how he could get away from the society
of worms and crickets and katydids he hated, and all the deafening
noises they made to drive him crazy. Thereupon, with a sulky twist of
his head, he crawled toward the road. He had just crawled into the first
wheel-rut when a big, jouncing, yellow Kentucky cart came by and made an
end of Longinus Rotundus Caterpillar.
Mrs. Cricky said the moral of his end was very plain to her. She told
all the little Cricketses that you couldn't expect to speak sullenly to
people and have them like you, and that you couldn't expect to live away
from the society of other people without having something killed in you.
Mrs. Cricky called it love; and then, perhaps a little inconsistently
(ask your mother what that means), she added, she for one was glad
Glummie was dead.
GREEN INCH-WORM
Greenie, Toadie Todson's Green Inch-Worm, was measuring his way
carefully around a birch tree. Since Toadie Todson's death, he spent a
large part of every day looking at trees and measuring distances, so
that Stingy could spin his webs in the best manner possible.
All the rainbow qualities of web were spun on white birch trees. Greenie
was humming over mournfully to himself the song which Mr. Tree Toad
Todson had composed in memory of his cousin Toadie Todson--A Lament.
Greenie sang the words over and over again and seemed, as his voice grew
more and more mournful, to be happier and still happier. That is often
the way with melancholy people. Greenie felt he had good reason to be
unhappy. Not so long ago his first cousin, Longinus Rotundus
Caterpillar, or by his more familiar name Glummie, had been killed. Then
his master, Toadie Todson, with whom he at least had a lazy time, was
killed in a sand slide. And now he spent all his days at work for
Stingy, who was a very exacting master. If he so much as stopped to
nibble a little from a tender green birch leaf, Stingy would fly at him
and bid him go to work at once.
But one day Greenie discovered something about him which he intended to
use to good advantage. Stingy was in love. Every day at certain hours
Stingy went quietly off, and one day Greenie followed him. There down in
the meadow under a big apple tree he found Stingy together with five
other spiders. They were arranged in a row before Silken Web, more often
called Silkie, whom they were courting, and Silkie was waiting, ready to
accept the spider who did best. Out danced the first spider. The shining
hairs all over his body glistened in the sun, now he seemed silver, now
jet black, now crimson as he whirled, jumping lightly into the air.
Silkie looked for a second and then turned her head away. It was plain
she would have none of him. Off dejectedly crawled the first spider.
Greenie watched, fascinated by this bright colored little spectacle
under the blossoming apple tree. Then his eyes grew dark and angry. He
had to work when he was hungry. He had not had a single holiday for over
a month, he had been spoken to crossly, his Family Tree had been scoffed
at, he--well, he had had enough of this!
The last fine cobweb Stingy spun it was Greenie's business to fold and
put away carefully in the centre of a buttercup. He would get it and be
back before it was time for Stingy to dance. He measured his way quickly
over to the buttercup, his little back fairly popped into the air every
other half second as he went furiously humping himself along. He found
the cobweb covered with the gold dust of the buttercup, and taking it up
hastily he hurried back. He knew just the spot where Stingy would dance
before Silkie, beside a tall piece of Timothy Grass.
The fifth spider was finishing his dance as Greenie reached the bottom
of the Timothy Grass stalk. Out came Stingy with a fierce and
self-confident air which plainly said, "All the other five have failed,
now I am about to succeed." He looked at Silkie, then began to dance.
First he whirled round madly, and so swift and light was he that he
seemed to have wings. His broad back and thin, tufted legs shone with
dusky, golden colors. After whirling around he hopped several times
lightly into the air.
In the meantime Greenie climbed the stalk and was waiting. Stingy was
just about to do a sideways-hop, when over him fell inches and inches of
his own gold dusted cobweb. Down he tumbled, his legs all tangled up in
the web. Fiercely he fought to get out, while off scuttled the other
spiders leaving him to his Fate. For a minute, the little green hairs on
Greenie's back stuck up straight with merriment. Then complacently he
measured his way home to his own Family Tree. Mrs. Cricky as she passed
him heard him muttering: "It's a long worm that has no turning, a
_very_ long worm that has no turning!"
"Well," said Mrs. Cricky, "that may be true, but it is none of a
cricket's business; it is just as well not to take part in other
people's quarrels. Your Father says the _Cricket Rule_ is the best
precept for living he has ever known, and your Father, children, is a
very wise cricket. I dare say Greenie has had a hard time, but then,
lazy worms often do. Now let us sing a little song about these flowers
we've been hopping about in; it's pleasanter. Chirp, don't sing too
loud, Chirk, not too fast, and Chee, don't mumble your words:"
_Golden Flowers
Fast_
"Everywhere you go
You see them dancing,
Flowers dancing
In the sunlight.
