ay every one of
the birds has to go down to the brook and walk in and bathe; and it
has been the law for so many, many years that no one can remember when
it began. They like it very much, because they can show off their
fine feathers which are just now in full color; and if you like to go
with me, you will be sure to enjoy it."

"So I will," said Bevis; and he followed the grasshopper, who hopped
so far at every step that he had to walk fast to keep up with him.

They went on in silence a good way, except that the grasshopper cried
"S--s" to his friends in the grass as he passed, and said good-morning
also to a mole, who peeped out for a moment.

"Why don't you hop straight?" said Bevis presently. "It seems to me
that you hop first one side and then the other, and go in such a
zigzag fashion it will take us hours to reach the brook."

"How very stupid you are!" said the grasshopper. "If you go straight,
of course you can only see just what is under your feet; but if you go
first this way and then that, then you see everything. You are nearly
as silly as the ants, who never see anything beautiful all their
lives. Be sure you have nothing to do with the ants, Bevis; they are a
mean, wretched, miserly set, quite contemptible and beneath notice.
Now, I go everywhere, all round the field, and spend my time searching
for lovely things; sometimes I find flowers, and sometimes the
butterflies come down into the grass and tell me the news; and I am so
fond of the sunshine, I sing to it all day long. Tell me, now, is
there anything so beautiful as the sunshine and the blue sky, and the
green grass, and the velvet and blue and spotted butterflies, and the
trees which cast such a pleasant shadow and talk so sweetly, and the
brook which is always running? I should like to listen to it for a
thousand years."

"I like you," said Bevis; "jump into my hand and I will carry you." He
held his hand out flat, and in a second up sprang the grasshopper and
alighted on his palm and told him the way to go, and thus they went
together merrily.

"Bevis, dear, I do not sing at night; but I always go where I can see
a star. I slept under a mushroom last night, and he told me he was
pushing up as fast as he could before some one came and picked him to
put on a gridiron. I do not lay up any store, because I know I shall
die when the summer ends; and what is the use of wealth then? My store
and my wealth is the sunshine, dear, and the blue sky