by Edith Howes
"How absurd!" cried the bees. "Anyone would think you did all the workof the world. You certainly carry the grass pollen, but think of theflowers whose pollen we carry. What would the clover here do withoutus? And the wild flowers, and the flowers in the gardens and orchardsall over the world. We are certainly the most useful."
At this thousands of earth-worms popped their heads above the ground."If you are talking about usefulness, don't forget us," they said."You see very little of us, for we come out at night when most of youare asleep. But think of all the work we do. We burrow and burrowhere in our millions, ploughing the ground day after day till everyinch is opened up to let in the sweet air and drain away the water fromthe surface. How could the flowers and grasses live if we did not dothis? Think how fine we keep the soil, powdering it as we do in ourburrowings! And how rich we make it by dragging down decaying leavesinto our holes every night. The world would be a sorry place foreverything that grows and lives if we did not work so hard. We aresurely more useful than anybody."
The grasses waved their flowered heads. "All that is true enough,"they said; "but nobody can possibly be more useful than we are. Thinkhow we clothe the land and give food to hundreds of animals and shelterto millions of insects."
A little cloud sailed softly down on to the hill-top to listen. "Whatcould any of you do without the clouds?" she asked. "You all depend onour rain for your lives; you must confess you are less useful than weare."
"Ho! ho! ho!" laughed the merry sun. "Fancy quarrelling this finemorning! Now I will tell you, and this will settle it once for all.You are all useful, and not one of you could be spared, and not one ofyou could do well without the other. Everything helps everything else.The worms help the grass, and the grass feeds the worms; the bees helpthe flowers, and the flowers feed the bees; the wind helps the clouds,and the clouds become rain and help the wind in its work. And I amhere over you all, and if it were not for me nothing could live, so,after all, I am the most useful. If I did not shine there would be nograss, no worms, no flowers, no bees, no wind, and no clouds. Now goon with your work."
THE SUN'S NEST
Winnie and I went sailing fast Out to the golden West. We wished to see the Sun drop down Into his shining nest.
Our ship was soft and pearly white-- A dear little cloud up high. We sailed along at sunset time, Across the flaming sky.
Winnie stood up and laughed with joy; Her curls blew round her head. The golden clouds raced past our ship, To see the Sun to bed.
The nest was made of red, red cloud, Hung like a rosy swing: An angel stood on either side-- We heard them softly sing.
The tired Sun came dropping down, And cuddled in his nest. The angels spread their snow-white wings To guard him through his rest.
The soft wee clouds went home with us, The sky grew grey and blue; The stars peeped out and laughed and winked, And said: "Good-night, you two!"
CRIKITTY-CRIK
Mrs. Cricket flew busily round, looking for a good place for her eggs."This will do," she said at last. "Here is plenty of food for themwhen they hatch." She flew down close to the roots of a soft greenplant, pierced a hole in the ground with her piercer, placed the eggsin it with her egg placer, and flew off.
"Just the very dinner I like best," said Mr. Beetle to himself; he ranto the hole, dug out the eggs, and ate them up.
He thought he had them all, so he went away; but there was one left,hidden under a grain of earth. After a while it hatched out intoCrikitty-Crik.
Crikitty-Crik could not fly, or sing, or lay eggs, for he was only atiny cricket-baby. All he could do was eat, but that he didthoroughly. He gobbled up every scrap of soft vegetable food he couldfind in the earth, and as his mother had chosen a good place for him hefound plenty and soon grew fat. His front legs were specially made forburrowing, and his jaws were made for nibbling.
One day he stopped eating and said: "I should like to fly." So he lethis skin grow hard, and he shut himself up in it, and made his wings.He altered the shape of his mouth, too. "For I am going to suck leaveswhen I am a grown-up cricket," he said.
When everything was ready he pushed himself out through the top of hisold skin and left it lying on the ground. Then up he flew to suck thejuices of the leaves.
Such a handsome fellow he was--all green and gold and fine lace-work.And he could make music, for under his body he had grown two littleflat sounding boards. When he moved his hind-legs quickly over thesethey made the cricket-song: "Crikitty-Crik! Crikitty-Crik! What afine world it is!"
THE DISCONTENTED ROOT
The Root was grumbling again, and everybody felt unhappy. "It's notfair," she said. "Why should I have to stay down here in the darkwhile you can all live in the sunshine? It is work, work, work all daydown here, finding water and food for you all; while you do nothing butenjoy yourselves."
"Oh, you must not say that," cried the stems. "We are as busy as youare. Your work would be useless if we did not spend our time carryingwater and food from you to the leaves and flowers. And think of theweight we are bearing. You cannot say your work is harder than ours."
"It certainly is not harder than ours," said the leaves. "Think of allthat goes on in our workshops. We supply as much food from the air asyou from the earth. You must not say we are not busy."
The flowers bent their heads and spoke. "Dear little Root-sister,"they said, "do not make us unhappy with your discontent. Life is veryfull of work for all of us. You must give us food or we cannot live,and we flowers must make our seed or the family would die out, so wehelp each other. Your work lies in the dark earth, certainly, whileours is in the sunshine; but the life up here would not suit you. I amsure you would die if you tried to live above the ground."
