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Among the Meadow People - Clara Dillingham Pierson · Amphitryon; or, Jupiter in Disguise

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Introduction of Among the Meadow People. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: by Francis Brown. Among the Meadow People by Clara Dillingham
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Pearson introduction. Many of these stories of field life were
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: written for the little ones of my kindergarten, and they
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: gave so much pleasure and aroused such a new interest
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: in the meadow people, that it has seemed wise to
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: collect and add to the original number, and send them
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: out to a larger circle of boys and girls. All
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: mothers and teachers hear the cry for just one more,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: and find that there are times when the bewitching tales
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: of animals, fairies, and really truly children are all exhausted
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: and tired. Imagination will not supply another. In selecting the
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: tiny creatures of the field and garden for the characters
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: in this book, I have remembered with pleasure the way
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: in which my loyal pupils befriended stray crickets and grasshoppers,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: their intense appreciation of the new realm of fancy and observation,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: and the eagerness and attention with which they sought to
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  Speaker 1: Mother Nature, the most wonderful and tireless of all storytellers.
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  Speaker 1: Clara Dillian Pearson, Stanton, Michigan, April eighth, eighteen ninety seven.
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  Speaker 1: End of introduction recording by Francis.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Brown, Chapter one of Among the Meadow People. This is
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: org by Jennifer Dore. Among the Meadow People by Clara
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: Dillingham Pearson, Chapter one. The butterfly that went calling as
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: the warm August days came, Mister yellow Butterfly wriggled and
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: pushed in his snug little green chrysalis, and wished he
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: could get out to see the world. He remembered the
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: days when he was a hairy little caterpillar, crawling slowly
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: over the grass and leaves, and he remembered how beautiful
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: the sky and all the flowers were. Then he thought
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: of the new wings which he had been growing from
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: his back, and he tried to move them, just to
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: see how it would feel. He had only six legs
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: since his wings grew and he missed all the sticky feet,
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: which he had to give up when he began to
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: change into a butterfly. The more he thought about it,
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: the more he squirmed, until suddenly he heard a faint,
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: little sound, too faint for larger people to hear, and
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: found a tiny slit in the wall of his chrysalis.
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  Speaker 2: It was such a dainty green chrysalis with white wrinkles
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: that it seemed almost a pity to have it break. Still,
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: it had held him for eight days already, and that
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: was as long as any of his family ever hung
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: in the chrysalis, so it was quite time for it
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: to be torn open and left empty. Mister yellow Butterfly
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: belonged to the second brood that had hatched that year,
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: and he wanted to be out while the days were
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: still fine and hot. Now, he crawled out of the
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: newly opened doorway to take his first flight. Poor mister butterfly,
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: he found his wings so wet and crinkled that they
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: wouldn't work at all, so he had to sit quietly
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: in the sunshine all day drying them. And just as
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: they got big and smooth and dry, it grew dark,
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: and mister Butterfly had to crawl under a leaf to sleep.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: The next morning, bright and early, he flew away to
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: visit the flowers. First, he stopped to see the daisies
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: by the roadside. They were all dancing in the wind,
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: and their bright faces looked as cheerful as anyone could wish.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: They were glad to see mister Butterfly, and wished him
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: to stay all day with them. He said, you are
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: very kind, but I really couldn't think of doing it.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: You must excuse my saying it, but I am surprised
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: to think you will grow here. It is very dusty
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: and dry, and then there is no shade. I am
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: sure I could have chosen a better place. The daisies
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: smiled and nodded to each other, saying this is the
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: kind of place we were made for, that's all. Mister
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Butterfly shook his head very doubtfully, and then bade them
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: a polite good morning, and flew away to call on
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: the cardinals. The cardinals are a very stately family, as
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: everybody knows. They hold their heads very high and never
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: make deep boughs, even to the wind. But for all that,
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: they are a very pleasant family to meet. They gave
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: mister butterfly a dainty lunch of honey, and seemed much
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: pleased when he told them how beautiful the river looked
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: in the sunlight. It is a delightful place to grow,
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  Speaker 2: said they. Yes, said mister your butterfly, it is very pretty.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: Still I do not think it can be healthful. I
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  Speaker 2: really cannot understand why you flowers choose such strange homes.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: Now there are the daisies where I just called. They
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: are in a dusty, dry place where there is no
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  Speaker 2: shade at all. I spoke to them about it, and
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: they acted quite uppish. But the daisies always do choose
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  Speaker 2: such places, said the cardinals. And your family, said, mister butterfly,
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  Speaker 2: have lived so long in wet places that it is
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  Speaker 2: a wonder you are alive. Your color is good, But
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  Speaker 2: to stand with one's roots and water all the time,
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: it is shocking. Cardinals and butterflies live differently, said the flowers.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning. Mister butterfly left the river and flew over
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: to the woods. He was very much out of patience.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: He was so angry that his feelers quivered. And now
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: you know how angry he must have been. He knew
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: that the violets were a very agreeable family who never
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: put on airs. So he went at once to them.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: He had barely said good morning to them when he
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: began to explain what had displeased him to think. He said,
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: what notions some flowers have? Now you have a pleasant
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  Speaker 2: home here in the edge of the woods. I have
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  Speaker 2: been telling the daisies and the cardinals that they should
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  Speaker 2: grow in such a place, but they wouldn't listen to me.
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: The daisies were quite uppish about it, and the cardinals
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  Speaker 2: were very stiff. My dear friend answered a violet, they
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  Speaker 2: could never live if they moved up into our neighborhood.
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  Speaker 2: Every flower has his own place in the world, and
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: his happiest in that place. Everything has its own place
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: and its own work, and every flower that is wise
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: will stay in the place for which it was intended.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: You are exceedingly kind to want to help the flowers.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: But suppose they had been telling you what to do.
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  Speaker 2: Suppose the cardinals had told you that flying around was
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: not good for your health, and that to be truly
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: well you ought to grow planted with your legs in
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  Speaker 2: the mud and water. Oh, said mister butterfly, Oh, I
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: never thought of that. Perhaps butterflies don't know everything, No,
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: said the violet. They don't know everything, and you haven't
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: been out of your chrysalis very long. But those who
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: are ready to learn can always find someone to tell them.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: Won't you eat some honey? And mister Butterfly sipped honey
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  Speaker 2: and was happy? End of chapter one.
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: Chapter two of Among the Meadow People. This is a
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: Recording by Claire Among the Meadow People by Clara Dillingham Pearson,
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  Speaker 3: Chapter two. The Robins build a nest. When mister and
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: Missus Robin built in the spring, they were not quite
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  Speaker 3: agreed as to where the nest should be. Mister Robin
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: was a very decided bird and had made up his
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  Speaker 3: mind that the lowest crotch of a maple tree would
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: be the best place. He even went so far as
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  Speaker 3: to take three billfuls of mud there and stick in
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  Speaker 3: two blades of dry grass. Missus Robin wanted it on
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  Speaker 3: the end of the second rail from the top of
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  Speaker 3: the split rail fence. She said it was high enough
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  Speaker 3: from the ground to be safe and dry, and not
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  Speaker 3: so high that a little bird falling out of it
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  Speaker 3: would hurt himself very much. Then too, the top rail
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  Speaker 3: was broad at the end and would keep off the
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  Speaker 3: rains so well, and the nest would be just the
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  Speaker 3: color of the rails, said she, so that even a
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  Speaker 3: red squirrel could hardly see it. She disliked red squirrels,
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  Speaker 3: and she had reason to, for she had been married before,
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  Speaker 3: and if it had not been for a red squirrel,
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  Speaker 3: she might already have had children as large as she was.
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  Speaker 3: I say that the tree is the best place for it,
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  Speaker 3: said mister Robin. And I wear the brightest breast feathers.
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  Speaker 3: He said this because in bird families, the one who
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  Speaker 3: wears the brightest breast feathers thinks he has the right
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  Speaker 3: to decide things. Missus Robin was wise enough not to
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  Speaker 3: answer back when he spoke in this way. She only
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  Speaker 3: shook her feathers, took ten quick running steps, tilted her
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  Speaker 3: body forward, looked hard at the ground, and pulled out
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  Speaker 3: something for supper. After that, she fluttered around the maple tree, crutched,
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  Speaker 3: as though she had never thought of any other place.
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  Speaker 3: Mister Robin wished he had not been quite so, decided,
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  Speaker 3: or reminded her of his breast feathers. After all, thought he,
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  Speaker 3: I don't know, but the fence rail would have done.
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  Speaker 3: He thought this, but he didn't say it. It is
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  Speaker 3: not always easy for a robin to give up and
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  Speaker 3: let one with dull breast feathers know that he thinks
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  Speaker 3: himself wrong. That night, they perched in the maple tree
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  Speaker 3: and slept with their heads under their wings, long before
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  Speaker 3: the sun was in sight. When the first beams were
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: just touching the tops of the forest trees, they awakened,
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  Speaker 3: bright eyed and rested, preamed their feathers, sang their morning
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  Speaker 3: song cheerily, cheerily, cheer up, and flew off to fine food.
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  Speaker 3: After breakfast, they began to work on the nest. Missus
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  Speaker 3: Robin stopped often to look and peck at the bark.
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  Speaker 3: It will take a great deal of mud, said she,
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  Speaker 3: to fill in that deep crutch until we reach a
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  Speaker 3: place wide enough for the nest. At another time, she said,
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  Speaker 3: my dear, I am afraid that the dry grass you
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  Speaker 3: are bringing is too light colored. It shows very plainly
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  Speaker 3: against the maple bark. Can't you find some that is darker?
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  Speaker 3: Mister Robin hunted and hunted, but could find nothing which
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  Speaker 3: was darker. As he flew past the fence, he noticed
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: that it was almost the color of the grass in
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  Speaker 3: his bill. After a while, soft gray clouds began to
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  Speaker 3: cover the sky. I wonder, said Missus Robin, if it
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: will rain before we get this done. The mud is
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: soft enough now to work well, and this place is
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  Speaker 3: so open that the rain might easily wash away all
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  Speaker 3: that we have done. It did rain, however, and very
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: soon the great drops came down, so hard that one
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: could only think of pebbles falling. Mister and Missus Robin
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: oiled their feathers as quickly as they could, taking the
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  Speaker 3: oil from their back pockets and putting it on to
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  Speaker 3: their feathers with their bills. This made the finest kind
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: of waterproof and was not at all heavy to wear.
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  Speaker 3: When the rain was over, they shook themselves and looked
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  Speaker 3: at their work. I believe, said Missus Robin to her husband,
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  Speaker 3: that you are right in saying that we might better
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  Speaker 3: give up this place and begin over again somewhere else.
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  Speaker 4: Now.
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  Speaker 3: Mister Robin could not remember having said that he thought
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  Speaker 3: anything of the sort, and he looked very sharply at
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  Speaker 3: his wife, and cocked his black head on one side
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: until all the black and white streaks on his throat showed.
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  Speaker 3: She did not seem to know that he was watching
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: her as she hopped around a partly built nest, poking
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  Speaker 3: it here and pushing it there, and trying her hardest
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: to make it look right. He thought she would say something,
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  Speaker 3: but she didn't. Then he knew he must speak first.
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  Speaker 3: He flirted his tail, and tipped his head and drew
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: some of his brown winged feathers through his bill. Then
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: he held himself very straight and tall, and said, well,
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  Speaker 3: if you do agree with me, I think you might
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  Speaker 3: much better stop working here and begin in another place.
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  Speaker 3: It seems almost too bad, said she. Of course there
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  Speaker 3: are other places, but by this time mister Robin knew
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  Speaker 3: exactly what to do, plenty of them, said he, Now,
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  Speaker 3: don't fuss any longer with this. That place on the
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: fence rail is an excellent one. I wonder that no
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: other birds have taken it. As he spoke, he flew
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  Speaker 3: ahead to the very spot which missus Robin had first chosen.
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  Speaker 3: She was a very wise bird, And you far too
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: much to say. I told you so, saying that you
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: know always makes things go wrong. She looked at the
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: rail fence ran along the top of it, towing in
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: prettily as she ran, looked around in a surprised way
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: and said, oh, that place. Yes, Missus Robin, said her husband,
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: that place. Do you see anything wrong about it? No,
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: she said, I think I could make it do. Before long,
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: another nest was half built, and Missus Robin was working
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: away in the happiest manner possible, stopping every little while
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: to sing her afternoon's song? Do you think what you do?
