!" said Betty.

"Do you know what it is?" No one knew. "Well, it's a mole cricket. You
rarely ever see one because they live underground and bore their way
along just like moles, leaving tiny tracks and nibbling the roots of
tender plants. You see, it doesn't need eyes any more than the mole
does. But it does need those thickened fore legs to do its underground
digging. Now, children, run out into the fields and let your crickets
go. Be careful not to hurt them. We'll have supper, and after supper
we'll catch a katydid."

Out ran the children. Soon they were setting the long wooden tables
under the trees with delicious trout the boys had caught, with hot
biscuits and jugs of maple syrup, with berries and cookies, with milk
from the old cow, who, contentedly chewing her cud, was looking at them
through the low crotch of a tree, and with little cakes of maple sugar
which the guide had moulded into the shape of hearts.

V

HOW KATY DID

Never did trout, cookies, and maple sugar disappear so quickly; never
were such appetites; never such laughing, and such interesting stories
told by the guide.

"Hush!" said Ben Gile. "Do you hear that?"

"Yes," cried Peter.

"What is it?"

"It's a katydid," said Betty, "over there."

"Listen, children, what does it say?"

"It says, 'Chic-a-chee, chic-a-chee,' over and over again," answered
Jack.

"Pooh," interrupted Jimmie, "it says, 'Katy did, Katy didn't!'"

"It says, 'Katy broke a china plate; yes, she did; no, she didn't,'"
called Betty.

"Yes, she did; no, she didn't!" the children shouted, merrily, together.

"Well," said the old man, "anyway, it's all about what Katy did do and
what Katy didn't do. Probably Mr. Katy, like other good husbands in the
world, is singing of the wonderful things Katy did do and the naughty
things she didn't do. That is Mr. Katy's love-song. Ah, he finds Mrs.
Katy very charming--her beautiful wings, her gracefully waving antennae,
her knowing, shining eyes! Now, listen again. Katydid carries its
musical instrument at the base of its wing cover. On each side is a tiny
membrane and a strong vein. When the wing covers are rubbed together the
membrane speaks, and you hear--"

"Katy did, Katy didn't!" shouted the children.

"Do you think you know where they are? Well, take these lanterns"--the
guide had lighted half a dozen--"and find them."

The children scurried off, certain of a quick victory. In the woods
about the cabin you