"Nodding heads are shining
Like the dew-drops,
Sparkling dew-drops,
Shining gayly."
THE MEAN SPIDER
Old Stingy sat in the midst of his spider-web, as some old Giant used to
sit in his fortress waiting to pounce upon innocent people to kill them
and eat them. Stingy's shoulders were all humped up, and his eight claws
looked very ugly. He had already tangled up one Noisy Fly, and now he
sat waiting for another. Everybody hated him; even Toadie Todson went
out of his way to give a lazy snap at Stingy.
All day long Stingy spun webs, caught noisy flies and even other
spiders, and yet nobody ever knew what he did with his webs or with the
flies he caught. Stingy had never been heard to say one word, and when
he wanted exercise, he hung by his leg to a thin cobweb and dangled up
and down. But if he saw anything coming he gave a jump, and back he went
again into his web. There he would sit with his shoulders humped and his
big mean black eyes fairly popping out of his head.
For once in his life Stingy was feeling a little sleepy the evening that
something happened to him. All day long the wind had been blowing very
hard, and Stingy had to rebuild a great many cobwebs that were blown
down. Suddenly he started up. Something was struggling in his web. What
do you suppose it was? Nothing less than a beautiful little
yellow-winged moth that was caught and was beating his wings and
fluttering to get out. Stingy rose slowly and moved his humpy shoulders
toward the moth. Quietly he stole on and in a minute more the moth would
be choked to death. On, on went Stingy, the tiny yellow moth fluttering
more and more feebly. But just at the moment Stingy was almost on the
moth, a beak ripped open the web and Stingy went tumbling to the ground
while the yellow moth fluttered away toward the waxy white flowers of
the nearest syringa bush. The moth had time to see Hummy go whirring
off, and that night she told the fireflies and glow-worms and other
moths all about it. And each one had some other good deed of Hummy's to
relate.
But perhaps you would like to know what became of Stingy? When the web
was broken and he tumbled to the ground, he fell into the open mouth of
the Frisky Frog, who gave a comfortable croak as he swallowed him.
Nobody was sorry that Stingy was swallowed. Mrs. Cricky said it served
him right, but then, poor Mrs. Cricky's good wishes were often lost in
anxiety, lest harm should come to one of her own little Cricketses, for
Stingy, fifteen days before, had been known to smother and eat a little
cricket not more than a minute old. Mrs. Cricky herself would probably
have been the last person to hurt Stingy, only she could not help
feeling relieved; she said it wasn't in cricket-nature to feel
otherwise.
Father Cricky was usually too busy singing songs for the Marsh Grass
Vesper Quartette to make remarks. But this time he agreed with Mrs.
Cricky and said they would all better have their evening song and go to
sleep. And this was the song they sang:
_Lullabye
Not too fast_
Come, see where the night winds sleep
And the dews fall on the ground,
While the trees a-rustling keep,
And the stars turn round and round.
There little frogs leap and croak,
And little eels slip and slide,
And the crabs lie still and soak,
While the marsh is singing wide.
The sand hills sleep 'neath the moon
And blink away at the sea,
While they sing a little sand tune
Which is plain as plain can be.
Lullabye,
Sleep away,
Say, my little one,
Bye-bye to the day.
THE MARSH GRASS VESPER QUARTETTE
It was toward evening, and the Marsh Grass Vesper Quartette was seated
at the edge of Shiner Pond. The Quartette always gathered here about
dusk upon a broad flat toad-stool which grew at the foot of a spreading
oak. Mr. Tree Toad Todson had leased this toad-stool for the summer
season from his first cousin, the unfortunate Toadie Todson. From pieces
of straw he had built up to the edge of it a short flight of steps so
that Miss K. T. Did, their first soprano, found it easy to mount to the
platform.
To-night was a special evening and the attendance was large. Out on the
pond the Snapping Turtles were moving swiftly from one log to another,
bearing upon their backs groups of Fireflies. The Fireflies were there
in numbers this night, because one of the selections on the program was
a "Firefly Dance," composed by Mr. Frisky Frog, and to be danced by Miss
K. T. Did. The other members of the Quartette were to sing the song
while Miss Katy danced. It spoiled the effect somewhat to lose her clear
high soprano, but Mr. Tree Toad Todson filled in with his penetrating
tenor, and it was rumored that the Composition would be a great success.
As nearly as I can remember it, this was the program for that evening.
_Sixth Annual In-Season Out of Door Concert
of
The Marsh Grass Vesper Quartette_
June the twenty-sixth,
Nineteen-hundred-and-six
Shiner Pond Pavilion
_Members_
Miss K. T. Did.... _Soprano_
Mr. Tree Toad Todson.... _Tenor_
Mr. Cricky... _Baritone_
Mr. Frisky Frog, 3d... _Bass_
Assisted by
Miss Glo Worm
Mr. Fiah Fli, Jr.