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: Do you think?
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  Speaker 4: What you do?
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: Do you think? Mister Robin was also at work, And
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: such billfuls of mud, such fine little twigs, and such
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: big wisps of dry grass as went into that home once.
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: Mister Robin was gone a long time, And when he
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: came back he had the beautiful piece of white cotton
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: string dangling from his beak that they put on the outside.
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: Not that we cared to show off, said they, But
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: somehow that seemed to be the best place to put it.
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: Mister Robin was very proud of his nest and of
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: his wife. He never went far away if he could
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: help it. Once she heard him tell mister Goldfinch that
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: missus Robin was very sweet about building where he chose,
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: and that even after he insisted on changing places from
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: the tree to the fence, she was perfectly good natured. Yes,
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: said Missus Robin to Missus Goldfinch, I was perfectly good natured.
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: Then she gave a happy, chirpy little laugh, and Missus
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: Goldfinch laughed too. They were perfectly contented birds, even if
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: they didn't wear the brightest breast feathers or insist on
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: having their own way, And Missus Robin had been married
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: before end of chapter two. Recording by Claire, Chapter three
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: of Among the Meadow People. This is the LibriVox recording.
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: by Claire Among the Meadow People by Clara Dillingham Pearson,
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: Chapter three, The selfish tent caterpillar. One could hardly call
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: the tent caterpillars meadow people, for they did not often
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: leave their trees to crawl upon the ground. Yet the
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: apple tree tent caterpillars would not allow anybody to call
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: them forest people. We live on apple and wild cherry trees,
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: they said, and you will almost always find us in
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: the orchards or on the roadside trees. There are forest
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: tent caterpillars, but please don't get us mixed with them.
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: We belong to another branch of the family, the apple
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: tree branch. A tree frog said that he remembered perfectly
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: well when the eggs were laid on the wild cherry
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: tree on the edge of the meadow. It was early
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: last summer, he said, And the moth who laid them
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: was a very agreeable reddish brown person, about as large
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: as a common yellow butterfly. I remember that she had
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: two light yellow lines on each fore wing. Another moth
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: came with her, but did not stay. He was smaller
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: than she and had the same markings. After he had gone,
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: she asked me if we were ever visited by the
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: yellow billed cuckoos. Why did she ask that to the
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: garter snake, don't you know? Exclaimed the tree frog, And
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: then he whispered something to the garter snake. The garter
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: snake wriggled with surprise and cried.
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: Really.
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: All through the fall and winter, the many many eggs
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: which a reddish brown moth had laid were kept snug
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: and warm on the twig where she had put them.
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: They were placed in rows around the twig, and then
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: well covered to hold them together and keep them warm.
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: The winter winds had blown the twig to and fro
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: the cold rain had frozen over them. The soft snowflakes
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: had drifted down from the clouds and covered them, only
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: to melt and trickle away again in shining drops. One morning,
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: the whole wild cherry tree was covered with beautiful, long,
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: glistening crystals of hoar frost. And still the ring of
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: eggs stayed in its place around the twig, and the
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: life in them slept until spring sunbeams should shine down
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: and quicken it. But when the spring sunbeams did come,
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: even before the leaf buds were opened, tiny larva or
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: caterpillar babies came crawling from a ring of eggs and
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: began feeding upon the buds. They took very, very small bites,
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: and that looked as though they were polite children. Still,
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: you know, their maruads were so small that they could
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: not take big ones. And it may not have been
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: politeness after all, which made them eat daintily. When all
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: the tent caterpillars were hatched, and they had eaten every
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: leaf bud near the egg ring. They began to crawl
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: down the tree toward the trunk. Once they stopped by
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: a good sized crutch and the branches. Let's build here,
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: said the leader. This place is all right. Then some
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: of the tent caterpillars said letts, and some of them
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: said don't. Let's one young fellow said, oh, come on,
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: there's a bigger crutch farther down. Of course he should
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: have said, I think you will like a larger crutch better,
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: but he was young. And you know, these larva had
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: no father or mother to help them speak in the
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: right way. They were orphans, and it is wonderful how
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: they ever learned to talk at all. After this, some
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: of the tent caterpillars went on to the larger crutch,
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: and some stayed behind. More went than stayed. And when
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: they saw this, those by the smaller crutch gave up
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: and joined their brothers and sisters, as they should have done.
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: It was right to do that which pleased most of them.
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: It took a great deal of work to make the tent.
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: All helped spinning hundreds and thousands of white silken threads,
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: laying them side by side, criss crossing them, fastening the
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: ends to branches and twigs, not forgetting to leave places
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: through which one could crawl in and out. They never
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: worked all day at this because unless they stopped to eat,
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: they would soon have been weak and unable to spin.
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: There were nearly always a few caterpillars in the tent,
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: but only in the early morning or late afternoon or
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: during the night were they all at home. The rest
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: of the time they were scattered around the tree feeding.
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: Of course, there were some cold days when they stayed
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: in when the weather was chilly, They moved slowly and
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: cared very little for food. There was one young tent
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: caterpillar who happened to be the first hatched, and who
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: seemed to think that because he was a minute older
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: than any of the other children, he had the right
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: to his own way. Sometimes he got it because the
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: others didn't want to have any trouble. Sometimes he didn't
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: get it, and then he was very sulky and disagreeable,
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: even refusing to answer when he was spoken to. One
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: cold day, when all the caterpillars stayed in the tent,
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: this oldest brother wanted the warmest place that in the
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: very middle. It should have belonged to the younger brothers
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: and sisters, for they were not so strong. But he
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: pushed and wriggled his hairy, black and brown and yellow
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: body into the very place he wanted, and then scolded
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: everybody around because he had to push to get there.
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: It happened, as it always does when a caterpillar begins
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: to say mean things, And he went on and till
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: he was saying some which were really untrue. Nobody answered back,
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: so he scolded and fussed and was exceedingly disagreeable. All
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: day long. He thought how wretched he was, and how
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: badly they treated him, and how he guessed they'd be
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: sorry enough if he went away. The next morning, he went.
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: As long as the warm sunshine lasted, he did very well.
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: When it began to grow cool, his brothers and sisters
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: crawled past them on their way to the tent. Come on,
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: they cried, it's time to go home. Ah ah, said
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: the eldest brother, and that meant no, I'm not going.
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: Why not, they asked, Oh, because, said he. When the
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: rest were all together in the tent, they talked about him.
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: Do you suppose he's angry? Said one What should he
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: be angry about? Said another. I just believe he is,
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: said a third. Did you notice the way his hairs bristled?
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: Don't you think we ought to go to get him,
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: asked two or three of the youngest caterpillars. No, said
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: the older ones. We haven't done anything. Let him get
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: over it. So the oldest brother, who had thought that
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: every other caterpillar in the tent would crawl right out
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: and beg and coax him to come back, waited and
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: waited and waited, but nobody came. The tent was there
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: and the door was open. All he had to do
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: was to crawl in and be at home. He waited
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: so long that at last he had to leave the
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: tree and spin his cocoon, without ever having gone back
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: to his brothers and sisters in the tent. He spun
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: his cocoon and mixed the silk with a yellowish white powder.
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: Then he lay down in it to sleep twenty one
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: days and grow his wings. The last thought he had
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: before going to sleep was an unhappy and selfish one.
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: Probably he awakened an unhappy and selfish moth. His brothers
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: and sisters were sad whenever they thought of him. But
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: they said, what could we do? It wasn't for him
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: to have the best of everything, and we never answered
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: when he said mean things. He might have come back
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: at any time and we would have been kind to him.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: And they were right, what could they have done? It
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: was very sad. But when a caterpillar is so selfish
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: and sulky that he cannot live happily with other people,
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: it is much better that he should live quite alone.
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: In the chapter three recording by Claire Chapter four of
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: Among the Meadow People. This is a LibriVox recording or
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: Claire Among the Meadow People by Clara Dillingham Pearson, Chapter four,
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: The lazy Snail. In the lower part of the meadow,
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: where the grass grew tall and tender, there lived a
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: fine and sturdy young snail. That is to say, a
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: fine looking snail. Shell was a beautiful, soft gray, and
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: its curves were regular and perfect. His body was soft
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: and moist, and just what a snail's body should be.
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: Of course, when it came to traveling, he could not
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: go fast, for none of his family are rapid travelers. Still,
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: if he had been plucky and patient, he might have
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: seen much of the meadow and perhaps some of the
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: world outside. His friends and neighbors often told him that
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: he ought to start out on a little journey to
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: see the sights, but he would always answer, oh, it
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: is too hard work. There was nobody who liked stories
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: of meadow life better than this same snail, and he
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: would often stop some friendly cricket or snake to ask
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: for the news. After they had told him, they would say,
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: why don't you ever get out to see these things
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: for yourself? And he would give a little sigh and answer,
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: it is too far to go, But you needn't go
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: the whole distance in one day. His visitor would say,
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: only a little at a time, yes, and then I
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: would have to keep starting on again every little while.
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: The snail would reply, what of that, said the visitor,
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: You would have plenty of resting spells when you could
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: lie in the shade of a tall weed and enjoy yourself. Well,
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: what is the use The snail would say, I can't
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: enjoy resting if I know I've got to go to
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: work again, And he would sigh once more so. There
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: he lived, eating and sleeping and wishing he could see
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: the world and meet the people in the upper part
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: of the meadow, but just so lazy that he wouldn't
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: start out to find them. He never thought that the
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: butterflies and beetles might not like it to have him
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: keep calling to them and making them tell him the news.
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: Oh no, Indeed, if he wanted them to do anything
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: for him, he asked them quickly enough, and they, being happy,
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: good natured people, would always do as he asked them to.
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: There came a day, though, when he asked too much.
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: The grasshoppers had been telling him about some very delicious
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: new plants that grew a little distance away, and the
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: snail wanted some very badly. Can't you bring me some?
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: He said, There are so many of you, and you
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: have such good, strong legs. I should think you might
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: each bring me a small piece in your marriage, and
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: then I should have a fine dinner of it. The
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: grasshoppers didn't say anything then, but when they were so
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: far away that he could not hear them, they said
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: to each other, if the snail wants the food so much,
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: he might better go for it. We have other things
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: to do and they hopped off on their own business.
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: The snail sat there and wondered and wondered that they
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: did not come. He kept thinking how he would like
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: some of the new food for dinner, but there it
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: ended he didn't want it enough to get it for himself.
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: The grasshoppers told all their friends about the snail's request,
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: and everybody thought, such a lazy, good for nothing fellow
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: deserves to be left quite alone. So it happened that
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: for a very long time nobody went near the snail.
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: The weather grew hotter and hotter. The clouds which blew
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: across the sky kept their rain until they were well
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: past the meadow. And so it happened that the river
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: grew shallower and shallower, and the sunshine dried the tiny
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: pools and rivulets that kept the lower meadow damp. The
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: grass began to turn brown and dry, and all in
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: all it was trying weather for snails. One day a
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: butterfly called some of her friends together and told them
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: that she had seen the snail lying in his old place,
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: looking thin and hungry. The grass is all dried around him,
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: she said, I believe he is starving and too lazy
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: to go nearer the river, where there is still good
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: food for him. They all talked it over together, and
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: some of them said it was of no use to
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: help a snail who was too lazy to do anything
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: for himself. Others said, well, he is too weak to
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: help himself now at all events, and we might help
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: him this once. And that is exactly what they did.
