Mamma and Grandpa Cricket carried all the heavy Cricket
furniture, while Johnny Cricket carried the lighter things, such as the
family portraits, looking glasses, knives and forks and spoons, and his
own little violin.

Aunt Katy Didd wheeled Johnny's little sister Teeny in the Cricket baby
buggy and helped Mamma Cricket lay the rugs and wash the stone-work,
for you see the Cricket winter home was in the chimney of a big
old-fashioned house and the walls were very dusty, and everything was
topsy-turvy.

But Mamma Cricket and Aunt Katy Didd soon had everything in tip-top
order, and the winter home was just as clean and neat as the summer home
out under the rose bush had been.

There the Cricket family lived happily and every thing was just as cozy
as any little bug would care to have; on cold nights the people who
owned the great big old fashioned house always made a fire in the
fireplace, so the walls of the Cricket's winter home were nice and
warm, and little Teeny Cricket could play on the floor in her bare feet
without fear of catching cold and getting the Cricket croup.

There was one crack in the walls of the Crickets' winter home which
opened right into the fireplace, so the light from the fire always lit
up the Crickets' living room. Papa Cricket could read the Bugville News
while Johnny Cricket fiddled all the latest popular Bug Songs and Mamma
Cricket rocked and sang to little Teeny Cricket.

One night, though, the people who owned the great big old fashioned
house did not have a fire in the fireplace, and little Teeny Cricket
was bundled up in warm covers and rocked to sleep, and all the Cricket
family went to bed in the dark.

Johnny Cricket had just dozed into dreamland when he was awakened by
something pounding ... ever so loudly ... and he slipped out of bed and
into his two little red topped boots and felt his way to the crack in
the living room wall.

Johnny heard loud voices and merry peals of laughter, so he crawled
through the crack and looked out into the fireplace.

There in front of the fireplace he saw four pink feet and two laughing
faces way above, while just a couple of Cricket-hops from Johnny's nose
was a great big man. Johnny could not see what the man was pounding, but
he made an awful loud noise.

Finally the pounding ceased and the man leaned over and kissed the
owners of the pink feet. Then there were a few more squeals of laughter,
and the four pink feet pitter-patted across