mmie, who found he didn't know as much
as he thought he did.

"When Mr. Cricket sings," went on the hermit, "it lifts its two wing
covers so that the edges meet like the pointed roof of a house. Then
your little fiddler, Jack, rubs one edge against the other."

All this time Peter Beech had been waving his hand about, the way
children do in school, and giving big sniffs.

"Please, sir, the cookies are burning."

"Bless my soul!" The guide whisked the cookies away.

"Please, sir," said Jack, "are we going to have something soon?" Jack
did not look as if he had his share of food to eat, for he was as thin
as the fawn which had curled up near him. Jack had twelve brothers and
sisters, and a father who wasn't what he ought to be, so there were
times when there was no food for Jack.

"Yes, my son," said the guide, kindly, for the old man could guess how
hungry the lad was. "But, first, where do you suppose the crickets and
katydids have their ears?"

"Near those big eyes," called Peter.

"No, no, on the joint of the fore leg is a little membrane, which is
just a thinner, tighter place in the skin of the leg. There!" Ben Gile
had the fore leg of Jack's cricket stretched under the magnifying-glass.
The children could see plainly the film of tight skin. "Underneath the
thin, tight skin is a fine nerve which, when the air makes the skin
shake, changes the motion into sound. Mrs. Cricket listens with her fore
leg while Mr. Cricket sings his love-song to her."

At this the children laughed and laughed, and comical little Peter put
up his leg as if listening.

"Here, Pete, give me your box. Do you remember what I told you about
Mrs. Locust, Betty, and the way she lays her eggs?"

"Yes, sir. She has four straight spines at the end of her body, and
after she has bored a hole with her body she guides the eggs in with the
four spines."

"Good! Well, Mrs. Cricket wears at the end of her body a long spear. See
this cricket of Peter's. Now she bores her hole with this spear and
then guides her eggs carefully into the hole. Why, see here, Pete, what
have you got here?"

The children gazed eagerly over the old man's shoulder.

"My, isn't it like velvet!" exclaimed Peter.

"And isn't it brown!" added Hope.

"But look at its stumpy front legs!" called Jack, who had forgotten his
empty stomach in the excitement about this little creature, which looked
like a cricket and yet was so different.

"And its little beads of eyes