-------------------------
PROGRAM
I. _A Warm Night_ Herr June Bug
Rendered by Mr. Cricky
II. _The Firefly Dance_ Mr. Frisky Frog
Danced by Miss K. T. Did
III. _The Moonbeam Song_ Miss Glo Worm
(Intermission)
IV. _A Lullabye_ Mr. T. Toad Todson
Mr. T. Toad Todson
Assisted by
Mrs. Frisky Frog
V. _A Lament_ Mr. T. Toad Todson
(In memory of Toadie Todson)
Sung by T. Toad Todson
VI. _Mosquito Aria_ Mr. Cricky
Sung by Miss K. T. Did
VII. _There's Dreamland Coming_
The Quartette
Assisted by Miss Glo Worm and Mr. Fiah Fli, Jr.
It would be impossible to give the whole program without taking you
right into the concert. The Lullabye Mrs. Frisky Frog sang together with
Mr. T. Toad Todson, and sang very beautifully. She had sung it a great
many times to her own little children while they were still polly-wogs.
Only when she sang it to them she altered the chorus Mrs. Frisky Frog
changed the chorus for her little ones because she knew well enough that
her pollywogs never slept at night. At least I never saw any asleep at
night of all those who swarm in black clumps there on the edge of
Shiner's Pond in the moonlight. But I have not told you yet how Mrs.
Frisky Frog sang the chorus.
Wiggle wog
Woggle wig
Sing my pollywog
A tune to every jig.
Once while they were practising the lullabye at rehearsal, Mrs. Frisky
Frog forgot, and through force of habit sang the chorus she had made up
for her own little polly-woggles. But, dear me! Mr. T. Toad Todson flew
into a towering rage and croaked at her till he was fairly hoarse.
"Non-sense! Non-sense! Non-sense!" he jerked out, and when finally he
could control himself he spluttered aloud that he had never in his life
written such nonsense. You remember it was he who composed the song.
Poor Mrs. Frisky Frog's eyes rolled back a little further than usual,
and her throat jumped up and down with fear. It did not do to speak
crossly to Mrs. Frisky, she was so tenderhearted and was never known to
speak a cross word to her own little ones, or for that matter to any
one. Mrs. Cricky, one day while she was talking with Mrs. Poe Tato-Bug,
said that she knew of only one model mother in the community and that
was the admirable mother of those ugly little pollywogs. Here Mrs.
Cricky heaved a proud sigh as she thought of her own little darlings,
Chee and Chirk and Chirp, decked out in their pretty little clover
sun-bonnets.
But to go back to Mrs. Frisky Frog. Mr. Frisky Frog, who was a member of
the Quartette, became so angry with Mr. T. Toad Todson for the angry
croaking at his wife that his eyes fairly glowered at him. Mrs. Cricky
always called that kind of anger in Mr. Cricky "righteous indignation."
Peace was soon restored, however, as Mr. Tree Toad Todson, very much of
a gentleman at heart, was most anxious to ask pardon for this display of
temper.
But we have spent too much time in discussing the lullabye and the
trouble it brought Mrs. Frisky. The concert began. A _Warm Night_
was vigorously applauded, and the _Fire-Fly Dance_ was the success
of the evening. Miss K. T. Did had bought at a most extravagant price
from Stingy one fourth of an inch of his best rainbow-hue cobweb. This
made for her a beautiful scarf, which she waved over the light of the
glow-worms that had been arranged in a wide circle on the broad, flat
toad-stool. Around, in and out, now over, now under her scarf, three
fireflies sped with burning wings. And Miss Katy never danced better,
flashing her cobweb scarf in and out the glow-worm circle as with
lightsome foot and wing she danced round and round. Mrs. Cricky said she
did wish the little ones had been allowed to come. Usually it did not
seem right for children to stay up late at night. But this night she did
believe it would have added to their education to see such skill,
especially as Chee was a little inclined to toe in and be clumsy. You
remember, Chee stumbled and fell into the lake.
All of the evening was successful, and the applause at the close of the
concert as they responded to an encore with the Mosquito Aria was
wonderful. There were no clapping hands, but rather the beating of
wings, the enthusiastic croaking from various kinds of little red
throats, and the flash-flash of lights from the Fire-Flies and
Glow-Worms. Mr. Cricky in writing it up for the June Bug Journal
pronounced it the success of the season. We will close with a few
stanzas of "There's Dreamland Coming." Probably you have heard it, for
it has a way of singing itself the moment you are off to sleep. Try
sleeping and see if it is not heard.