There was an odd cry that often interrupted the nightly concerts of the
Cricket family. Chirpy Cricket had never heard it in the daytime. But
when twilight began to wrap Pleasant Valley in its shadows, the strange,
wailing call was almost sure to come quavering through the air. Somehow
it always sent a shiver over Chirpy. And sometimes it made him lose a few
notes--if he happened to be fiddling when he heard it.
He learned that it was a dangerous bird known as Simon Screecher--a
cousin of Solomon Owl--that made this uncanny call. If he had lived, like
Solomon, across the meadow in the hemlock woods, Chirpy Cricket would
have paid less heed to the noise he made. But Simon Screecher had his
home in a hollow apple tree in Farmer Green's orchard.
It was said--by those that claimed to know--that Simon Screecher slept in
the daytime. But every tiny night-creature--the Katydids and the Crickets
and all the rest--knew that after sunset Simon Screecher was as wide
awake as anybody.
It was no wonder that Chirpy Cricket was always uneasy when Simon
screeched his warning that he was awake and looking for his supper.
Chirpy knew that he could not depend on Simon to stay long in one place.
Though you heard his screech in the orchard one moment, you might see him
in the farmyard soon afterward. He never ate a whole meal in just one
spot, but preferred to move about wherever his fancy took him. Simon
himself said that he could eat off and on all night long, if he kept
moving.
Somehow Mr. Meadow Mouse had heard of this saying of Simon Screecher's.
"You ought to crawl into your hole under the straw whenever Simon
Screecher is about the neighborhood," he advised Chirpy one evening, when
the two chanced to meet near the fence.
"But Simon is around here every night," Chirpy replied. "If I stayed at
home from dusk till dawn I couldn't take part in another concert all
summer long."
Mr. Meadow Mouse said that that would be a great pity.
"Don't you suppose"--Chirpy asked him hopefully--"don't you suppose I
could jump out of Simon Screecher's reach if he tried to catch me?"
"You could find out by trying," said Mr. Meadow Mouse.
So Chirpy Cricket began to feel more cheerful. He even fiddled a bit,
thinking that he had no special reason to worry. And then all at once he
stopped making music.
Mr. Meadow Mouse had been searching about on the ground for seeds, while
he was enjoying Chirpy's fiddling. And when the music came to a sudden
end he looked up and saw that something was troubling the fiddler.
"What's the matter now?" he inquired.
"An unpleasant idea has just come into my head," Chirpy told him. "It
would be very unlucky for me if I found that I wasn't spry enough to
escape Simon Screecher!"
Mr. Meadow Mouse had to admit that there was a good deal of truth in
Chirpy's remark. But he said he was ready with another suggestion. "It's
a good one, too," he declared.
"What is it?" Chirpy asked him.
"You'll have to think of some other way"--said Mr. Meadow Mouse--"some
other way of being safe from Simon Screecher."