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After supper, while the youngsters were doing their lessons, Grasshopper Green helped Father and Mother Meadow-Mouse with the dishes. It made him feel very sad to think that he must soon be leaving this pleasant household.

He thanked Father and Mother Meadow-Mouse for all their goodness, and started to say that he ought to be leaving the next morning, as he had nothing with which to pay for his keep, but Father Meadow-Mouse interrupted him.

"You'll do no such thing," he exclaimed heartily. "Now you just listen to me. If you want to pay us, you can do it in this way. Give us all dancing lessons, and play us a lively tune on your little fiddle now and then, for every one knows that all Grasshoppers are wonderful dancers and fiddlers."

This plan, of course, just suited Grasshopper Green. In fact he was so delighted at the prospect of spending the winter with the merry, kind-hearted Meadow-Mice that he made a tremendous leap which carried him clear to the other end of the room. A second leap almost landed him in a pan of dish-water!

In the midst of his caperings there was a knock at the door.

It was Mr. and Mrs. White-Mouse, old friends of the Meadow-Mice, who had come to make a friendly call. Grasshopper Green had never seen any White-Mice before, and he thought them very beautiful and aristocratic with their pale complexions, ruby-colored eyes and long pinky tails. (For White-Mice do look that way, you know).

He learned later that they belonged to a little boy living in a near-by farm house.[1]

Rap, tap, tap!—more guests arrived: three dainty little roadside Fairies with these funny names, Sun-Flower-Seed, Thistle-Whistle, and Ragged Sailor. (Fairies and Mice are usually very good friends; in fact, Great-Grandfather Goodheart says—but I'll tell you about that some other time.)

Grasshopper Green had met Ragged Sailor before. He was quite a musician and carried his tiny golden accordion in the sailor blouse he always wore.

It wasn't long before Grasshopper Green had his tiny fiddle tuned up, and Ragged Sailor got out his accordion. Then they started to play the liveliest little tunes you ever heard.

Fairies & Mice are usually very good Friends

The rest of the party pushed the chairs and table back against the wall, to make room for dancing and then—Bless your heart! What a good time they all had. I sometimes wish that I were small enough to dance with a Fairy or a Mouse. Don't you?

First they played the Pansy Petal Polka—a great favorite with the Fairies; then the Dragon Fly Dance and the Wheatfield Gavotte.[2]