"You might tread on
this ant."

When Billy came up, he saw an ant trying to pull a piece of bread to the
door of her house. How hard the ant was working! Up hill and down hill,
for ridges of earth in the road seemed like great hills to the little
ant.

"Why don't you help the ant, Billy?" asked the grasshopper.

"That's so!" said Billy. "I will!" He brought a green leaf and said,
"Now Mrs. Ant, if you will pull the bread on this leaf, I will help you
to get it to your home."

"O, thank you!" said the ant. "My babies are very hungry." So she put
the bread on the leaf and sat down beside it and Billy drew the leaf to
the little hill of sand that he knew was the ant's house.

"Thank you!" said the ant. "You are very kind, little boy!"

"You are welcome," said Billy and he and the grasshopper went on their
way.

Suddenly they stopped. There, on the edge of the road, was a tiny
baby-bird. It was trying to fly, but it was too little. Its wings were
not strong enough.

"I believe I'll take it home," said Billy.

"O Billy," exclaimed the grasshopper, "Don't you hear its mother calling
to it? There she is on that branch, flapping her wings and calling. She
wants it in the nest again but she does not know how to get it there.
Why don't you put it in the nest for her?"

"That's so!" said Billy. "I will!"

So they hunted in the bushes and found the nest, low enough for Billy to
reach. There were two other little baby-birds in it and when Billy put
in the little bird that had fallen, they all began to chirp, "Peep!
Peep! Peep!" That meant "Thank you!" Then the mother-bird hopped around
so gladly and said "Thank you, little boy; you are very kind!"

"You are welcome," replied Billy and he and the grasshopper went on
their way.

Pretty soon they grew hungry. They sat down and opened the lunch-basket
and while they were eating the bread and jelly and nuts that Billy's
mother had put up for him, a little squirrel hopped out of his hole in
a tree. He cocked his head on one side and watched them with bright
little eyes.

"Why don't you give him a nut?" asked the grasshopper.

"That's so!" said Billy. "I will!"

So he threw a nut on the grass. The squirrel picked up the nut, cracked
it with his sharp little teeth and ate it with so much relish that Billy
threw him another and another. When everything was gone, the squirrel
said, "Thank you, little boy. You are very kind!"

"You are welcome," said Billy, and for some