But the Root would not understand. "Fine words," she said, "but nocomfort to me! Oh! I wish I could go up into the sunshine."
One day she had her wish, for a slip of the gardener's spade turned herabove the ground. She was delighted, but the others were in despair."Oh, dear, whatever will become of us now?" they cried. "If only thegardener would see you and put you in again!" But the gardener did notnotice; it lay there all day.
"The sunshine is delightful," said the Root, though really its glareand heat were making her feel quite dizzy.
"How hot the sun is! And how parched we are!" sighed the droopingflowers. "Now we must die, and our poor little half-formed seeds willnever grow into beautiful plants." And they laid their tender faces onthe hot earth and died.
The afternoon wore on. The gasping leaves and soft stems almost diedtoo, but the coolness of evening and the night dew revived them alittle; when the morning came they tried to lift themselves and live onin spite of the hot sunshine that came again.
As for the Root, she was longing now for the gardener to come and puther in the earth. She had been dried and withered by the heat, thenhalf frozen by the cold night dew; now here was another day to face inthis glare of light and cruel sunshine. She knew now that the flowerswere right in saying that the life above ground would not suit her."If the gardener does not come soon I shall die, too," she thought.
The gardener came, saw the upturned Root, and set it in its old place."I will never grumble at my life again," said the Root as the soft coolearth closed in around her.
"How thankful we are!" whispered the leaves faintly. "Now we shalllive again."
But the flowers said nothing, for they were dead.
CREEPY-CRAWLY
At first Creepy-Crawly was nothing but a tiny egg on a blade of grass;but when he hatched out into a caterpillar he was Creepy-Crawly indeed,for though he had about sixteen pairs of legs, they were all so tinythat he could not be said to walk on them. But he crawled about quitehappily, and was well content with life as he found it.
"Why don't you grow long legs like me?" said the Spider. "It must beterribly slow work crawling about like that."
Creepy-Crawly
did not stay to answer. Out of his body he drew twothreads as fine as the spider's own, glued them together with his mouthinto a rope, and dropped by the rope from the branch to the ground. Hedid not like Mrs. Spider.
"Well, I wouldn't wear a green coat if I were you," said an Earth-wormwhom he met. "Brown is a much nicer colour."
"Brown may be best for you who live in the ground," said Creepy-Crawly,"but green is better for me. The birds would like me for dinner, youknow, but they cannot see me so well if I look like the leaves I feedon."
"You should wear a hard shell on your back." said a Beetle. "You areabsurdly soft."
Creepy-Crawly wriggled quickly out of the beetle's sight, and aButterfly who saw him laughed. She said: "Better grow wings,Creepy-Crawly. They are the best means of escape from your enemies."
Creepy-Crawly looked wistfully at her as she flew off. "Yes," he saidto himself, "that is what I should like--to fly through the air in thatgrand, free way. That would be glorious! Ah, well! I have no wings,but I may as well be as happy as I can."
Creepy-Crawly had been eating hard for weeks, but now he began to feelless and less hungry and more and more drowsy. One day he curledhimself up under a dead leaf and went to sleep; there he slept on andon for week after week without waking once to eat.
As he slept his skin turned brown like the worm's, and hard like thebeetle's; but inside the skin a still more wonderful change was takingplace. From his body six slender jointed legs with clawed toes grewslowly out, followed by four wings, which promised to be broad andbeautiful when they had room to open. From the head grew two longfeelers with little knobs at their ends. Over body, head, and wings acoat of tiny, many-coloured scales spread itself, softer than down, andas beautiful as the rainbow.
Creepy-Crawly woke up at last, but he was Creepy-Crawly no longer. Hepushed his way out of his hard shell and stood on the dead leaf to dryhimself. He spread his wings in the sun; he shook his six jointed legsone after the other; he turned and twisted himself this way and that inhis delight.
"Who would have thought I should have come to this?" he said tohimself. "Now I am a Butterfly. I am like the one that spoke to methat day. I will fly through the air as she did, and find her, andshow her how I have changed."
He spread his beautiful wings and rose up into the warm air, and flewaway to drink honey from the flowers and to dance with his butterflycousins.
BLACKIE
At first Blackie was only a tiny speck in an egg, but he grew so fastthat he soon filled the shell. Mrs. Blackbird covered him with herwarm feathered body, and turned him over every day so that he shouldgrow evenly; and Mr. Blackbird sat on a branch and sang: "How the sunshines! How bright is the world!"
It was delightfully warm and cosy in the little shell-house, so Blackiewas content for a long time. But when he had grown as big as the shellwould let him, and had used up all the food that had been stored forhim, he wished to come out. He pecked at the shell, and his motherheard him.
"That is well," she said; "so you are ready to come out into the world.Peck hard till you make a hole. Then poke out your head."
He pecked hard, and Mrs. Blackbird helped gently from her side.Presently a hole was made, and out popped the little head.
"Cheep!" he said. "Cheep! Cheep!"
"Push with your shoulders till you crack the shell," said his mother.He pushed and pushed, and soon the shell split, and he stepped out.
