not to fight with," continued the
unkind Fairy, "I should like to know what they _are_ for?"

"I am sure I don't know," said the Lark, lifting up his foot and looking
at it. "Then you are not inclined to help me at all, Fairy? I thought
you might be willing to mention among my friends that I am not a
quarrelsome bird, and that I should always take care not to hurt my wife
and nestlings with my spurs."

"Appearances are very much against you," answered the Fairy; "and it is
quite plain to me that those spurs are meant to scratch with. No, I
cannot help you. Good morning."

So the Fairy withdrew to her oak bough, and the poor Lark sat moping in
the grass while the Fairy watched him. "After all," she thought, "I am
sorry he is such a quarrelsome fellow, for that he is such is fully
proved by those long spurs."

While she was so thinking, the Grasshopper came chirping up to the Lark,
and tried to comfort him.

"I have heard all that the Fairy said to you," he observed, "and I
really do not see that it need make you unhappy. I have known you some
time, and have never seen you fight or look out of temper; therefore I
will spread a report that you are a very good-tempered bird, and that
you are looking out for a wife."

The Lark upon this thanked the Grasshopper warmly.

"At the same time," remarked the Grasshopper, "I should be glad if you
could tell me what is the use of those claws, because the question might
be asked me, and I should not know what to answer."

"Grasshopper," replied the Lark, "I cannot imagine what they are
for--that is the real truth."

"Well," said the kind Grasshopper, "perhaps time will show."

So he went away, and the Lark, delighted with his promise to speak well
of him, flew up into the air, and the higher he went the sweeter and the
louder he sang. He was so happy, and he poured forth such delightful
notes, so clear and thrilling, that the little ants who were carrying
grains to their burrow stopped and put down their burdens to listen; and
the doves ceased cooing, and the little field-mice came and sat in the
openings of their holes; and the Fairy, who had just begun to doze, woke
up delighted; and a pretty brown Lark, who had been sitting under some
great foxglove leaves, peeped out and exclaimed, "I never heard such a
beautiful song in my life--never!"

"It was sung by my friend, the Skylark," said the Grasshopper, who just
then happened to be on a leaf near her. "He is a very good