“I’m sure I do not know,” said the grasshopper, speaking fast, for he was rather in a hurry to be gone; he never could stand still long together.  “All I can tell you is, that on Midsummer Day every one of the birds has to go down to the brook and walk in and bathe; and it has been the law for so many, many years that no one can remember when it began.  They like it very much, because they can show off their fine feathers which are just now in full color; and if you like to go with me, you will be sure to enjoy it.”

“So I will,” said Bevis; and he followed the grasshopper, who hopped so far at every step that he had to walk fast to keep up with him.

They went on in silence a good way, except that the grasshopper cried “S—­s” to his friends in the grass as he passed, and said good-morning also to a mole, who peeped out for a moment.

“Why don’t you hop straight?” said Bevis presently.  “It seems to me that you hop first one side and then the other, and go in such a zigzag fashion it will take us hours to reach the brook.”

“How very stupid you are!” said the grasshopper.  “If you go straight, of course you can only see just what is under your feet; but if you go first this way and then that, then you see everything.  You are nearly as silly as the ants, who never see anything beautiful all their lives.  Be sure you have nothing to do with the ants, Bevis; they are a mean, wretched, miserly set, quite contemptible and beneath notice.  Now, I go everywhere, all round the field, and spend my time searching for lovely things; sometimes I find flowers, and sometimes the butterflies come down into the grass and tell me the news; and I am so fond of the sunshine, I sing to it all day long.  Tell me, now, is there anything so beautiful as the sunshine and the blue sky, and the green grass, and the velvet and blue and spotted butterflies, and the trees which cast such a pleasant shadow and talk so sweetly, and the brook which is always running?  I should like to listen to it for a thousand years.”

“I like you,” said Bevis; “jump into my hand and I will carry you.”  He held his hand out flat, and in a second up sprang the grasshopper and alighted on his palm and told him the way to go, and thus they went together merrily.

“Bevis, dear, I do not sing at night; but I always go where I can see a star.  I slept under a mushroom last night, and he told me he was pushing up as fast as he could before some one came and picked him to put on a gridiron.  I do not lay up any store, because I know I shall die when the summer ends; and what is the use of wealth then?  My store and my wealth is the sunshine, dear, and the blue sky, and the green grass, and the delicious brook who never ceases sing, sing, singing all day and night.  And all the things are fond of me; the grass and the flowers, and the birds and the animals—­all of them love me.”

“I think I shall take you home and put you under a glass case on the mantelpiece,” said Bevis.