-"please, sir, do you know any stories about grasshoppers?"

Ben Gile laid his finger along his nose and thought. Betty was sure he
knew a hundred million stories, and that he could tell her something
about anything she might ask for in all the world.

"Well, once upon a time," the old man began, "there was another old man
who was a great deal wiser than I am, and a great deal richer, my dear,
for he owned a whole kingdom and lived in a palace, and his name was--"

"Solomon!" called out Betty, dancing up and down, out of pride in her
own wisdom.

"Right! And this other old man said:

"There are four things which are little upon the earth, but
they are exceedingly wise:

"The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their
meat in the summer;

"The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses
in the rocks;

"The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by
bands;

"The spider taketh hold with her hands and is in kings'
palaces."

"But that's not a story."

The guide shook his head. "You don't know a story, child, when you hear
one. It began, 'Once upon a time,' didn't it?"

"Yes, sir; but please tell me another."

"Well, there are others in the Bible, my dear, about locusts and
grasshoppers."

"But, please, sir," said Betty, who was almost ready to cry, she was so
teased--"please tell me one of your _own_ stories."

Ben Gile began to swash his bucket up and down, up and down, in the
stream until the water fairly rocked. Then he pulled the bucket out of
the water, set it beside him, and reached out after a locust.

"Here he is." There was a long pause. Betty thought he would never go
on. "Well, once upon a time there was a little army and all its uniforms
were brown and green, and from the meanest soldier in the ranks to the
lieutenant-commander this little army was made up of insects who
belonged to the same tribe. Let me see--there were the grasshoppers and
the locusts and the katydids and the crickets."

"Please, sir, were they cousins?"

"I think they were, my dear. Yes, first cousins, and, unlike even my
first cousins, they all have wings, and straight wings like this."

The guide gently spread out one of the wings.

"Just where the back of your chest is these wings grow--two pairs of
wings, my dear, and two pairs of wings mean a good deal more than two
pairs of new shoes. This first pair is straight and narrow and