e ground and
like nothing Chirpy had ever heard.

He wished that he had not allowed himself to become so fond of fiddling.
If he had cared less for it, he would have gone home in good season. But
there he was in a crack in the garden! And he didn't dare leave it
because he had heard that the garden was a famous place for birds.

Chirpy Cricket was frightened. And when at last the loose earth near him
began to quiver and even to crumble he was so scared that he didn't know
which way to move. The next instant a strange looking person stood before
him. And for a few moments neither one of them said a word.

The newcomer was a big fellow, very long and with enormous legs. His
front legs especially were short and powerful, with huge feet at the end
of them. And yet, odd as the stranger was, Chirpy could not help noticing
that somehow he had a look like the Cricket family.

"Well," said the stranger at last, "you seem surprised. Perhaps you
weren't expecting callers."

"No, I wasn't," Chirpy Cricket answered in a voice that was faint from
the fright he had had.

"But you're glad to see me, I hope," the stranger went on. "You know I'm
related to you. You know I'm a sort of cousin of yours."

"Is that so?" Chirpy Cricket cried. "I did think for a moment that there
was a slight family resemblance. But the longer I look at you the queerer
you seem. May I ask your name?"

"I'm Mr. Mole Cricket," said the stranger. "And I don't need to inquire
who you are. You're one of the well-known Field Cricket family."

XII

AN UNDERGROUND CHAT

Chirpy Cricket was glad of one thing. Mr. Mole Cricket _talked_ quite
pleasantly, for all he looked so frightful. When he dug his way through
the dirt in Farmer Green's garden and broke into the crack where Chirpy
was hiding he had given Chirpy a terrible start.

"If you're a cousin of mine--as you say--it's strange that I've never
happened to meet you before," Chirpy told the newcomer.

"Not at all! Not at all!" Mr. Mole Cricket said. "I spend all my time
underground. I've never been up in the open."

"Don't you go out at night?" Chirpy asked him.

"Never!" Mr. Mole Cricket declared. "I've lived my whole life in the
dirt. And I like it too well to leave it."

Chirpy Cricket thought his cousin was the queerest person he had ever
met.

"How do you get anything to eat?" he inquired.

Mr. Mole Cricket seemed to consider that an odd question.

"Bless you!" he exclaimed. "The