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: The butterflies and the mosquitoes flew ahead to find the
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: best place to put the snail, and all the grass
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: uppers and beetles and other strong crawling creatures took turns
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: and rolling the snail down toward the river, they left
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: him where the green things were fresh and tender, and
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: he grew strong and plump once more. It is even
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: said that he was not so lazy afterward, but one
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: cannot tell whether to believe it or not, for everybody
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: knows that when people let themselves grow up lazy as
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: he did, it is almost impossible for them to get
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: over it when they want to. One thing is sure,
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: the meadow people who helped them were happier and better
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: for doing a kind thing, no matter what became of
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: the snail. End of chapter four recording by Claire. Chapter
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: five of among the Meadow People. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: by Claire Among the Meadow People by Clara Dillingham Pearson,
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: Chapter five, The ant that wore wings. In one of
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: the ant hills in the highest part of the meadow,
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: were a lot of young ants talking together, I said one,
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: AM going to be a soldier and drive away anybody
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: who comes to make us trouble. I try biting hard
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: things every day to make my jawel strong so that
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: I can guard the home better, ay, said another and
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: smaller aunt. Want to be a worker. I want to
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: help build and repair the home. I want to get
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: the food for the family, and feed the ant babies
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: and clean them off when they crawl out of their
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: old coats. If I can do those things well, I
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: shall be the happiest, busiest aunt in the meadow. We
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: don't want to live that kind of life, said a
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: couple of larger ants with wings. We don't mean to
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: stay around the ant hill all the time and work.
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: We want to use our wings, and then you may
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: be very sure that you won't see us round home
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: any more, the little workers spoke up. Home is a
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: pleasant place. You may be very glad to come back
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: to it some day. But the ants with the wings
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: turned their backs and wouldn't listen to another word. A
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: few days after this there were exciting times in the
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: ant hill. All the winged ants said good bye to
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: the soldiers and workers and flew off through the air.
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: Flew so far that the little ones at home could
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: no longer see them. All day long they were gone.
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: But the next morning, when the little worker whom we
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: heard talking went out to get breakfast, she found the
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: poor winged ants lying on the ground near their home.
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: Some of them were dead, and the rest were looking
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: for food. The worker ant ran up to the one
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: who had said she didn't want to stay around home
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: and asked her to come back to the ant hill. No,
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: I thank you, she answered, I have had my breakfast
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: now and am going to fly off again. She raised
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: her wings to go, but after she had given one flutter,
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: they dropped off and she could never fly again. The
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: worker hurried back to the ant hill to call some
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: of her sister workers and some of the soldiers, and
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: they took the ant who had lost her wings, and
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: carried her to another part of the meadow. There they
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: went to work to build a new home and make
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: her the queen. First they looked for a good, sandy
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: place on which the sun would shine all day. Then
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: the worker ants began to dig in the ground and
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: bring out tiny round pieces of earth in their mouths.
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: The soldiers helped them, and before night they had a
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: cozy little home in the earth, with several rooms and
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: some food already stored. They took their queen in and
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: brought her food to eat, and waited on her, and
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: she was happy and contented. By and by the ant
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: eggs began to hatch, and the workers had all they
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: could do to take care of their queen and her
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: little ant babies, and the soldier ants had to help.
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: The ant babies were little worms or grubs when they
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: first came out of the eggs. After a while they
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: curled up in tiny tiny cases called pupa cases. And
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: after another while they came out of these, and then
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: they looked like the older ants, with their six legs
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: and their slender little waists. But whatever they were, whether
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: eggs or grubs or curled up in the pupa cases
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: were lively little ants. The workers fed and took care
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: of them, and the soldiers fought for them, and the
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: Queen mother loved them, and they all lived happily together
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: until the young aunts were ready to go out into
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: the great world and learn the lessons of life with themselves.
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: End of chapter five. Recording by Claire. Chapter six of
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: Among the Meadow People. This is a LibriVox recording. All
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Claire.
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: Among the Meadow People by Clara Dillingham Pearson, Chapter six,
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: The cheerful Harvestmen. Some of the meadow people are gay
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: and careless, and some are always worrying. Some work hard
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: every day, and some are exceedingly lazy. There, as everywhere else,
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: each has his own way of thinking about things. It
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: is too bad that they cannot all learn to think
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: brave and cheerful thought, for these make life happy. One
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: may have a comfortable home, kind neighbors, and plenty to eat.
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: Yet if he is in the habit of thinking disagreeable thoughts,
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: not even all these good things can make him happy.
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: There was the young frog who thought herself sick, but
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: that is another story. Perhaps the harvestmen were the most
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: cheerful of all the meadow people. The old tree frog
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: used to say that it made him feel better just
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: to see their knees coming toward him. Of course, when
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: he saw their knees, he knew that the whole insect
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: was also coming. He spoke in that way because the
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: harvestmen always walked or ran with their knees so much
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: above the rest of their bodies that one could see
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: those first. The harvestmen were not particularly fine looking, nor
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: nearly so handsome as some of their spider cousins. One
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: never thought of that, however, They had such an easy
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: way of moving around on their eight legs, each of
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: which had a great many joints. It is the joints,
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: or bending places, you know, which make legs useful. Besides
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: me graceful, they had very pleasant manners. When a harvestman
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: said good morning to you on a rainy day, you
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: always had a feeling that the sun was shining. It
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: might be that the drops were even then falling into
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: your face, but for a moment you were sure to
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: feel that everything was bright and warm and comfortable. Sometimes
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: the careless young grasshoppers and crickets called the harvestmen by
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: their nicknames Daddy long legs or grandfather Graybeard. Even then,
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: the harvestmen were good natured and only said with a
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: smile that the young people had not yet learned the
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: names of their neighbors. The grasshoppers never seemed to think
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: how queer it was to call a young harvestman daughter
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: grandfather graybeard. When they saw how good natured they were,
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: the grasshoppers soon stopped trying to tease the harvestmen. People
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: who are really good natured are never teased very long,
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: you know. The walking sticks were exceedingly polite to the harvestmen.
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: They thought them very slender and genteell looking. Once, the
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: five legged walking sticks said to the large harvestmen, why
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: do you talk so much with the common people in
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: the meadow. The harvestman knew exactly what the walking stick meant,
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: but he was not going to let anybody make fun
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: of his kind and friendly neighbors, So he said, I
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: think we harvestmen are rather common ourselves. There are a
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: great great many of us here. It must be very
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: lonely to be uncommon. After that, the walking stick had
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: nothing more to say. He never felt quite sure whether
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: the harvestman was too stupid to understand or too wise
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: to gossip. Once he thought he saw the harvestman's eyes twinkle.
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: The harvestman didn't care if people thought him stupid. He
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: knew that he was not stupid, and he would rather
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: seem dull than to listen while unkind things were said
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: about his neighbors. Some people would have thought it very
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: hard luck to be a harvestman. The garter snake said
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: that if he were one, he should be worried all
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: the time about his legs. I'm thankful I haven't any,
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: he said, for if I had, I should be forever
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: thinking I should lose some of them. A harvestman without
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: legs would be badly off. He could never in the
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: world crawl around on his belly as I do now.
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: The harvestman did laugh when they heard this. The biggest
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: one said, well, if that isn't just like some people
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: never want to have anything for fear they'll lose it.
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: I wonder if he worries about his head, he might
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: lose that, you know, and then what would he do?
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: Twas only the next day that the largest harvestman came
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: home on seven legs. His friends all cried out, Oh,
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: how did it ever happen? Cows, said he did? They
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: step on you, asked the five legged walking stick. He
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: had not lived long enough in the meadow to understand
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: all that the harvestman meant. He was sorry for him, though,
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: for he knew what it was to lose a leg. Huh,
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: said of grass upper, interrupting in a very rude way.
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: Aren't any cows in this meadow? Now?
• 34:49
  Speaker 4: Then?
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: The other harvestman told the walking stick all about it.
• 34:52
  Speaker 3: How sometimes a boy would come to the meadow, catch
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: a harvestman, hold him up by one leg, and say
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: to him, grandfather Graybeard, tell me where the cows are,
• 35:01
  Speaker 3: or I'll kill you. Then the only thing a harvestman
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: could do was to struggle and wriggle himself free, and
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: he often broke off a leg in doing so. How terrible,
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: said the three walking sticks all together. But why don't
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: you tell them we do, answered the harvestman. We point
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: with our seven other legs, and we point every way
• 35:20
  Speaker 3: there is. Sometimes we don't know where they are, so
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: we point everywhere to be sure. But it doesn't make
• 35:25
  Speaker 3: any difference. Our legs drop off just the same. Isn't
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: the boy clever enough to find cows alone? Asked the
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: walking sticks. Oh it isn't that, cried all the meadow
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: people together, even after you tell. And sometimes when the
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: cows are right there, they walk off home without them.
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: I'd sting them, said a wasp, waving his feelers fiercely
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: and raising and lowering his wings. I'd sting them as
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: hard as I could. You wouldn't if you had no sting,
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: said the tree frog. N No, stammered the wasp. I
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: suppose I wouldn't, you, poor creature, said the biggest katy
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: did to the biggest harvestman.
• 36:00
  Speaker 4: What will you do?
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: Only seven legs do? Answered the biggest harvestman. And it
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: was then one could see how truly brave and cheerful
• 36:08
  Speaker 3: he was. Do I'll walk on those seven. If I
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: lose one of them, I'll walk on six. And if
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: I lose one of them, I'll walk on five. Haven't
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: I my mouth and my stomach, and my eyes, and
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: my two feelers and my two food pincers. I may
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: not be so good looking, but I am a harvestman,
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: and I shall enjoy the grass and the sunshine, and
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: my kind neighbors. As long as I live, I must
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: leave you now good day. He walked off rather awkwardly,
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: for he had not yet learned to manage himself since
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: his accident. The meadow people looked after him very thoughtfully.
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: They were not noticing his awkwardness, or thinking of his
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: high knees or of his little low body. Perhaps they
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: thought what the cicada said, Ah, that is the way
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: to live. End of chapter six. Recording by Claire. Chapter
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: seven of Among the Meadow People. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: by Claire. Among the Meadow People by Clara Dillingham Pearson,
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: Chapter seven, The little Spider's first web. The first thing
• 37:24
  Speaker 3: our little spider remembered was being crowded with a lot
• 37:26
  Speaker 3: of other little spiders in a tiny brown house. This
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: tiny house had no windows, was very warm and dark
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: and stuffy. When the wind blew, the little spiders would
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: hear it rushing through the forest near by, and would
• 37:39
  Speaker 3: feel their round brown house swinging like a cradle. It
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: was fastened to a bush by the edge of the forest.
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: But they could not know that, so they just wiggled
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: and pushed and ate the food that they found in
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: the house and wondered what it all meant. They didn't
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: even guess that a mother spider had made the brown
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: house and put the food in it for her spider
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: bab to eat when they came out of their eggs.
• 38:03
  Speaker 3: She had put the eggs in two. But the little
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: spiders didn't remember the time. When they lay curled up
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: in the eggs, they didn't know what had been, nor
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: what was to be. They thought that to eat and
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: wiggle and sleep was all of life. You see, they
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: had much to learn. One morning, the little spiders found
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: that the food was all gone, and they pushed and
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: scrambled harder than ever because they were hungry and wanted more.
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: Exactly what happened nobody knew. But suddenly it grew light,
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: and some of them fell out of the house. All
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: the rest scrambled after. And there they stood, winking and
• 38:37
  Speaker 3: blinking in the bright sunshine, and feeling a little bit
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: dizzy because they were on a shaky web made of
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: silvery ropes. Just then the web began to shake, even more,
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: and a beautiful, great mother spider ran out on it.
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: She was dressed in black and yellow velvet, and her
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: eight eyes glistened and gleamed in the sunlight. They had
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: never dreamed of such a wonderful creature. Well, my children,
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: she exclaimed, I know you must be hungry, and I
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: have breakfast all ready for you. So they began eating
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: at once, and the mother spider told them many things
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: about the meadow and the forest, and said they must
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: amuse themselves while she worked to get food for them.
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: There was no father spider to help her, and as
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: she said, growing children must have plenty of good, plain food.
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: You can just fancy what a good time the baby
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: spiders had. There were a hundred and seventy of them,
• 39:29
  Speaker 3: so they had no chance to grow lonely, even when
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: their mother was away. They lived in this way for
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: quite a while and grew bigger and stronger every day.
• 39:38
  Speaker 3: One morning, the mother spider said to her biggest daughter,
• 39:42
  Speaker 3: you are quite old enough to work now, and I
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: will teach you to spin your web. The little spider
• 39:48
  Speaker 3: soon learned to draw out the silvery rope from the
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: pocket in her body where they were made and kept,
• 39:53
  Speaker 3: and very soon she had one fastened at both ends
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: to branches of the bush. Then her mother made her
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: walk out to the middle of her rope bridge and
• 40:02
  Speaker 3: spin and fasten two more, so that it looked like
• 40:05
  Speaker 3: a shining cross. After that was done, the mother showed
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: her something like a comb, which is part of a
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: spider's foot, and taught her how to measure and put
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: more ropes out from the middle of the cross, until
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: it looked like the spokes of a wheel. The little
• 40:20
  Speaker 3: spider got much discouraged and said, let me finish it
• 40:24
  Speaker 3: some other time. I am tired of working now. The
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: mother spider answered, no, I cannot have a lazy child.
