en he stopped at last, to rest a bit, a voice cried out,
"That's fine! Won't you play some more?"

Chirpy Cricket was pleased. He thought, of course, that it was Tommy's
friend speaking to him. But when he looked up he couldn't see her
anywhere--nor her companion either.

They had both disappeared. And it was already gray in the east.

XVII

SITTING ON A LILY-PAD

Though Chirpy Cricket looked all around with great care, he couldn't
discover who had spoken to him. A voice from somewhere had called out
that his music was fine and asked him if he wouldn't play some more.

Whoever the owner of the voice might be, it was plain that he liked
music. So without knowing for whom he was playing, Chirpy began to fiddle
again. And when he stopped the same voice cried, "Thank you very much!"

Now, the duck-pond was near-by. And at first Chirpy hadn't thought of
looking there for his listener. But the second time he heard the voice he
guessed that it came from the pond. So Chirpy leaped to the water's edge;
and there, sitting on a lily-pad, was the tiniest Frog he had ever seen.
He seemed no bigger than Chirpy himself.

"How do you do!" Chirpy said to him. "Was it you that spoke to me?"

"Yes!" the stranger said. "I've been enjoying your music. And I'm glad to
meet you. It's time we knew each other, living as we do in the same
neighborhood. My name is Mr. Cricket Frog. And may I inquire what yours
is?"

"I'm called Chirpy Cricket," said the fiddler on the bank. "Is it
possible--do you think--that we are cousins?"

"No!" said Mr. Cricket Frog. "No! I belong to a branch of the well-known
Tree Frog family. But somehow I've never cared to live in trees. Indeed,
I've never climbed a tree in all my life."

"You're a sensible person!" Chirpy Cricket cried. He did not know that
the reason why Mr. Cricket Frog stayed on the ground was because his feet
were not suited to climbing trees. He couldn't have got up a tree if he
had tried. "Aren't you afraid of falling off that lily-pad into the
water?" Chirpy asked his new friend. "It seems to me you haven't picked
out a safe place at all."

He had scarcely finished speaking when he had a great fright. For Mr.
Cricket Frog did not answer him. Instead he leaped suddenly into the air.
And Chirpy Cricket feared that he would fall into the water and be
drowned. But when Mr. Cricket Frog came down again he landed squarely
upon another lily-pad.

"I caught him," he said pleasantl