The crickets are believed to be enchanted. People do not like to
express an exact opinion about them, so they are spoken of with great
mystery and awe, and no one would venture to kill them for the whole
world. But they are by no means evil; on the contrary, the presence
of the cricket is considered lucky, and their singing keeps away the
fairies at night, who are always anxious, in their selfish way, to have
the whole hearth left clear for themselves, that they may sit round the
last embers of the fire, and drink the cup of milk left for them by the
farmer’s wife, in peace and quietness. The crickets are supposed to be
hundreds of years old, and their talk, could we understand it, would no
doubt be most interesting and instructive.