The Tale of Chirpy Cricket

Arthur Scott Bailey, a native of the state of Vermont, wrote over forty children's books using a variety of animals, birds and even insects to entertain. The Tale of Chirpy Cricket is one of 16 stories of his Tuck-Me-In Tales series.


By : Arthur Scott Bailey (1877 - 1949)

01 - The Fiddler



02 - Quick and Easy



03 - The Bumblebee Family



04 - Too Much Music



05 - A Light in the Dark



06 - A Plan Goes Wrong



07 - Johnnie Green’s Guest



08 - Pleasing Johnnie Green



09 - An Interrupted Nap



10 - Caught!



11 - A Queer, New Cousin



12 - An Underground Chat



13 - A Question of Feet



14 - Chirpy is Careful



15 - Tommy Tree Cricket



16 - A Long Wait



17 - Sitting on a Lily-Pad



18 - Mr. Cricket Frog’s Trick



19 - It Wasn’t Thunder



20 - Bound to be Different



21 - Mr. Nighthawk Explains



22 - Harmless Mr. Meadow Mouse



23 - A Wail in the Dark



24 - Frightening Simon Screecher


If Chirpy Cricket had begun to make music earlier in the summer perhaps he wouldn’t have given so much time to fiddling in Farmer Green’s farmyard. Everybody admitted that Chirpy was the most musical insect in the whole neighborhood. And it seemed as if he tried his hardest to crowd as much music as possible into a few weeks, though he had been silent enough during all the spring.

He had dug himself a hole in the ground, under some straw that was scattered near the barn; and every night, from midsummer on, he came out and made merry.

But in the daytime he was usually quiet as a mouse, sitting inside his hole and doing nothing at all except to wait patiently until it should be dark again, so that he might crawl forth from his hiding place and take up his music where he had left it unfinished the night before.

Somehow he always knew exactly where to begin. Although he carried no sheets of music with him, he never had to stop and wonder what note to begin on, for the reason that he always fiddled on the same one.

When rude people asked Chirpy Cricket—as they did now and then—why he didn’t change his tune, he always replied that a person couldn’t change anything without taking time. And since he expected to make only a short stay in Pleasant Valley he didn’t want to fritter away any precious moments.

Chirpy Cricket’s neighbors soon noticed that he carried his fiddle with him everywhere he went. And the curious ones asked him a question. “Why”—they inquired—“why are you forever taking your fiddle with you?”

And Chirpy Cricket reminded them that the summer would be gone almost before anybody knew it. He said that when he wanted to play a tune he didn’t intend to waste any valuable time hunting for his fiddle.

Now, all that was true enough. But it was just as true that he couldn’t have left his fiddle at home anyhow. Chirpy made his music with his two wings. He rubbed a file-like ridge of one on a rough part of the other. So his fiddle—if you could call it by that name—just naturally had to go wherever he did.

Cr-r-r-i! cr-r-r-i! cr-r-r-i! When that shrill sound, all on one note, rang out in the night everybody that heard it knew that Chirpy Cricket was sawing out his odd music. And the warmer the night the faster he played. He liked warm weather. Somehow it seemed to make him feel especially lively.

People who wanted to be disagreeable were always remarking in Chirpy Cricket’s hearing that they hoped there would be an early frost. They thought of course he would know they were tired of his music and wished he would keep still.

But such speeches only made him fiddle the faster. “An early frost!” he would exclaim. “I must hurry if I’m to finish my summer’s fiddling.”

Now, Chirpy had dozens and dozens of relations living in holes of their own, in the farmyard or the fields. And the gentlemen were all musical. Like him, they were fiddlers. Somehow fiddling ran in their family. So on warm nights, during the last half of the summer, there was sure to be a Crickets’ concert.

Sometimes it seemed to Johnnie Green, who lived in the farmhouse, as if Chirpy Cricket and his relations were trying to drown the songs of the musical Frog family, over in the swamp.

Comments

Random Post

  • Short stories (Early works 1837-1852)
    11.09.2020 - 0 Comments
    A collection of Elizabeth Gaskell's early short stories. Following the publication of Mary Barton in 1848,…
  • Oysters and Fish
    29.01.2021 - 0 Comments
    Would it not be beneficial, were the average American to substitute fish for the everlasting steak and chop…
  • Tiên đoán của Trelawney | Chương 16 | Harry Potter | Tên tù nhân ngục Azkaban | Tập 3
    18.10.2023 - 0 Comments
    Tâm trạng ngất ngây say men chiến thắng cúp Quidditch của Harry kéo dài ít nhứt cả một tuần lễ. Ngay cả thời…
  • Riders of the Purple Sage
    27.07.2019 - 0 Comments
    The year is 1871, and wealthy ranch owner Jane Withersteen is in trouble. She has incurred the displeasure…
  • Het Testament van mevrouw De Tonnette
    18.12.2019 - 0 Comments
    "Het testament van mevrouw De Tonnette" is een moderne romantische komedie - althans, modern voor het jaar…
  • Characters of Shakespeare's Plays
    01.08.2020 - 0 Comments
    This famous Shakespearean exploration illuminates its plays through the frame of character, while also…
  • Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist
    13.04.2020 - 0 Comments
    In 1892, anarchist and Russian émigré Alexander Berkman was apprehended for the failed assassination of…
  • Around the World in Seventy-Two Days
    11.02.2020 - 0 Comments
    This is a true account by American woman journalist who, in 1889, set out to see whether she could beat the…
  • Ông già làm cây nở hoa - truyện cổ tích nhật bản
    22.10.2023 - 0 Comments
    Ở dưới chân ngọn núi nọ , có một con sông nhỏ uống khúc chảy qua . Tại đây có hai gia đình sống cạnh nhau đã…
  • Camera Obscura
    31.07.2019 - 0 Comments
    De Camera Obscura is een verzameling verhalen en beschouwingen van Hildebrand, pseudoniem voor Nicolaas…
  • Ardath
    15.07.2020 - 0 Comments
    Victorian-era writer Marie Corelli’s epic work Ardath, The Story of a Dead Self, is filled with…
  • A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
    21.12.2019 - 0 Comments
    A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is Joyce’s semi-autobiographical first novel. It traces the early…
  • La Locandiera
    28.07.2019 - 0 Comments
    La locandiera è una commedia scritta da Carlo Goldoni nel 1751. La storia si incentra sulle vicende di…
  • Kate Bonnet
    01.07.2021 - 0 Comments
    She carried a fishing rod and line, and her name was Kate Bonnet. She was a bright-faced, quick-moving young…
  • Uncle Wiggily's Story Book
    14.04.2020 - 0 Comments
    Dear Children: This is a quite different book from any others you may have read about me. In this volume I…
  • Der Struwwelpeter
    17.03.2019 - 0 Comments
    Der Struwwelpeter, zuerst erschienen als "Lustige Geschichten und drollige Bilder mit 15 schön kolorierten…