"So that is the reason we sleep days and sing nights, so the birds and chickens and bug-eating animals cannot catch us.

"Of course, sometimes they do get a cricket, but it is always one who has stayed out too late or gotten up too early, usually a very young cricket who thinks he knows more than his mother or father.

"But the good little crickets who mind and get up when they are called are pretty sure to live to a good old age."

When Madam Cricket stopped talking all the little crickets stood looking at her with very curious expressions on their faces.

"We are good little crickets, aren't we, mother?" they asked.

"Of course you are. Here you are all ready to go out and sing and the sun has just dropped behind the hill," she said.

"Chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp," they sang as they scampered after their mother out into the night.

THE PLAYROOM WEDDING

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Playroom Wedding]

Paper Doll had been the maid of honor, but she did not at all approve of the match. "It will never be a happy marriage," she told Teddy Bear the night of the wedding. "Such marriages never are. How I should feel married to a man who wore dresses."

Yes, he did look as if he wore a dress, for he was a j.a.panese gentleman doll, you see, and when he came to the playroom to live everybody, including French Doll Marie, thought he was very queer looking.

But after a while they became used to Takeo, for that was his name, and when the little mistress announced that Marie was to marry Takeo she did not make the least objection.

"What difference does it make?" she said to Frieda, the Dutch doll, who lived next to her. "I suppose I shall have to marry someone, and truly I could never live with Jumping Jack; that fellow makes me so nervous."

"He seems very quiet," said Frieda Doll, meaning Takeo, "and perhaps you can get him to dress in men's clothes after you are married."

"Yes, he is quiet and I cannot understand a word he says, so we shall not quarrel," said Marie Doll.

And so they were married. Jack-in-the-box was the minister, because the little mistress thought he stood better than anyone else. She put a black cape on him and a white collar, and Jack behaved in the most dignified manner.

Little Paper Doll wore a dress that quite outshone the bride's dress, only no one noticed it; but it was all lace and had tiny little pink buds caught in the flounces, and she wore a beautiful hat with white feathers.

The bride wore a white dress and a long white veil, and there were tiny white flowers all around her head which held the veil in place.

But Takeo was far from looking the bridegroom, to Paper Doll's way of thinking, though Marie Doll gave him no thought at all, for she thought the bride was the important one, and as she told Frieda Doll, "You have to have a bridegroom to be a bride, of course; but really he is not of any importance that I can see."

They had been married a week, and, while Marie talked to Takeo, he, of course, did not take the least notice of what she said. "Poor fellow, he cannot understand," said Marie Doll. "He won't be any trouble, though, because I shall be able to do as I like. He cannot tell me not to."

"These foreigners, my dear," said Paper Doll, "are sometimes unpleasant to live with. I cannot see how you came to marry him. Do make him wear men's clothes."

"Oh, I think he looks quite out of the ordinary, and everyone stares at him when we go out riding in the park with the little mistress," said Marie Doll. "As I am French, you see we both are foreigners, so that does not matter; and then, dear, Takeo is so comfortable to live with.

He is no bother at all."

But one night Marie Doll awoke to find her husband quite a different man from what she thought, for beside her sat two little j.a.panese dolls.

When the clock struck twelve Marie Doll called to everyone: "Come quick and see my baby girls!"

"Oh, dear! they look just like Takeo," said Paper Doll. "This place will be filled with foreigners. It is too bad."

"I shall change their clothes at once," said Marie Doll.

And then it was Marie Doll and all the toys got the surprise of their lives, for from the corner where he sat came Takeo, and when he stood in front of his wife, he said, "Madam will not change the clothes of our sons."

When Marie recovered from her surprise, she gasped: "Sons! They are daughters!"

"They are sons, madam, and sons they will remain!" said Takeo, looking at Marie very steadily.

"I thought you could not understand or speak our language," said Marie, while all the others stood looking at Takeo in astonishment.

"I was made in this country, and so were you; but I was made to represent a j.a.panese gentleman and I intend to live the life of one.

As for speaking, we j.a.panese never speak unless we have something to say. I had something to say, and I said it. You heard me, madam.

Those children are our sons and you will not change their clothes."

Takeo turned around in a very sedate manner and returned to his corner and sat down.

"I told you it would not turn out well," said Paper Doll to Teddy Bear.

"Oh, poor Marie Doll, what a life you will lead!"

But Marie Doll was still looking at her husband, and she did not hear what Paper Doll said. She was smiling at Takeo. "Such dignity," she whispered to herself, "and how masterful he is. I shall never dare disobey him.

"Oh, you little darling boys! How I love you! You are just like your handsome father." And Marie Doll hugged her children to her and began to rock them.

"She is crazy," said Teddy Bear. "Marie would never give in if she were in her right mind, I know."

"She is in love," said Paper Doll. "She has found a master, and some women love to have a master."

"You women are queer creatures," said Teddy Bear. "I shall never understand you."

"You are not supposed to understand us. You are supposed to love us,"

said Paper Doll.

MORNING-GLORY

[Ill.u.s.tration: Morning-glory]

Once upon a time there was a very little Morning-glory that grew on the end of a high vine, and one day when the wind was blowing a brisk breeze pa.s.sed by the little Morning-glory, making it wish it, too, could go along and see more of the world.

The big mother vine knew what was in the heart of her little Glory, so she whispered soft words of love to it and told the little flower that it must never follow the breeze, for he was a wanderer and might take it far from its home, where it would be very unhappy and perhaps die out in the cold world. But the silly little Morning-glory still wanted to leave the big vine, and the next time the breeze came along it pushed up its head and the breeze took it off the big vine and bore it along with it far, far away.

But by and by the wind grew tired of carrying the little Glory, so it dropped it, and when the Morning-glory looked around it found it was in the midst of big tall trees and rocks and briers.