"Well, you are not very handsome," said his father, looking in over theedge of the nest, "but you will be much better looking when yourfeathers come."
He certainly was not handsome, for he was bald all over, and his mouthlooked too big for his body. But he did not know that, so he was quitehappy. "Cheep!" he said. "What a brown world it is!" For all hecould see was the inside of the nest, and he thought that was the world.
"Here is a worm," said Mrs. Blackbird. How that big mouth of hisopened! In the weeks that followed both father and mother had to workhard to keep it filled. But they had their reward, for Blackie grewbig and strong, and his feathers came.
He could look over the top of the nest now. "Cheep! What a greenworld it is!" he said; for all he could see was the tree, and hethought that was the world. The wind blew, and the branches swayed toand fro and rocked the nest till he fell asleep.
"Come out and learn to fly," said his mother one day. "Stand on theedge of the nest and fly down to the branch below."
She showed him how to do it, and he peeped over the edge of the nestand watched her. But it looked such a long way to the branch that hewas afraid. He crept down into the nest again and would not come out."What nonsense!" said Mrs. Blackbird; and she tumbled him out with herbeak. He landed safely on the branch, as she knew he would. Then sheand Mr. Blackbird sat beside him and showed him how to grasp with histoes, and how to spread out his wings. With the greatest patience theytaught him step by step to fly, leading him first from twig to twig,then from big branch to big branch, and last from tree to tree.
Then he was taught how to find his food--taught how to pull a worm outof its hole, where to look for caterpillars and grubs, and how to catcha fly on the wing. At last he knew it all, and he could earn his ownliving.
Then he, too, sat on a branch and sang like his father: "How the sunshines! How bright is the world!"
LITTLE BIRDS
"Pretty Dearie! Pretty Dearie!" Hear the gay father-bird sing to his wife. "Pretty Dearie! Pretty Dearie! Ours is a beautiful life.
"Sweetest Birdie! Sweetest Birdie!" Hark how he calls while she sits on her nest! "Sweetest Birdie! Sweetest Birdie! Of all the world I love you best."
THE BROWNIES
Amongst the roots of the grass in the lawn lay hundreds of tiny eggs.One by one they hatched out as the sun warmed the earth and the softshowers moistened it, and soon the grass roots were alive with tinygrubs. They crawled about, cutting the poor grass roots and stems withtheir hard little jaws, and at once beginning to grow fat on the piecesthey bit out and swallowed. All day and every day they ate, for theirone aim in life was to be big and strong. "Then by and by our wingswill grow and we shall fly," they thought. They were not as brown nowas they would be when their wings had grown. Only their heads and jawswere brown as yet; their soft ringed bodies and curled-up tails and sixjointed legs were all grey-green.
They had a lazy time under the ground, for they had nothing to do butto burrow and eat; but that just suited them. They made such good useof their time that the master of the garden looked with despair at thebrown patches in his lawn. "Those dreadful grubs!" he said. "They arespoiling my beautiful lawn."
They lived there for three or four years. Then one by one they allstopped eating. They were so fat that they could hardly move, and sodrowsy that they didn't want to. So they curled themselves up and wentto sleep, and did not wake for many a day.
As they slept their skins grew hard and transparent, and new ones grewunderneath. Two wings grew along their sides, though there was not yetroom for them to open out, and two brown shields grew to cover them.
One by one the Brownies woke up. "Our wings have come! We must go outand fly!" they said.
They stretched their dried outside skins till they cracked open downthe middle of the back. Then they pushed themselves out of theopening, and crawled out under the grass blades to dry themselves inthe sun. Slowly and carefully they stretched out their fine new wings,tried their feelers, and lifted their strong brown shields till theyhardened in the air.
They were brown beetles now, and they felt proud of themselves. Theycrept about to show themselves and to look at one another, and theychattered together and made plans for flying off when they were ready.
Just as evening came they were all ready to go. They lifted theirwings again and again to let the air into their bodies, then up theyflew, out into the wide garden-world.
Away at the back of the house there was a patch of growing potatoes.They soon found it out.
They alighted on the leaves and began at onceto eat them, for they were hungry after their long sleep.
They feasted all night, but when the daylight came they slipped underthe leaves and hung there out of sight. They had been so long used tothe darkness under the earth that now they preferred shady corners toopen daylight.
"Those dreadful brown beetles have been here and spoilt my potatoplants," said the master of the garden. "I wish I could catch them."He did not know that they were hiding under the leaves quite close tohim.
BRAVE ROSE-PINK
Autumn was passing, and Jack Frost was frightening all the flowersaway. Even the seeds could not bear to stay above the ground, butcrept underneath out of the cold. The tiny underground elves gatheredthem and carried them away to the Earth-mother's warm nurseries, andtucked them into soft cradles till it should be time to return them tothe garden for the spring growth.
But a sweet-pea seed refused to come down. "No," she said; "I do notwish to lie in a cradle all the winter. I wish to stay here and grow.I am already sprouting, and I intend to go on." She would not be moved.
The elves went to the Earth-mother.
"There is a sweet-pea seed above the ground, Rose-Pink by name, whorefuses to come below," they said. "What shall we do with her?"