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: The little one said, I can't ever do it. I
• 40:34
  Speaker 3: know I can't. Now, said the mother, I shall have
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: to give you a spider's scolding. You have acted as
• 40:41
  Speaker 3: lazy as the tree frog, says boys and girls sometimes do.
• 40:44
  Speaker 3: He has been up near the farmhouse and says that
• 40:46
  Speaker 3: he has seen there children who do not like to
• 40:49
  Speaker 3: work the meadow. People could hardly believe such a thing.
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: At first, he says, they were cross and unhappy children,
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: and no wonder, lazy people are never happy. You try
• 41:00
  Speaker 3: to finish the web and see if I am not right,
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: you are not a baby now, and you must work
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: and get your own food. So the little spiders spun
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: the circles of rope in the web and made these
• 41:12
  Speaker 3: ropes sticky, as all careful spiders do. She ate the
• 41:16
  Speaker 3: loose ends and pieces that were left over to save
• 41:19
  Speaker 3: them for another time. And when it was done, it
• 41:22
  Speaker 3: was so fine and perfect that her brothers and sisters
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: crowded around, saying, oh, oh, oh, how beautiful, and asked
• 41:29
  Speaker 3: the mother to teach them. The little web spinner was
• 41:33
  Speaker 3: happier than she had ever been before, and the mother
• 41:36
  Speaker 3: began to teach her other children. But it takes a
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: long time to teach a hundred and seventy children. End
• 41:43
  Speaker 3: of chapter seven. Recording by Claire. Chapter eight of Among
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: the Meadow People.
• 41:54
  Speaker 5: This is a.
• 41:54
  Speaker 3: Libovox recording or libovox recordings are in the public domain.
• 41:59
  Speaker 3: For more infant or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 42:03
  Speaker 3: Recording by Claire, Among the Meadow People by Clara Dillingham Pearson,
• 42:09
  Speaker 3: Chapter eight. The beetle who did not like caterpillars. One
• 42:14
  Speaker 3: morning early in June, a fat and shining may beetle
• 42:17
  Speaker 3: lay on his back among the grasses, kicking his six
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: legs in the air and wriggling around while he tried
• 42:23
  Speaker 3: to catch hold of a grass blade by which to
• 42:25
  Speaker 3: pull himself up. Now, beetles do not like to lie
• 42:29
  Speaker 3: on their backs in the sunshine, and this one was
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: hot and tired from his long struggle. Beside that was
• 42:35
  Speaker 3: very cross because he was late in getting his breakfast.
• 42:38
  Speaker 3: So when he did at last get right side up
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: and saw a brown and black caterpillar watching him, he
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: grew very ill mannered and said some things of which
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: he should have been ashamed. Oh yes, he said, you
• 42:51
  Speaker 3: are quick enough to laugh when you think somebody else
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: is in a fix. I often lie on my back
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: and kick just for fun, which was not true. But
• 42:59
  Speaker 3: when beetle across they are not always truthful. Excuse me,
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: said the caterpillar. I did not mean to hurt your feelings.
• 43:07
  Speaker 3: If I smiled, it was because I remembered being in
• 43:09
  Speaker 3: the same plight myself yesterday, and what a time I
• 43:12
  Speaker 3: had smoothing my fur afterwards. Now you won't have to
• 43:16
  Speaker 3: smooth your fur, will you, she asked pleasantly. No, I'm
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: thankful to say I haven't any fur to smooth, snapped
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: the beetle. I'm not one of the crawling fairy kind.
• 43:27
  Speaker 3: My family wear dark brown, glossy coats, and we always
• 43:31
  Speaker 3: looked trim and clean. When we want to hurry, we fly,
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: and when tired of flying, we walk or run. We
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: have two kinds of wings. We have a pair of dainty,
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: soft ones that carry us through the air, and then
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: we have a pair of stiff ones to cover over
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: the small wings when we come down to the earth again.
• 43:49
  Speaker 3: We are the finest family in the meadow. I've often
• 43:52
  Speaker 3: heard of you, said the caterpillar, and I am very
• 43:54
  Speaker 3: glad to become acquainted. Well, answered the beetle. I'm willing
• 43:59
  Speaker 3: to speak to you, of course, but we can never
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: be at all friendly and may beetle indeed, in company
• 44:05
  Speaker 3: with a caterpillar, I choose my friends among the moths,
• 44:08
  Speaker 3: butterflies and dragonflies. In fact, I move in the upper circles.
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: Upper circles, indeed, said a croaking voice beside him, which
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: made the beetle jump. I've hopped over your head for
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: two or three years when you were nothing but a
• 44:22
  Speaker 3: fat white worm. You'd better not put on airs. The
• 44:26
  Speaker 3: fine family of may beetles were all worms once, and
• 44:29
  Speaker 3: they had to live in the earth and eat roots.
• 44:31
  Speaker 3: While the caterpillars were in the sunshine over their heads,
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: dining on tender green leaves and flower buds. The may
• 44:38
  Speaker 3: beetle began to look very uncomfortable and squirmed as though
• 44:41
  Speaker 3: he wanted to get away, but the tree frog, for
• 44:44
  Speaker 3: it was. The tree frog went on, as for your
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: not liking caterpillars, they don't stay caterpillars. Your new acquaintance
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: up there will come out with wings one of these days,
• 44:55
  Speaker 3: and you will be glad enough to know him. And
• 44:58
  Speaker 3: the tree frog hopped away. The may beetle scraped his
• 45:02
  Speaker 3: head with its right front leg, and then said to
• 45:04
  Speaker 3: the caterpillar, who was nibbling away at the milkweed, you
• 45:07
  Speaker 3: know I wasn't really in earnest about our not being friends.
• 45:11
  Speaker 3: I shall be very glad to know you and all
• 45:13
  Speaker 3: your family. Thank you, answered the caterpillar, thank you very much.
• 45:17
  Speaker 3: But I have been thinking it over myself, and I
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: feel that I really could not be friendly with a
• 45:22
  Speaker 3: may beetle. Of course, I don't mind speaking to you
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: once in a while when I am eating and getting
• 45:27
  Speaker 3: ready to spend my cocoon. After that it will be different.
• 45:31
  Speaker 3: You see, then I shall belong to one of the
• 45:33
  Speaker 3: finest families in the meadow, the milkweed butterflies. We shall
• 45:37
  Speaker 3: eat nothing but honey, and dress in the soft orange
• 45:40
  Speaker 3: and black velvet. We shall not blunder and bump around
• 45:43
  Speaker 3: when we fly. We shall enjoy visiting with the dragon
• 45:47
  Speaker 3: flies and moths. I shall not forget you altogether, I
• 45:50
  Speaker 3: dare say, but I shall feel it in my duty
• 45:53
  Speaker 3: to move in the upper circles where I belong. Good morning,
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: end of chapter eight. Recording by Claire. Chapter nine of
• 46:06
  Speaker 3: Among the Meadow People. This is a LibriVox recording or
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
• 46:14
  Speaker 3: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Claire.
• 46:19
  Speaker 3: Among the Meadow People by Clara Dillingham Pearson, Chapter nine.
• 46:24
  Speaker 3: The young Robin who was afraid to fly. During the
• 46:28
  Speaker 3: days when the four beautiful green blue eggs lay in
• 46:31
  Speaker 3: the nest, Missus Robin stayed quite closely at home. She
• 46:35
  Speaker 3: said it was a very good place, for she could
• 46:37
  Speaker 3: keep her eggs warm and still see all that was happening.
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: The rail end on which they had built was on
• 46:43
  Speaker 3: the meadow side of the fence, over the tallest grasses
• 46:46
  Speaker 3: and the graceful stalks of golden rod. Here the garter
• 46:50
  Speaker 3: snake drew his shining body through the tangled green, and
• 46:54
  Speaker 3: here the tree frog often came for a quiet nap.
• 46:58
  Speaker 3: Just outside the fence, the milkweed grew, with every broad,
• 47:01
  Speaker 3: pale green leaf slanting upward in their spring style. Here
• 47:06
  Speaker 3: the milkweed caterpillars fed, and here too, when the great
• 47:10
  Speaker 3: balls of tiny, dull pink blossoms dangled from the stalks,
• 47:14
  Speaker 3: the milkweed butterflies hung all day long. All the teams
• 47:18
  Speaker 3: from the farm house passed along the quiet, grass grown road,
• 47:21
  Speaker 3: and those which were going to the farm as well.
• 47:24
  Speaker 3: When missus Robins saw a team coming, she always settled
• 47:28
  Speaker 3: herself more deeply into her nest so that not one
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: of her brick red breast feathers showed. Then she sat
• 47:35
  Speaker 3: very still, only turning her head enough to watch the
• 47:38
  Speaker 3: team as it came near, passed, and went out of
• 47:41
  Speaker 3: sight down the road. Sometimes she did not even have
• 47:44
  Speaker 3: to turn her head, for if she happened to be
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: facing the road, she could with one eye watch the
• 47:49
  Speaker 3: team come near, and with the other watch it go away.
• 47:53
  Speaker 3: No bird, you know, ever has to look at anything
• 47:56
  Speaker 3: with both eyes at once. After the young robins had
• 48:00
  Speaker 3: outgrown their shells and broken and thrown them off, they
• 48:03
  Speaker 3: were naked and red and blind. They lay in a
• 48:06
  Speaker 3: heap in the bottom of the nest and became so
• 48:08
  Speaker 3: tangled that nobody but a bird could tell which was which.
• 48:12
  Speaker 3: If they heard their father or their mother flying toward them,
• 48:15
  Speaker 3: they would stretch up their necks and open their mouths.
• 48:18
  Speaker 3: Then each would have some food poked down his throat,
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: and would lie still until another mouthful was brought to him.
• 48:26
  Speaker 3: When they got their eyes open and began to grow
• 48:28
  Speaker 3: more down, they were good little robins and did exactly
• 48:31
  Speaker 3: what they were told. It was easy to be good then,
• 48:34
  Speaker 3: for they were not strong enough to want to go elsewhere,
• 48:37
  Speaker 3: and they had all they wanted to eat. At night,
• 48:40
  Speaker 3: their mother sat in a nest and covered them with
• 48:42
  Speaker 3: her soft feathers. When it rained, she also did this.
• 48:46
  Speaker 3: She was a kind and very hard working mother. Mister
• 48:50
  Speaker 3: Robin worked quite as hard as she, and was exceedingly
• 48:53
  Speaker 3: proud of his family. But when their feathers began to grow,
• 48:57
  Speaker 3: and each young robin's sharp quills pricked his brothers and sisters.
• 49:00
  Speaker 3: If they pushed against him, then it was not so
• 49:03
  Speaker 3: easy to be good. Four growing children in one little
• 49:06
  Speaker 3: round bed sometimes found themselves rather crowded. One night, missus
• 49:11
  Speaker 3: Robin said to her husband, I'm all tired out. I
• 49:14
  Speaker 3: work as long as daylight last getting food for those children,
• 49:18
  Speaker 3: and I cannot be here enough to teach them anything.
• 49:21
  Speaker 3: Then they must learn to work for themselves, said mister Robin, decidedly.
