, that's what I said.-- Don't fall off your base,
mademoiselle.-- You're a wasp, aren't you?"

To be called a wasp! Nothing worse could happen to little Maya.

"I _never_!" she cried.

"Hoppety-hop," answered he, and was off again.

"The fellow makes me nervous," she thought, and decided to fly
away. She couldn't remember ever having been so insulted in her
life. What a disgrace to be mistaken for a wasp, one of those
useless wasps, those tramps, those common thieves! It really was
infuriating.

But there he was again!

"Mademoiselle," he called and turned round part way, so that his
long hindlegs looked like the hands of a clock standing at five
minutes before half-past seven, "mademoiselle, you must excuse
me for interrupting our conversation now and then. But suddenly
I'm seized. I must hop. I can't help it, I must hop, no matter
where. Can't you hop, too?"

He smiled a smile that drew his mouth from ear to ear. Maya
couldn't keep from laughing.

"Can you?" said the grasshopper, and nodded encouragingly.

"Who _are_ you?" asked Maya. "You're terribly exciting."

"Why, everybody knows who I am," said the green oddity, and
grinned almost beyond the limits of his jaws.

Maya never could make out whether he spoke in fun or in earnest.

"I'm a stranger in these parts," she replied pleasantly, "else
I'm sure I'd know you.-- But please note that I belong to the
family of bees, and am positively not a wasp."

"My goodness," said the grasshopper, "one and the same thing."

Maya couldn't utter a sound, she was so excited.

"You're uneducated," she burst out at length. "Take a good look
at a wasp once."

"Why should I?" answered the green one. "What good would it
do if I observed differences that exist only in people's
imagination? You, a bee, fly round in the air, sting everything
you come across, and can't hop. Exactly the same with a wasp.
So where's the difference? Hoppety-hop!" And he was gone.

"But now I am going to fly away," thought Maya.

There he was again.

"Mademoiselle," he called, "there's going to be a hopping-match
to-morrow. It will be held in the Reverend Sinpeck's garden.
Would you care to have a complimentary ticket and watch the
games? My old woman has two left over. She'll trade you one for
a compliment. I expect to break the record."

"I'm not interested in hopping acrobatics," said Maya in some
disgust. "A person who flies has _higher_ interests."

The grasshopper grinned a