The smallest Clouded Grasshopper, who had always been the brightest one
in the family, called back, "We may scare them if they are big."
Then all the Clouded Grasshoppers leaped toward the Kittens and crackled
their wings and looked very, very fierce. And the Kittens ran away as
fast as they could. They were in such a hurry to get away that the
Yellow Kitten tumbled over the White Kitten and they rolled on the floor
in a furry little heap. The Clouded Grasshoppers leaped again, and the
Kittens scrambled away to their nest in the hay, and stood against the
wall and raised their backs and their pointed little tails, and opened
their pink mouths and spat at them, and said, "Ha-ah-h-h!"
"There!" said the smallest Clouded Grasshopper to them, "we won't do
anything to you this time, because you are young and don't know very
much, but don't you ever bother one of us again. We might have hopped
right on to you, and then what could you have done to help yourselves?"
The Clouded Grasshoppers started off to find their way back to the
meadow, and the frightened Kittens looked at each other and whispered:
"Just supposing they had hopped on to us! What _could_ we have done!"
[Illustration]