• 49:25
  Speaker 3: They are surely old enough. Why they are just babies,
• 49:29
  Speaker 3: exclaimed his wife. They have hardly any tails, yet they
• 49:33
  Speaker 3: don't need tails to eat with, said he, and they
• 49:35
  Speaker 3: may as well begin now. I will not have you
• 49:38
  Speaker 3: get so tired for this one brood. Missus Robin said
• 49:42
  Speaker 3: nothing more. Indeed, there was nothing more to be said,
• 49:45
  Speaker 3: for she knew perfectly well that her children would not
• 49:47
  Speaker 3: eat with their tails if they had them. She loved
• 49:50
  Speaker 3: her babies so that she almost disliked to see them
• 49:53
  Speaker 3: grow up. Yet she knew it was right for them
• 49:55
  Speaker 3: to leave the nest. They were so large that they
• 49:58
  Speaker 3: spread out over the edges of it ready, and they
• 50:01
  Speaker 3: must be taught to take care of themselves. Before it
• 50:03
  Speaker 3: was time for her to rear her second brood. The
• 50:06
  Speaker 3: next morning, all four children were made to hop out
• 50:09
  Speaker 3: on to the rail. Their legs were not very strong,
• 50:12
  Speaker 3: and their toes sprawled weakly around. Sometimes they lurched and
• 50:16
  Speaker 3: almost fell. Before leaving the nest, they had felt big
• 50:20
  Speaker 3: and very important. Now they suddenly felt small and young
• 50:24
  Speaker 3: and helpless. Once in a while one of them would
• 50:27
  Speaker 3: hop feebly along the rail for a few steps. Then
• 50:30
  Speaker 3: he would chirp in a frightened way, let his head
• 50:32
  Speaker 3: settle down over his speckled breast, slide his eyelids over
• 50:36
  Speaker 3: his eyes, and wait for more food to be brought
• 50:39
  Speaker 3: to him. Whenever a team went by, the oldest child
• 50:42
  Speaker 3: shut his eyes. He thought they couldn't see him if
• 50:45
  Speaker 3: he did that. The other children kept theirs open and
• 50:48
  Speaker 3: watched to see what happened. Their father and mother had
• 50:51
  Speaker 3: told them to watch, But the timid young Robin always
• 50:54
  Speaker 3: shut his eyes in spite of that. We shall have
• 50:57
  Speaker 3: trouble with him, said missus Robin. But he he must
• 51:00
  Speaker 3: be made to do as he is told, even if
• 51:02
  Speaker 3: he is afraid. She shut her bill very tightly as
• 51:05
  Speaker 3: she spoke, and mister Robin knew that he could safely
• 51:08
  Speaker 3: trust to bringing up of his timid son to her.
• 51:11
  Speaker 3: Missus Robin talked and talked to him, and still he
• 51:14
  Speaker 3: shut his eyes every time that he was frightened. I
• 51:17
  Speaker 3: can't keep them open, he would say, because when I
• 51:20
  Speaker 3: am frightened, I am always afraid, and I can't be
• 51:23
  Speaker 3: brave when I am afraid. That is just when you
• 51:26
  Speaker 3: must be brave, said his mother. There is no use
• 51:29
  Speaker 3: in being brave when there is nothing to fear. And
• 51:31
  Speaker 3: it is a great deal braver to be brave when
• 51:33
  Speaker 3: you are frightened than to be brave when you are not.
• 51:36
  Speaker 3: You can see that she was a very wise Robin
• 51:38
  Speaker 3: and a good mother. It would have been dreadful for
• 51:41
  Speaker 3: her to let him grow up a coward. At last,
• 51:44
  Speaker 3: the time came when the young birds were to fly
• 51:47
  Speaker 3: to the ground and hop across the road. Both their
• 51:49
  Speaker 3: father and their mother were there to show them how
• 51:52
  Speaker 3: you must let go of the rail. They said, you
• 51:55
  Speaker 3: will never fly in the world unless you let go
• 51:57
  Speaker 3: of the rail. Three of the children and fluttered and
• 52:00
  Speaker 3: lurched and flew down. The timid young Robin would not
• 52:04
  Speaker 3: try it, his father ordered, and his mother coaxed. Yet
• 52:07
  Speaker 3: he only clung more closely to the rail and said,
• 52:10
  Speaker 3: I can't, I'm afraid. At last, his mother said very well,
• 52:15
  Speaker 3: you can stay there as long as you wish, but
• 52:17
  Speaker 3: we cannot stay with you. Then she chirped to her husband,
• 52:21
  Speaker 3: and they and the three brave children went across the road,
• 52:24
  Speaker 3: talking as they went.
• 52:25
  Speaker 4: Careful.
• 52:26
  Speaker 3: She would say, now another hop that was fine, Now another,
• 52:30
  Speaker 3: And the father fluttered around and said, good good, you'll
• 52:34
  Speaker 3: be grown up before you know it. Then they were across.
• 52:37
  Speaker 3: The parents hunted food and fed their three brave children,
• 52:41
  Speaker 3: tucking the mouthfuls far into their wide open bills. The
• 52:45
  Speaker 3: timid little robin on the fence felt very, very lonely.
• 52:48
  Speaker 3: He was hungry too. Whenever he saw his mother pick
• 52:51
  Speaker 3: up a mouthful of food, he chirped loudly, me, me, me,
• 52:55
  Speaker 3: for he wanted her to bring it to him. She
• 52:57
  Speaker 3: paid no attention to him for a long time. Then
• 53:00
  Speaker 3: she called, do you think you can fly? Do you
• 53:03
  Speaker 3: think you can fly? Do you think? The timid little
• 53:07
  Speaker 3: robin hopped a few steps and chirped, but never lifted
• 53:10
  Speaker 3: a wing. Then his mother gave each of the other
• 53:13
  Speaker 3: children a big mouthful. The robin on the fence huddled
• 53:17
  Speaker 3: down into a miserable little bunch and thought, they don't
• 53:20
  Speaker 3: care whether I have anything to eat.
• 53:22
  Speaker 4: No, they don't.
• 53:23
  Speaker 3: Then he heard a rush of wings, and his mother
• 53:25
  Speaker 3: stood before him with a bunch in her bill for him.
• 53:29
  Speaker 3: He hopped forward toward her, and she ran away. Then
• 53:32
  Speaker 3: he sat down and cried. She hopped back and looked
• 53:35
  Speaker 3: lovingly at him, but couldn't speak because her bill was
• 53:38
  Speaker 3: so full. Across the road, the robin father stayed with
• 53:41
  Speaker 3: his brave children and called out, earn it, my son,
• 53:44
  Speaker 3: earn it. The young Robin stretched out his neck and
• 53:48
  Speaker 3: opened his bill, but his mother flew to the ground.
• 53:51
  Speaker 3: He was so hungry, so very very hungry, that for
• 53:55
  Speaker 3: a minute he quite forgot to be afraid, and he
• 53:58
  Speaker 3: leaned toward her and topple over. He fluttered his wings
• 54:02
  Speaker 3: without thinking, and the first he knew he had flown
• 54:04
  Speaker 3: to the ground. He was hardly there before his mother
• 54:07
  Speaker 3: was feeding him, and his father was singing, do you
• 54:10
  Speaker 3: know what you did?
• 54:11
  Speaker 4: Do you know what you did? Do you know?
• 54:14
  Speaker 3: Before his tail was grown, the timid Robin had become
• 54:17
  Speaker 3: as brave as any of the children. For you know,
• 54:20
  Speaker 3: after you begin to be brave, you always want to
• 54:23
  Speaker 3: go on. But the garter snake says that missus Robin
• 54:26
  Speaker 3: is the bravest of the family. End of chapter nine.
• 54:31
  Speaker 3: Recording by Claire. Chapter ten of Among the Meadow People.
• 54:41
  Speaker 3: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 54:45
  Speaker 3: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 54:49
  Speaker 3: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Claire. Among the Meadow
• 54:54
  Speaker 3: People by Clara Dillingham Pearson, Chapter ten The Cricket School.
• 55:00
  Speaker 3: In one corner of the meadow lived a fat old
• 55:03
  Speaker 3: cricket who thought a great deal of himself. He had
• 55:06
  Speaker 3: such a big, shining body and a way of chirping
• 55:08
  Speaker 3: so very loudly that nobody could ever forget where he lived.
• 55:12
  Speaker 3: He was a very good sort of cricket, too ready
• 55:15
  Speaker 3: to say the most pleasant things to everybody, yet sad
• 55:19
  Speaker 3: to relate. He had a dreadful habit of boasting. He
• 55:22
  Speaker 3: had not always lived in the meadow, and he liked
• 55:25
  Speaker 3: to tell of the wonderful things he had seen and
• 55:27
  Speaker 3: done when he was younger and lived up near the
• 55:29
  Speaker 3: White farm house. When he told these stories of what
• 55:32
  Speaker 3: he had done, the big crickets around him would not
• 55:35
  Speaker 3: say much, but just sit and look at each other.
• 55:38
  Speaker 3: The little crickets however, loved to hear him talk, and
• 55:41
  Speaker 3: would often come to the door of his house, which
• 55:44
  Speaker 3: was a hole in the ground, to beg him to
• 55:46
  Speaker 3: tell them more. One evening, he said he would teach
• 55:49
  Speaker 3: them a few things that all little crickets should know.
• 55:53
  Speaker 3: He had them stand in a row, and then began,
• 55:55
  Speaker 3: with what part of your body do you eat with
• 55:58
  Speaker 3: our mouths? All the little cricket shouted, with what of
• 56:02
  Speaker 3: your body? Do you run and leap our legs? They cried?
• 56:07
  Speaker 3: Do you do anything else with your legs? We clean
• 56:10
  Speaker 3: ourselves with them, said one. We use them and their
• 56:13
  Speaker 3: mouths to make our houses in the ground, said another. Oh, yes,
• 56:17
  Speaker 3: and we hear with our two front legs, cried one,
• 56:20
  Speaker 3: bright little fellow. That is right, answered the fat old cricket.
• 56:25
  Speaker 3: Some creatures here with things called ears that grow on
• 56:28
  Speaker 3: the sides of their heads. But for my part, I
• 56:31
  Speaker 3: think it much nicer to hear with one's legs as
• 56:33
  Speaker 3: we do. Why, how funny it must be not to
• 56:37
  Speaker 3: hear with one's legs as we do, cried all the
• 56:39
  Speaker 3: little crickets together. There are a great many queer things
• 56:43
  Speaker 3: to be seen in the great world, said their teacher.
• 56:46
  Speaker 3: I have seen some terribly big creatures with only two
• 56:49
  Speaker 3: legs and no wings whatever. How dreadful, all the little
• 56:53
  Speaker 3: crickets cried. We wouldn't think they could move about at all.
• 56:58
  Speaker 3: It must be very hard to do so, said their teacher.
• 57:01
  Speaker 3: I was very sorry for them, and he spread out
• 57:03
  Speaker 3: his own wings and stretched his six legs to show
• 57:06
  Speaker 3: how he enjoyed them. But how can they sing if
• 57:09
  Speaker 3: they have no wings, asked the bright little cricket. They
• 57:13
  Speaker 3: sing through their mouths in much the same way that
• 57:15
  Speaker 3: the birds have to. I am sure it must be
• 57:18
  Speaker 3: much easier to sing by rubbing one's wings together, as
• 57:21
  Speaker 3: we do, said the fat old teacher. I could tell
• 57:24
  Speaker 3: you many queer things about these two legged creatures and
• 57:27
  Speaker 3: the houses in which they live, and perhaps one day
• 57:30
  Speaker 3: I will. There are other large four legged creatures around
• 57:34
  Speaker 3: their homes that are very terrible. But my children, I
• 57:38
  Speaker 3: was never afraid of any of them. I am one
• 57:41
  Speaker 3: of the truly brave people who are never frightened, no
• 57:44
  Speaker 3: matter how terrible the sight. I hope children, that you
• 57:48
  Speaker 3: will always be brave like me. If anything should scare you,
• 57:52
  Speaker 3: do not jump or run away. Stay right where you are.
• 57:55
  Speaker 3: And but the little crickets, never heard the rest of
• 57:58
  Speaker 3: what their teacher began to say. Say, We're at that minute,
• 58:02
  Speaker 3: Brown Bess. The cow came through a broken fence towards
• 58:05
  Speaker 3: the spot where the crickets were. The teacher gave one
• 58:08
  Speaker 3: shrill chirp and scrambled down his hole. The little crickets
• 58:13
  Speaker 3: fairly tumbled over each other in their hurry to get away,
• 58:16
  Speaker 3: and the fat old cricket, who had been out in
• 58:18
  Speaker 3: the great world, never again talked to them about being brave.
• 58:23
  Speaker 3: End of chapter ten. Recording by Claire. Chapter eleven of
• 58:33
  Speaker 3: Among the Meadow People. This is a LibriVox recording or
• 58:37
  Speaker 3: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
• 58:40
  Speaker 3: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Claire.
