The Cheerful Cricket and Others | Page 3

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