Along the upper edge of the meadow and in the corners of the rail fence
there grew golden-rod. During the spring and early summer you could
hardly tell that it was there, unless you walked close to it and saw the
slender and graceful stalks pushing upward through the tall grass and
pointing in many different ways with their dainty leaves. The Horses and
Cows knew it, and although they might eat all around it they never
pulled at it with their lips or ate it. In the autumn, each stalk was
crowned with sprays of tiny bright yellow blossoms, which nodded in the
wind and scattered their golden pollen all around. Then it sometimes
happened that people who were driving past would stop, climb over the
fence, and pluck some of it to carry away. Even then there was so much
left that one could hardly miss the stalks that were gone.
It may have been because the golden-rod was such a safe home that most
of the Frog-Hoppers laid their eggs there. Some laid eggs in other
plants and bushes, but most of them chose the golden-rod. After they had
laid their eggs they wandered around on the grass, the bushes, and the
few trees which grew in the meadow, hopping from one place to another
and eating a little here and a little there.
Nobody knows why they should have been called Frog-Hoppers, unless it
was because when you look them in the face they seem a very little like
tiny Frogs. To be sure, they have six legs, and teeth on the front pair,
as no real Frog ever thought of having. Perhaps it was only a nickname
because their own name was so long and hard to speak.
The golden-rod was beginning to show small yellow-green buds on the tips
of its stalks, and the little Frog-Hoppers were now old enough to talk
and wonder about the great world. On one stalk four Frog-Hopper brothers
and sisters lived close together. That was much pleasanter than having
to grow up all alone, as most young Frog-Hoppers do, never seeing their
fathers and mothers or knowing whether they ever would.
These four little Frog-Hoppers did not know how lucky they were, and
that, you know, happens very often when people have not seen others
lonely or unhappy. They supposed that every Frog-Hopper family had two
brothers and two sisters living together on a golden-rod stalk. They fed
on the juice or sap of the golden-rod, pumping it out of the stalk with
their stout little beaks and eating or drinking it. After they had eaten
it, they made white foam out of it, and this foam was all around them on
the stalk. Any one passing by could tell at once by the foam just where
the Frog-Hoppers lived.
One morning the oldest Frog-Hopper brother thought that the sap pumped
very hard. It may be that it did pump hard, and it may be that he was
tired or lazy. Anyway, he began to grumble and find fault. "This is the
worst stalk of golden-rod I ever saw in my life," he said. "It doesn't
pay to try to pump any more sap, and I just won't try, so there!"
He was quite right in saying that it was the worst stalk he had ever
seen, because he had never seen any other, but he was much mistaken in
saying that it didn't pay to pump sap, and as for saying that "it didn't
pay, so there!" we all know that when insects begin to talk in that way
the best thing to do is to leave them quite alone until they are
better-natured.
The other Frog-Hopper children couldn't leave him alone, because they
hadn't changed their skins for the last time. They had to stay in their
foam until that was done. After the big brother spoke in this way, they
all began to wonder if the sap didn't pump hard. Before long the big
sister wiggled impatiently and said, "My beak is dreadfully tired."
Then they all stopped eating and began to talk. They called their home
stuffy, and said there wasn't room to turn around in it without hitting
the foam. They didn't say why they should mind hitting the foam. It was
soft and clean, and always opened up a way when they pushed against it.
"I tell you what!" said the big brother, "after I've changed my skin
once more and gone out into the great world, you won't catch me hanging
around this old golden-rod."
"Nor me!" "Nor me!" "Nor me!" said the other young Frog-Hoppers.
"I wonder what the world is like," said the little sister. "Is it just
bigger foam and bigger golden-rod and more Frog-Hoppers?"
"Huh!" exclaimed her big brother. "What lots you know! If I didn't know
any more than that about it, I'd keep still and not tell anybody." That
made her feel badly, and she didn't speak again for a long time.
Then the little brother spoke. "I didn't know you had ever been out into
the world," he said.
"No," said the big brother, "I suppose you didn't. There are lots of
things you don't know." That made him feel badly, and he went off into
the farthest corner of the foam and stuck his head in between a
golden-rod leaf and the stalk. You see the big brother was very cross.
Indeed, he was exceedingly cross.
For a long time nobody spoke, and then the big sister said, "I wish you
would tell us what the world is like."
The big brother knew no more about the world than the other children,
but after he had been cross and put on airs he didn't like to tell the
truth. He might have known that he would be found out, yet he held up
his head and answered: "I don't suppose that I can tell you so that you
will understand, because you have never seen it. There are lots of
things there--whole lots of them--and it is very big. Some of the things
are like golden-rod and some of them are not. Some of them are not even
like foam. And there are a great many people there. They all have six
legs, but they are not so clever as we are. We shall have to tell them
things."
This was very interesting and made the little sister forget to pout and
the little brother come out of his foam-corner. He even looked as
though he might ask a few questions, so the big brother added, "Now
don't talk to me, for I must think about something."
It was not long after this that the young Frog-Hoppers changed their
skins for the last time. The outside part of the foam hardened and made
a little roof over them while they did this. Then they were ready to go
out into the meadow. The big brother felt rather uncomfortable, and it
was not his new skin which made him so. It was remembering what he had
said about the world outside.
When they had left their foam and their golden-rod, they had much to see
and ask about. Every little while one of the smaller Frog-Hoppers would
exclaim, "Why, you never told us about this!" or, "Why didn't you tell
us about that?"
Then the big brother would answer: "Yes, I did. That is one of the
things which I said were not like either golden-rod or foam."
For a while they met only Crickets, Ants, Grasshoppers, and other
six-legged people, and although they looked at each other they did not
have much to say. At last they hopped near to the Tree Frog, who was
sitting by the mossy trunk of a beech tree and looked so much like the
bark that they did not notice him at first. The big brother was very
near the Tree Frog's head.
"Oh, see!" cried the others. "There is somebody with only four legs, and
he doesn't look as though he ever had any more. Why, Brother, what does
this mean? You said everybody had six."
At this moment the Tree Frog opened his eyes a little and his mouth a
great deal, and shot out his quick tongue. When he shut his mouth again,
the big brother of the Frog-Hoppers was nowhere to be seen. They never
had a chance to ask him that question again. If they had but known it,
the Tree Frog at that minute had ten legs, for six and four are ten. But
then, they couldn't know it, for six were on the inside.
[Illustration]