do not own it, ask to have
it for Christmas. It is in the book of "Christmas Tales," a book that
everybody ought to have.

Grasshoppers and katydids are pleasant people, but they live out of
doors, and they do not seem quite so much like our very own little
friends as the crickets.

Of course the crickets live out of doors, too, only once in a while one
of them comes into the house to live with us.

We hear them chirping in the grass and among the stones.

[Illustration]

There is a certain place near the seashore where the rocks are alive
with the black cricket folk.

They come peeping out at you from all sides. They skip over the rocks,
and you will often see a pair of long feelers and an inquisitive little
head looking around a corner.

You too, know there are crickets, little Nell?

Let us go and see them.

Ah, yes, there is one, looking at us out of inquisitive eyes, over there
by that big stone.

[Illustration]

Of course they are cousins to the grasshoppers. I knew you would guess
that right away.

Yes, John, the little cricket people have flat backs.

Their wing covers do not make a peaked roof over their backs, but are
flat on top and bent down at the sides like a box cover.

[Illustration]

They are not so long as the wings of the grasshopper, but they overlap
on top.

Sometimes they are not so long as the body of the cricket.

Just watch now!

How spry the cricket folk are!

They jump well, but they also run well. They are always running about as
though they enjoyed it.

It is not easy to catch one of them unless we, too, are "as spry as a
cricket."

Funny little rascals, to come peeping at us like that, from out the
crevices in the stones.

When we stir,--pop! they are back out of sight.

They eat leaves, and they enjoy a piece of nice, ripe fruit, or a bit of
juicy vegetable.

See here, one has jumped on my hand and is sitting quite still.

It is a male cricket.

[Illustration]

How do I know that?

May says because it has no ovipositor.

Yes, that is one way to know.

Look at his wing covers.

[Illustration: MALE CRICKET]

See how they are ribbed.

[Illustration: FEMALE CRICKET]

Now look at this cricket Mabel has caught. It is a female, and its
wings, you see, are not ornamented like those of the male.

[Illustration]

Do you know the meaning of his heavily ribbed wing covers?

Why, his wing covers are his musical instruments. See one of them
magnifie