et," he said. "Won't you leap into
the air a few times, so I can get a good look at you? I've heard that
you've been wanting to meet me. And I've come all the way from the woods
just to please you."

Luckily Chirpy Cricket did not forget Kiddie Katydid's advice. Kiddie had
explained to him how Mr. Nighthawk caught his meals on the wing.

"You'll have to excuse me," Chirpy told Mr. Nighthawk. "I'd rather not do
any jumping for you. That wasn't why I wanted to meet you."

"Ha!" said Mr. Nighthawk. "Then why--pray--did you wish to see me?"

"I thought"--Chirpy Cricket replied--"I thought that perhaps you'd like
me to help you with your music. I've often heard your booming at a
distance. And it has seemed to me that you have the making of a good
musician, if you have a good teacher."

Mr. Nighthawk sniffed. It must be remembered that he was not very
gentlemanly.

"I've had plenty of training," he said. "I didn't come all the way from
the woods to be told that I don't know my own business. I practice every
night. And I flatter myself that I'm a perfect performer."

"Then," said Chirpy Cricket, "perhaps you need a new fiddle. For there's
no doubt that your booming would sound much better if it were shriller."

Mr. Nighthawk gave a rude laugh.

"I don't make that sound with a fiddle," he sneered. "Don't you know a
wind instrument when you hear it?"

XXI

MR. NIGHTHAWK EXPLAINS

Mr. Nighthawk appeared to think it a great joke on Chirpy Cricket,
because Chirpy had thought he played the fiddle. He laughed in a most
disagreeable fashion. And he kept repeating that people who didn't know a
wind instrument when they heard it couldn't know much about music.

As for Chirpy, he didn't know just what to say. But at last he managed to
stammer that he hoped he hadn't offended Mr. Nighthawk.

"Not at all!" Mr. Nighthawk told him. "This is the funniest thing I've
heard for a long time. It was worth coming all the way from the woods to
enjoy a laugh over it."

Of course it was very rude for Mr. Nighthawk to speak in such a way. But
he was never polite to any of the smaller field-people, unless he
happened to be coaxing them to jump, so that he might grab them when they
were in the air. You may be sure he was as meek as he could be if he
happened to meet Solomon Owl. But at that moment Solomon was far off in
the hemlock woods. Only a short time before Mr. Nighthawk had heard his
rolling call in the distance. So he fe