grin you could almost hear.

"Don't think _too_ highly of yourself, my dear young lady. Most
creatures in this world can fly, but only a very, very few can
hop. You don't understand other people's interests. You have no
vision. Even human beings would like a high elegant hop. The
other day I saw the Reverend Sinpeck hop a yard up into the air
to impress a little snake that slid across his road. His
contempt for anything that couldn't hop was so great that he
threw away his pipe. And reverends, you know, cannot live
without their pipes. I have known grasshoppers--members of my
own family--who could hop to a height three hundred times their
length. _Now_ you're impressed. You haven't a word to say. And
you're inwardly regretting the remarks you made and the remarks
you intended to make. Three hundred times their own length! Just
imagine. Even the elephant, the largest animal in the world,
can't hop as high as that. Well? You're not saying anything.
Didn't I tell you you wouldn't have anything to say?"

"But how _can_ I say anything if you don't give me a chance?"

"All right, then, talk," said the grasshopper pleasantly.
"Hoppety-hop." He was gone.

Maya had to laugh in spite of her irritation.

The fellow had certainly furnished her with a strange
experience. Buffoon though he was, still she had to admire his
wide information and worldly wisdom; and though she could not
agree with his views of hopping, she was amazed by all the new
things he had taught her in their brief conversation. If he had
been more reliable she would have been only too glad to ask him
questions about a number of different things. It occurred
to her that often people who are least equipped to profit by
experiences are the very ones who have them.

He knew the names of human beings. Did he, then, understand
their language? If he came back, she'd ask him. And she'd also
ask him what he thought of trying to go near a human being or of
entering a human being's house.

"Mademoiselle!" A blade of grass beside Maya was set swaying.

"Goodness gracious! Where do you keep coming from?"

"The surroundings."

"But do tell, do you hop out into the world just so, without
knowing where you mean to land?"

"Of course. Why not? Can _you_ read the future? No one can. Only
the tree-toad, but he never tells."

"The things you know! Wonderful, simply wonderful!-- Do you
understand the language of human beings?"

"That's a difficult question to answer