THE
Grasshopper
Stories

BY
Elizabeth Davis Leavitt

WITH
Illustrations by
Maude Dewey Doan

Copyright 1912
by
Elizabeth Davis Leavitt

Henderson & DePew
PRINTERS
JACKSONVILLE, ILL.

Come, read these tales with me!
For the secrets they tell
You will understand well
If you're good
as good
can
be!

THE WISE GRASSHOPPER

"Come, Billy!"

Billy dropped his tin-soldier on the ground and ran in to help his mother wipe the dishes. She gave him a nice, fresh towel and he began to rub the tin plates as fast as he could. He never put one down until he could see himself in it. As for the tin cups, his mother sometimes thought he would rub them entirely away! But he never did quite that. You see, Billy's mother allowed him to dry only the tin dishes because he was so very little, she thought he might break the china ones.

Now, on this particular morning, Billy's mother ran to the front gate to buy the dinner from the vegetable-man. While she was gone, he finished all the tin dishes on the draining-tray. There was still a beautiful, white, china cup to be dried.

"I believe I'll wipe just that one!" said Billy. He reached up, caught hold of the cup and was carefully bringing it down to his other hand, when—"Crash!"—the cup lay on the floor in pieces.

Billy was very frightened. He looked out of the door to see if his mother was coming. But she was still talking to the vegetable-man. Then he did a strange thing. He pushed all the pieces of the broken cup under the table and ran out the back door to his toys. But he did not play with them. He sat down on a stone, chin in hand. The little tin-soldier looked up at him as if to say, "Come on, Billy, let's march!" The little horse-and-wagon stood ready to start, as if saying, "Come on Billy, let's go travelling!" The little Teddy Bear, with his head on one side, seemed to say, "Come on Billy, let's have a romp!"

"Crash!" the cup lay on the floor, in pieces.

But Billy did not stir. He just sat there thinking. Suddenly, something said right out loud, "Why what's the matter, Billy?"

Billy jumped. Looking around, he saw a grasshopper sitting on a blade of grass.

"Why, what's the matter, Billy?"

"What is the matter this morning, Billy?" the grasshopper asked.

"I'm afwaid—I'm