• 58:46
  Speaker 3: Among the Meadow People by Clara Dillingham Pearson, Chapter eleven,
• 58:51
  Speaker 3: The contented Earthworms. After a long and soaking rain, the
• 58:56
  Speaker 3: earthworms came out of their burrows, or rather they came
• 58:59
  Speaker 3: part way, for each earthworm put out half of his body,
• 59:03
  Speaker 3: And as there were many of them and they lived
• 59:06
  Speaker 3: near to each other, they could easily visit without leaving
• 59:08
  Speaker 3: their own homes. Two of these long, slimy people were
• 59:12
  Speaker 3: talking when a potato bug strolled by you poor things,
• 59:16
  Speaker 3: said he, What a wretched life you must lead, Spending
• 59:20
  Speaker 3: one's days in the dark earth must be very dreary. Dreary,
• 59:25
  Speaker 3: exclaimed one of the earthworms. It is delightful. The earth
• 59:29
  Speaker 3: is a snug and soft home. It is warm in
• 59:32
  Speaker 3: cold weather and cool in warm weather. There are no
• 59:35
  Speaker 3: winds to trouble us, and no sun to scorch us.
• 59:38
  Speaker 3: But said the potato bug, it must be very dull.
• 59:42
  Speaker 3: Now out in the grass one finds beautiful flowers and
• 59:45
  Speaker 3: so many families of friends. And down here, answered the worm,
• 59:50
  Speaker 3: we have the roots. Some are brown and woody, like
• 59:53
  Speaker 3: those of the trees, and some are white and slender
• 59:56
  Speaker 3: and soft. They creep and twine until it is like
• 59:59
  Speaker 3: passing through a forest to go among them. And then
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 3: there are the seeds. Such busy times as there are
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 3: in the ground and springtime, each tiny seed awakens and
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 3: begins to grow. Its roots must strike downward, and its
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 3: stalk upward toward the light. Sometimes the seeds are buried
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 3: in the earth with the root end up, and then
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 3: they have a great time getting twisted around and ready
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 3: to grow. Still, after the plants are all growing and
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 3: have their heads in the air. You must miss them.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 3: We have the roots, always, said the worm. And then
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 3: when the summer is over, the plants have done their work,
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 3: helping to make the world beautiful, and raise their seed babies.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 3: And they wither and droop to the earth again, and
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 3: little by little the sun and the frost and the
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 3: rain help them to melt back into the earth. The
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 3: earth is the beginning and the end of plants. Do
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 3: you ever meet the meadow people in it, asked the
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 3: potato bug. Many of them live here as babies, said
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 3: the worm. The may beetles, the grasshoppers, the great humming
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 3: bred moths, and many others spend their babyhood here, all
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 3: wrapped in eggs or cocoons. Then when they are strong
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 3: enough and their legs and wings are grown, they push
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 3: their way out and begin their work. It is their
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 3: getting ready time down here in the dark. And then
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 3: there are the stones, and they are so old and queer.
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 3: I am often glad that I am not a stone,
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 3: for to have to lie still must be hard to bear.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 3: Yet I have heard that they did not always lie so,
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 3: and that some of the very pebbles around us tossed
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 3: and rolled and ground for years in the bed of
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 3: a river, and that some of them were rubbed and
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 3: broken off of great rocks. Perhaps they are glad now
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 3: to just lie and rest. Truly, said the potato bug.
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 3: You have a pleasant home. But give me the sunshine
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 3: and fresh air, my six legs and my striped wings,
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 3: and you are welcome.
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 6: To it all.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 3: You are welcome to them all, answered the worms. We
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 3: are contented with smooth and shining bodies with which we
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 3: can bore and wriggle our way through the soft brown earth.
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 3: We like our task of keeping the earth right for
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 3: the plants, and we will work and rest happily. Here
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 3: The potato bug went his way and said to his brothers,
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 3: what do you think I have been talking with earthworms
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 3: who would not be potato bugs if they could. And
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 3: they all shook their heads in wonder, for they thought
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 3: that to be potato bugs was the grandest and happiest
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 3: thing in the world. End of chapter eleven. Recording by Claire,
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 3: Chapter twelve of Among the Meadow People. This is a
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 3: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 3: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 3: org recording by Claire. Among the Meadow People by Clara
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 3: Dillingham Pearson, Chapter twelve, The measuring Worm's Joke. One day
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 3: they crawled over the meadow fence a jolly young measuring worm.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 3: He came from a bush by the road side, and
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 3: although he was still a young worm, he had kept
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 3: his eyes open and had a very good idea how
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 3: things go in this world, now, thought he as he
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 3: rested on the top rail of the fence. I shall
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 3: meet some new friends. I do hope they will be pleasant.
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 3: I will look about me and see if any one
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 3: is in sight. So he raised his head high in
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 3: the air, and sure enough there were seven caterpillars of
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 3: different kinds on a tall clump of weeds near by.
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 3: The measuring worm hurried over to where they were, and,
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 3: making his best bow, said I have just come from
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 3: the road side and think I shall live in the meadow.
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 3: May I feed with you? The caterpillars were all glad
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 3: to have him, and he joined their party. He asked
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 3: many questions about the meadow and the people who lived there,
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 3: and the best place to find food. The caterpillar said, oh,
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 3: the meadow is a good place, and the people are
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 3: nice enough, but they are not at all fashionable, Not
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 3: at all, why, said the measuring worm. If you have
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 3: nice people and a pleasant place in which to live,
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 3: I don't see what more you need. That is all
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 3: very well, said a black and yellow caterpillar. But what
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 3: we want is fashionable society. The meadow people always do
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 3: things in the same way, and one gets so tired
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 3: of that. Now, can you not tell us something different,
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 3: something that worms do in the great world from which
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 3: you come? Just at this minute, the measuring worm had
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 3: a funny idea, and he wondered if the caterpillars would
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 3: be foolish enough to copy him. He thought it would
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 3: be a good joke if they did so. He said,
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 3: very soberly, I noticed that when you walk, you keep
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 3: your body quite close to the ground. I have seen
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 3: many worms do the same thing, and it is all
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 3: right if they wished to, But none of my family
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 3: ever do so. Did you notice how I walk? Yes, yes,
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 3: cried the caterpillars. Show us again. So the measuring worm
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 3: walked back and forth for them, arching his body as
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 3: high as he could, and stopping every little while to
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 3: raise his head and look haughtily around. What grace exclaimed
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 3: the caterpillars, what grace and what style? And one black
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 3: and brown one tried to walk in the same way.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 3: The measuring worm wanted to laugh to see how awkward
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 3: the black and brown caterpillar was, but he did not
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 3: even smile. And soon every one of the caterpillars was
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 3: trying the same thing and saying, look at me, don't
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 3: I do well? Or how was that? You can just
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 3: imagine how those seven caterpillars looked when trying to walk
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 3: like the measuring worm. Every few minutes one of them
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 3: would tumble over, and they all got warm and tired.
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 3: At last, they thought they had learned it very well
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 3: and took a long rest, in which they planned to
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 3: take a long walk and show the other meadow people
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 3: the fashion they had received from the outside world. We
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 3: will walk in a line, they said, as far as
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 3: we can, and let them all see us. Ah, it
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 3: will be a great day for the meadow. When we
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 3: began to set the fashions, the mischievous young measuring worm said,
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 3: not a word, and off they start. The big black
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 3: and yellow caterpillar went first, the black and brown one next,
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 3: and so on down to the smallest one at the
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 3: end of the line, all arching their bodies as high
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 3: as they could. All the meadow people stared at them,
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 3: calling each other to come and look. And whenever the
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 3: caterpillars reached a place where there were many watching them,
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 3: they would all raise their heads and look around, exactly
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 3: as the measuring worm had done. When they got back
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 3: to their clump of bushes, they had the most dreadful
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 3: back aches, but they said to each other, well, we
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 3: have been fashionable for once. And at the same time,
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 3: out in the grass the meadow people were saying, did
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 3: you ever see anything so ridiculous in your life? All
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 3: of which goes to show how very silly people sometimes
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 3: are when they think too much of being fashionable. End
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 3: of chapter twelve. Recording by Claire.
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 2: Chapter thirteen of Among the Meadow People. This is a
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 2: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 2: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 2: Recording by Jennifer Door Among the Meadow People by Clara
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 2: Dillingham Pearson, Chapter thirteen, A puzzled cicada. Seventeen years is
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 2: a long long time to be getting ready to fly,
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 2: Yet that is what the seventeen year Locusts or cicadas
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 2: have to expect. First, they lie for a long time
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 2: in eggs down in the earth. Then when they awaken
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 2: and crawl out of their shells, they must grow strong
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 2: enough to dig before they can make their way out
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 2: to where the beautiful green grass is growing and waving
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 2: in the wind. The cicada who got so very much
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 2: puzzled had not been long out of his home in
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 2: the warm, brown earth. He was the only cicada anywhere around,
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 2: and it was very lonely for him. However, he did
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 2: not mind that so much when he was eating or
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 2: singing or rest in the sunshine. And as he was
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 2: either eating or singing or resting in the sunshine most
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 2: of the time, he got along fairly well. Because he
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 2: was young and healthy, he grew fast. He grew so
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 2: very fast that after a while he began to feel
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 2: heavy and stiff, and more like sitting still than like
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 2: crawling around. Beside all this, his skin got tight, and
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 2: you can imagine how uncomfortable it must be to have
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 2: one's skin too tight. He was sitting on the branch
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 2: of a bush one day, thinking about the wonderful great
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 2: world when pop his skin had cracked open right down
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 2: the middle of his back. The poor cicada was badly
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 2: frightened at first, but then it seemed so good and
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 2: roomy that he took a deep breath and pop the
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 2: crack was longer. Still, the cicada found that he had
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 2: another whole skin under the outside one which had cracked.
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 2: So he thought, how much cooler and more comfortable I
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 2: shall be if I crawl out of this broken covering
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 2: and out It wasn't very easy work because he didn't
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 2: have anybody to help him. He had to hook the
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 2: claws of his outer skin into the bark of the branch,
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 2: hooked them in so hard that they couldn't pull out,
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 2: and then he began to wriggle out of the back
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 2: of his own skin. It was exceedingly hard work, and
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 2: the hardest of all was the pulling his legs out
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 2: of their cases. He was so tired when he got
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 2: free that he could hardly think, and his new skin
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 2: was so soft and tender that he felt limp and queer.
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 2: He found that he had wings of a pretty green,
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 2: the same color as his legs. He knew these wings
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 2: must have been growing under his old skin, and he
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 2: stretched them slowly out to see how big they were.
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 2: This was in the morning, and after he had stretched
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 2: his wings, he went to sleep for a long time.
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 2: When he awakened, the sun was in the western sky,
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 2: and he tried to think who he was. He looked
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 2: at himself, and instead of being green, he woul a dull,
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 2: brown and black. Then he saw his old skin clinging
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 2: to the branch and steering him in the face. It
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 2: was just the same shape as when he was in it,
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 2: and he thought for a minute that he was dreaming.
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 2: He rubbed his head hard with his front legs to
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 2: make sure he was awake, and then he began to
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 2: wonder which one he was. Sometimes he thought that the
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 2: old skin which clung to the bush was the cicada
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 2: that had lain so long in the ground, And sometimes
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 2: he thought that the soft, fat, new looking one was
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 2: the cicada. Or were both of them the cicada. If
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 2: he were only one of the two, what would he
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 2: do with the other. While he was wondering about this
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 2: in a sleepy way, an old cicada from across the
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 2: river flew down beside him. He thought he would ask her,
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 2: so he waved his feelers as politely as he knew how,
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 2: and said, excuse me, Madam Cicada, for I am much puzzled.
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 2: It took me seventeen years to grow into a strong,
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 2: crawling cicada, and then in one day I separated. The thinking,
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 2: moving part of me is here, but the outside shell
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 2: of me is there on that branch. Now which part
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 2: is the real cicada? Why? That is easy enough, said
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 2: the Madam Cicada. You are you. Of course, the part
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 2: that you cast off and left clinging to the branch
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 2: was very useful once. It kept you warm on cold
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 2: days and cool on warm days, and you needed it
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 2: while you were only a crawling creature. But when your
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 2: wings were ready to carry you off to a higher
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 2: and happier life than the skin that had been a
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 2: help was in your way, and you did right to
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 2: wriggle out of it. It is no longer useful to
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 2: you leave it where it is and fly off to
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 2: enjoy your new life. You will never have trouble if
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 2: you remember that the thinking part is the real you.
