nd.

[Illustration: "WHILE SHE WAS FITTING ON HER SHOES, SHE SAW THE LARK'S
FRIEND."]

"How do you do, Grasshopper?" asked the Fairy.

"Thank you, I am very well and very happy," said the Grasshopper;
"people are always so kind to me."

"Indeed!" replied the Fairy. "I wish I could say that they were always
kind to me. How is that quarrelsome Lark who found such a pretty brown
mate the other day?"

"He is not a quarrelsome bird indeed," replied the Grasshopper. "I wish
you would not say that he is."

"Oh, well, we need not quarrel about that," said the Fairy, laughing; "I
have seen the world, Grasshopper, and I know a few things, depend upon
it. Your friend the Lark does not wear those long spurs for nothing."

The Grasshopper did not choose to contend with the Fairy, who all this
time was busily fitting yellow slippers to her tiny feet. When, however,
she had found a pair to her mind--

"Suppose you come and see the eggs that our pretty friend the Lark has
got in her nest," asked the Grasshopper. "Three pink eggs spotted with
brown. I am sure she will show them to you with pleasure."

Off they set together; but what was their surprise to find the poor
little brown Lark sitting on them with rumpled feathers, drooping head,
and trembling limbs.

"Ah, my pretty eggs!" said the Lark, as soon as she could speak, "I am
so miserable about them--they will be trodden on, they will certainly be
found."

"What is the matter?" asked the Grasshopper. "Perhaps we can help you."

"Dear Grasshopper," said the Lark, "I have just heard the farmer and his
son talking on the other side of the hedge, and the farmer said that
to-morrow morning he should begin to cut this meadow."

"That is a great pity," said the Grasshopper. "What a sad thing it was
that you laid your eggs on the ground!"

"Larks always do," said the poor little brown bird; "and I did not know
how to make a fine nest such as those in the hedges. Oh, my pretty
eggs!--my heart aches for them! I shall never hear my little nestlings
chirp!"

So the poor Lark moaned and lamented, and neither the Grasshopper nor
the Fairy could do anything to help her. At last her mate dropped down
from the white cloud where he had been singing, and when he saw her
drooping, and the Grasshopper and the Fairy sitting silently before her,
he inquired in a great fright what the matter was.

So they told him, and at first he was very much shocked; but presently
he lifted first on