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 2: And then Madam Cicada and her new friend flew away
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 2: to her home over the river, and he saw many
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 2: strange sights before he returned to the meadow. End of
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 2: chapter thirteen.
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 5: Chapter fourteen of Among the Meadow People. This is a
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 5: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 5: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 5: Among the Meadow People by Clara Dillingham Pearson, Chapter fourteen,
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 5: The tree Frog's Story. In all the meadow, there was
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 5: nobody who could tell such interesting stories as the old
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 5: tree frog. Even the garter snake, who had been there
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 5: the longest, and the old cricket who had lived in
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 5: the farm yard, could tell no such exciting tales as
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 5: the tree frog. All the wonderful things of which he
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 5: told had happened before he came to the meadow, and
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 5: while he was still a young frog. None of his
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 5: friends had known him then. But he was an honest fellow,
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 5: and they were sure that everything he told was true. Besides,
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 5: they must be true, for how could a body ever
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 5: think out such remarkable tales from his own head. When
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 5: he first came to his home by the elm tree,
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 5: he was very thin and looked as though he had
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 5: been sick. The katydids who stayed near said that he
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 5: croaked in his sleep, and that, you know, is not
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 5: what well and happy frogs should do. One day, when
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 5: many of the meadow people were gathered around him, he
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 5: told them his story. When I was a little fellow,
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 5: he said, I was strong and well and could leap
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 5: farther than any other frog of my size. I was
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 5: hatched in the pond beyond the farm house and ate
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 5: my way from the egg to the water outside, like
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 5: any other frog, perhaps, I ought to say, like any
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 5: other tadpole, For of course I began life as a tadpole.
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 5: I played and ate with my brothers and sisters, and
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 5: little dreamed what trouble was in store for me when
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 5: I grew up. We were all in a hurry to
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 5: be frogs, and often talked of what we would do
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 5: and how far we would travel when we were grown.
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 5: Oh how happy we were then. I remember the day
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 5: when my hind legs began to grow, and how the
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 5: other tadpoles crowded around me in the water and swam
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 5: close to me to feel the two little bunches that
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 5: were to be legs. My fore legs did not grow
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 5: until later, and these bunches came just in front of
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 5: my tail. Your tail cried a puzzled young cricket. Why
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 5: you happen't a tail I did have when I was
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 5: a tadpole, said the tree frog. I had a beautiful,
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 5: wiggly little tail with which to swim through the waters
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 5: of the pond. But as my legs grew larger and stronger,
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 5: my tail grew littler and weaker, until there wasn't any
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 5: tail left. By the time my tail was gone, I
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 5: had four good legs and could breathe through my nose
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 5: and my skin. The knobs on the ends of my
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 5: toes were sticky so that I could climb a tree,
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 5: and then I was ready to start on my travels.
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 5: Some of the other frogs started with me, but they
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 5: stopped along the way, and at last I was alone.
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 5: I was a bold young fellow, and when I saw
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 5: a great white thing among the trees up yonder, I
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 5: made up my mind to see what it was. There
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 5: was a great red thing in the yard beside it,
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 5: but I liked the white one better. I hopped along
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 5: as fast as I could, for I did not then
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 5: know enough to be afraid. I got close up to
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 5: them both, and saw strange big creatures going in and
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 5: out of the red thing the barn, as I afterward
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 5: found it was called. The largest creatures had four legs,
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 5: and some of them had horns. The smaller creatures had
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 5: only two legs on which to walk, and two other
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 5: limbs of some sort with which they lifted and carried things.
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 5: The queerest thing about it was that the smaller creatures
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 5: seemed to make the larger ones do whatever they wanted
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 5: them to. They even made some of them help do
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 5: their work. You may not believe me, but what I
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 5: tell you is true. I saw two of the larger
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 5: ones tied to a great load of dried grass, pulling
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 5: it into the barn. As you may guess, I stayed
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 5: there a long time watching these strange creatures work. Then
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 5: I went over to the white thing, and that I
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 5: found out was the farm house. Here were more the
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 5: two legged creatures, but they were dressed differently from those
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 5: in the barn. There were some bright colored flowers near
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 5: the house, and I crawled in among them. There I
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 5: rested until sunset and then began my evening song. While
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 5: I was singing, one of the people from the house
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 5: came out and found me. She picked me up and
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 5: carried me inside. Oh how frightened.
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 3: I was.
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 5: My heart thumped as though it would burst, and I
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 5: tried my best to get away from her. She didn't
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 5: hurt me at all, but she would not let me go.
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 5: She put me in a very queer prison. At first,
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 5: when she put me down on a stone and some water,
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 5: I did not know that I was in prison. I
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 5: tried to hop away, and bump went my head against something.
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 5: Yet when I drew, I could see no wall there.
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 5: I tried it again and again, and every time I
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 5: hurt my head. I tell you the truth, my friends.
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 5: Those walls were made of something which one could see through. Wonderful,
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 5: exclaimed all the meadow people. Wonderful indeed. And at the
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 5: top continued the tree frog was something white over the
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 5: doorway into my prison. In the bottom were water and
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 5: a stone, and from the bottom to the top was
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 5: a ladder. There I had to live for most of
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 5: the summer. I had enough to eat. But anybody who
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 5: has been free cannot be happy shut in. I watched
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 5: my chance, and three times I got out when the
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 5: little door was not quite closed. Twice I was caught
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 5: and put back in the pleasant weather. Of course, I
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 5: went to the top of the ladder, and when it
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 5: was going to rain, I would go down again. Every
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 5: time that I went up or down, those dreadful creatures
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 5: would put their faces up close to my prison, and
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 5: I I could hear a roaring sound, which meant they
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 5: were talking and laughing. The last time I got out,
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 5: I hid near the door of the house, and although
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 5: they hunted and hunted for me, they didn't find me.
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 5: After they stopped hunting, the wind blew the door open,
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 5: and I hopped out. You don't say, exclaimed a grasshopper. Yes,
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 5: I hopped out and scrambled away through the grass as
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 5: fast as ever I could. You people who have never
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 5: been in prison cannot think how happy I was. It
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 5: seemed to me that just stretching my legs was enough
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 5: to make me wild with joy. Well, I came right here,
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 5: and you were all kind to me. But for a
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 5: long time I could not sleep without dreaming that I
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 5: was back in prison, and I would croak in my
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 5: sleep at the thought of it. I heard you, cried
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 5: the katydid, and I wondered, what was the matter? Madder enough,
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 5: said the tree frog. It makes my skin dry to
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 5: think of it now. And friends, the best way I
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 5: can never repay your kindness to me is to tell
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 5: you to never, never, never, never go near the farmhouse.
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 5: And they all answered, we never will. End of chapter fourteen.
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 4: Chapter fifteen of Among the Meadow People. This is a
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 4: livervox recording. All livervox recordings are in the public domain.
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 4: For more information are to volunteer, please visit livervox dot org.
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 4: Among the Meadow People by Clara Dillingham Pearson, Chapter fifteen,
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 4: The day when the grass was cut. There came a
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 4: day when all the meadow people rushed back and forth,
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 4: waving their feelers and talking hurriedly to each other. The
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 4: fat old cricket was nowhere to be seen. He said
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 4: that one of his legs was lame, and he thought
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 4: it best to stay quietly in his hole. The young
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 4: crickets thought he was afraid. Perhaps he was, but he
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 4: said that he was lame. All the insects who had
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 4: holes crawled into them, carrying food. Everybody was anxious and fussy,
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 4: and some people were even cross. It was all because
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 4: the farmer and his men had come into the meadow
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 4: to cut the grass. They began to work on the
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 4: side nearest the road, But every step which the horses
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 4: took brought the moor nearer to the people who lived
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 4: in the middle of the meadow, or down toward the river.
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 4: I have seen this done before, said the garter snake.
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 4: I got away from the big mower and hid in
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 4: the grass by the trees or by the stumps, where
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 4: the moor couldn't come. Then the men came and cut
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 4: that grass with their scythes, and I had to wiggle
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 4: away over the short, sharp grass stubble to my hole.
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 4: When they get near me, this time I shall go
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 4: into my hole and stay there. They are not so
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 4: bad after all, said the tree frog. I like them
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 4: better out of doors than I did in the house.
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 4: They saw me out here once and didn't try to
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 4: catch me. A meadow mouse came hurrying along. I must
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 4: get home to my baby, she said. They will be
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 4: frightened if I am not there. Much good you can
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 4: do when you are there, growled a voice down under
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 4: her feet. She was standing over the hole where the
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 4: fat old cricket was with his lame leg. The mother
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 4: meadow mouse looked rather angry for a minute, and then
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 4: she answered, I'm not so very large and strong, but
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 4: I can squeak and let the horses know where the
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 4: nest is, then they won't step on it. Last year,
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 4: I had ten or twelve babies there, and one of
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 4: the men picked them up and looked at them, and
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 4: then put them back. I was so frightened that my
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 4: fur stood on end, and I shook like june grass
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 4: in the wind. Hum too scared to run away, said
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 4: the voice under her feet. Mothers don't run away and
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 4: leave their children in danger, answered the meadow mouse. I
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 4: think it is a great deal braver to be brave
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 4: when you are afraid, then it is to be brave
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 4: when you're not afraid. She whisked her long tail and
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 4: scampered off through the grass. She did not go the
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 4: nearest way to her nest because she thought the garter
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 4: snake might be watching. She didn't wish him to know
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 4: where she lived. She knew he was fond of young mice,
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 4: and didn't want him to come to see her babies
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 4: while she was away. She said he was not a
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 4: good friend for young children. We don't mind it at all,
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 4: said the mosquitos from the lower part of the meadow.
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 4: We are unusually hungry today anyway, and we shall enjoy
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 4: having the men come. Nothing to make make such a
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 4: fuss over, said the milkweed butterfly. Just crawl into your
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 4: holes or fly away. Sometimes they step on holes and
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 4: close them, said the ant. What would you do if
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 4: you were in a hole and it stopped being a
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 4: hole and was just earth. Crawl out, I suppose, answered
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 4: the milkweed butterfly with a careless flutter. Yes, said the ant,
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 4: But I don't see what there would be to crawl
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 4: out through. The milkweed butterfly was already gone. Butterflies never
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 4: worry about anything very long, you know, has anybody seen
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 4: the measuring worm, asked the katie dead. Where is he? Oh?
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 4: I'm up a tree, answered a pleasant voice above their heads.
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 4: But I shan'n't be up a tree very long. I
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 4: shall come down when the grass is cut. Oh, dear, dear, dear,
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 4: cried the ants hurrying around. We can't think what we
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 4: want to do. We don't know what we ought to do.
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 4: We can't think, and we don't know, and we don't
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 4: think that we ought to click, said the grasshopper, springing
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 4: into the air. We must hurry, harry, hurry. He jumped
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 4: from a stalk of pepper grass to a plantin. We
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 4: must hurry, he said, and he jumped from the plantin
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 4: back to the pepper grass. Up in the tree where
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 4: the measuring worm was, some katy DIDs were sitting on
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 4: a branch and singing shrilly, did you ever? Did you ever,
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 4: ever ever ever did you ever? And this shows how
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 4: much excited they were, for they usually sang only at night.
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 4: Then the mower came sweeping down the field, drawn by
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 4: the blind horse and the dappled gray, and guided by
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 4: the farmer himself. The dust rose in clouds as they passed.
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 4: The grasshoppers gave mighty springs which took them out of
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 4: the way, and all the singing and thrilling stopped until
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 4: the mower had passed. The nodding grasses swayed and fell
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 4: as the sh dark knives slid over the ground. We
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 4: are going to be hay, they said, and live in
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 4: the big barn. Now we shall grow some more tender
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 4: green blades, said the grass roots. Fine weather for haying,
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 4: snorted the dappled gray. We'll cut all the grass in
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 4: this field before noon. Good feeling ground to walk on,
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 4: said the blind horse, tossing his head until the horness jingled.
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 4: Then the horses and the farmer, and the moor passed
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 4: far away, and the meadow people came together again. Well,
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 4: said the tree frog. That's over for a while. The
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 4: ants and the grasshoppers came back to their old places.
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 4: We did just the right thing, they cried, joyfully. We
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 4: got out of the way. The measuring worm and the
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 4: kadi DIDs came down from their tree as the milkweed
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 4: butterfly fluttered past. The men left the grass standing around
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 4: the meadow mouse's nest, said the milkweed butterfly, and the
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 4: house up by the barn are telling how glad they
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 4: will be to have the hay. When the cold weather comes,
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 4: grass must grow and hay be cut, said the wise
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 4: old tree frog. And when the time comes, we always
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 4: know what to do. Puck Rump, puck rump, I think,
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 4: said the fat old cricket as he crawled out of
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 4: his hole. That my lame leg is well enough to use.
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 4: There is nothing like rest for a lame leg end
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 4: of chapter fifteen. Recording by Sharon Kilmer, Rio, Medina, Texas.
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 4: Chapter sixteen of Among the Meadow People. This is a
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 4: livervox recording. All livervox recordings are in the public domain.
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 4: For more information are to volunteer, please visit levervox dot org.
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 4: Among the Meadow People by Clara Dillingham Pearson, Chapter sixteen,
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 4: The grasshopper and the measuring worm run a race. A
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 4: few days after the measuring worm came to the meadow,
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 4: he met the grasshoppers. Everybody had heard the caterpillars wished
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 4: to be fashionable, and some of the young grasshoppers, who
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 4: did not know that it was all a joke, said
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 4: they would like to teach the measuring worm a few things.
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 4: So when they met him, the young grasshoppers began to
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 4: make fun of him and asked him what he did
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 4: if he wanted to run, and whether he didn't wish
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 4: his head grew on the middle of his back so
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 4: that he could see better when walking. The measuring worm
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 4: was good natured and only said that he found his
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 4: head useful where it was. Soon, one fine looking grasshopper
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 4: asked him to race. That will show, said the grasshopper,
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 4: which is the better traveler. The measuring worm said, certainly,
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 4: I will race with you tomorrow, and we will ask
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 4: all our friends to look on. Then he began talking
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 4: about something else. He was a wise young fellow as
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 4: well as a jolly one, and he knew the grasshoppers
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 4: felt sure that he would be beaten. If I cannot
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 4: win the race by swift running, thought he, I must
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 4: try to win it by good planning. So he got
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 4: the grasshoppers to go with him to a place where
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 4: the sweet young grass grew, and they all fed together.
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 4: The measuring worm nibbled only a little here and there,
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 4: but he talked a great deal about the sweetness of
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 4: the grass and how they would not get any more
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 4: for a long time because the hot weather would spoil it,
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 4: And the grasshoppers said to each other, he is right,
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 4: and we must eat all we can while we have it.
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 4: So they ate and ate, and ate and ate until sunset,
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 4: and in the morning they awakened and began eating again.
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 4: When the time for the race came, they were all
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 4: heavy and stupid from so much eating, which was exactly
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 4: what the measuring worm wanted. The tree frog, the fat
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 4: old cricket, and a caterpillar were chosen to be the judges,
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 4: and the race was to be a long one, from
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 4: the edge of the woods to the fence. When the
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 4: meadow people were all gathered around to see the race.
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 4: The cricket gave a shrill chirp, which meant go, and
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 4: off they started. That is to say, the measuring worm started.
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 4: The grasshopper felt so sure he could beat that he
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 4: wanted to give the measuring worm a little the start,
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 4: because then, you see, he could say he had won
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 4: without half trying. The measuring worm started off at a
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 4: good steady rate, and when he had gone a few feet,
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 4: the grasshopper gave a couple of great leaps which landed
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 4: him far ahead of the worm. Then he stopped to
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 4: nibble a blade of grass and visit with some katy
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 4: DIDs who were looking on. By and by, he took
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 4: a few more leaps and passed the measuring worm again.
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 4: This time he began to show off by jumping up
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 4: straight into the air, and when he came down he
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 4: would call out to those who stood near to see
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 4: how strong he was and how easy it would be
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 4: for him to win the race. And everybody said, how
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 4: strong he is, to be sure, what wonderful legs he has,
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 4: And he could beat the measuring worm with his eyes shut,
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 4: which made the grasshopper so exceedingly vain that he stopped
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 4: more and more often to show his strength and daring.
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 4: That was the way it went until they were only
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 4: a short distance from the end of the race course.
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 4: The grasshopper was more and more pleased to think how
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 4: easily he was winning, and stopped for a last time
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 4: to nibble grass and make fun of the worm. He
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 4: gave a great leap into the air, and when he
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 4: came down there was the worm on the fence. All
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 4: the meadow people croaked and shrilled and chirped to see
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 4: the way in which the race ended. And the grasshopper
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 4: was very much vexed. You shouldn't call him the winner,
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 4: he said, I can travel ten times as fast as
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 4: he if I try. Yes, answered the judges. We all
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 4: know that. Yet the winning of the race is not
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 4: decided by what you might do, but what you did do.
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 4: And the meadow people all cried, long live the measuring worm,
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 4: Long Live the measuring worm. End of chapter sixteen. Recording
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 4: by Sharon Kilmer, Rio, Medina, Texas.
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 2: Chapter seventeen of Among the Meadow People. This is a
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 2: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 2: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 2: Recording by Jennifer Dorer. Among the Meadow People by Clara
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 2: Dillingham Pearson, chapter seventeen, Mister green Frog and his visitors.
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 2: One day a young frog who lived down by the
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 2: river came hopping up through the meadow. He was a
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 2: fine looking fellow, all brown and green, with a white vest,
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 2: and he came to see the sights. The oldest frog
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 2: on the river bank had told him that he ought
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 2: to travel and learn to know the world, so he
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 2: had started at once. Young mister Greenfrog had very big eyes,
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 2: and they stuck out from his head more than ever
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 2: when he saw all the strange sights and heard all
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 2: the strange sounds of the meadow. Yet he made one
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 2: great mistake, just as bigger and better people sometimes do
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 2: when they go on a journey. He didn't try to
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 2: learn from the things he saw, but only to show
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 2: off to the meadow people how much he already knew,
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 2: and he boasted a great deal of the fine way
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 2: in which he lived. When at home, mister green Frog
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 2: told those whom he met that the meadow was dreadfully dry,
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 2: and that he really could not see how they lived there.
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 2: He said they ought to see the lovely soft mud
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 2: that there was in the marsh, and that there the
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 2: people could sit all day with their feet and water
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 2: in among the rushes where the sunshine never came. And
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 2: then he said to eat grass as the grasshoppers did.
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 2: If they would go home with him, he would show
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 2: them how to live. The older grasshoppers and crickets and
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 2: locusts only looked at each other and opened their funny
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 2: mouths in a smile. But the young ones thought mister
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 2: Greenfrog must be right, and they wanted to go back
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 2: with him. The old hoppers told them that they wouldn't
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 2: like it down there, and that they would be sorry
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 2: that they had gone. Still, the young ones teased and teased,
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 2: and teased and teased until everybody said, well, let them go,
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 2: and then perhaps they will be contented when they return.
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 2: At last, they all set off together, mister Greenfrog and
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 2: the young meadow people. Mister green Frog took little jumps
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 2: all the way and bragged and bragged. The grasshoppers went
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 2: in long leaps, the crickets scampered most of the way,
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 2: and the locusts fluttered. It was a very gay little party,
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 2: and they kept saying to each other, what a fine
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 2: time we shall have. When they got to the marsh,
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 2: mister green frog went in first with a soft plunk
• 1:34:41
  Speaker 2: in the mud. The rest all followed and tried to
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 2: make believe that they liked it, But they didn't. They
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 2: didn't at all. The grasshoppers kept bumping against the tough,
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 2: hard rushes when they jumped, and then that would tumble
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 2: them over on their backs in the mud, and there
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 2: they would lie, kicking their legs in the air until
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 2: some friendly cricket pushed them over on their feet again.
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 2: The locusts couldn't fly at all there, and the crickets
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 2: got their shiny black coats all grimy and horrid. They
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 2: all got cold and wet and tired, yes, and hungry too,
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 2: for there were no tender green things growing in among
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 2: the rushes. Still they pretended to have a good time,
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 2: even while they were thinking how they would like to
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 2: be in their dear old home. After the sun went
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 2: down in the west, it grew colder still, and all
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 2: the frogs in the marsh began to croak to the moon,
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 2: croaking so loudly that the tired little travelers could not
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 2: sleep at all. When the frog stopped croaking and went
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 2: to sleep in the mud. One tired cricket said, if
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 2: you like this, stay, I am going home as fast
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 2: as my six legs will carry me, and all the
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 2: rest of the travelers said, so am I, so am I,
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 2: so am I. Mister green Frog was sleeping soundly, and
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 2: away as quietly as they could, out into the silvery
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 2: moonlight and up the bank towards home. Such a tired
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 2: little party as they were, and so hungry that they
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 2: had to stop and eat every little while. The dew
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 2: was on the grass and they could not get warm.
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 2: The sun was just rising behind the eastern forest. When
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 2: they got home, they did not want to tell about
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 2: their trip at all, but just ate a lot of
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 2: peppergrass to make them warm, and then rolled themselves in
• 1:36:27
  Speaker 2: between the wooly mull and leaves to rest all day long.
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 2: And that was the last time any of them ever
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 2: went away with a stranger. End of chapter seventeen.
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 5: Chapter eighteen of Among the Meadow People. This is a
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 5: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 5: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 5: Among the Meadow People Clara Dilling and Pearson, Chapter eighteen
• 1:37:04
  Speaker 5: the dignified walking sticks. Three walking sticks from the forest
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 5: had come to live in the big maple tree near
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 5: the middle of the meadow. Nobody knew exactly why they
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 5: had left the forest, where all their sisters and cousins
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 5: and aunts lived. Perhaps they were not happy with their relatives,
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 5: but then if one is a walking stick, you know
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 5: one does not care so very much about one's family.
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 5: These walking sticks had grown up the best way they could,
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 5: with no father or mother to care for them. They
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 5: had never been taught to do anything useful or to
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 5: think much about other people. When they were hungry, they
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 5: ate some leaves and never thought what they should eat
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 5: the next time that they happened to be hungry. When
• 1:37:45
  Speaker 5: they were tired, they went to sleep, and when they
• 1:37:48
  Speaker 5: had slept enough they awakened. They had nothing to do
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 5: but to eat and sleep, and they did not often
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 5: take the trouble to think. They felt that they were
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 5: a little better than those meadow people who rushed and
• 1:37:59
  Speaker 5: scrambled and worked from morning until night, And they showed
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 5: very plainly how they felt. They said it was not
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 5: genteel to hurry, no matter what happened. One day, the
• 1:38:09
  Speaker 5: tree frog was under the tree When the large brown
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 5: walking stick decided to lay some eggs, he saw her
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 5: dropping them carelessly around on the ground and asked, do
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 5: you ever fix a place for your eggs? A place,
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 5: said the brown walking stick, waving her long and slender
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 5: feelers to and fro a place. Oh no, I think
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 5: they will hatch where they are. It is too much
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 5: trouble to find a place, but her up, said the
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 5: tree frog. Some others do not think it too much
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 5: trouble to be careful where they lay eggs. That may be,
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 5: said the brown walking stick, But they do not belong
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 5: to our family. She spoke as if those who did
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 5: not belong to her family might be good but could
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 5: never be genteel. She had once told her brother, the
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 5: five legged walking stick, that she would not want to
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 5: live if she could not be genteel. She thought the
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 5: meadow people very common. The five legged walking stick looked
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 5: much like his sister. He had the same long, slender body,
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 5: the same long feelers, and the same sort of long
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 5: slender legs. If you had passed them in a hay field,
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 5: you would surely have thought each a stem of hay,
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 5: unless you happened to see them move. The other walking stick.
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 5: Their friend was younger and green, you would have thought
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 5: her a blade of grass. It is true that the
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 5: brother had the same kind of legs as his sister,
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 5: but he did not have the same number. When he
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 5: was young and green, he had six. Then came a
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 5: dreadful day when a hungry nuthatch saw him, flew down,
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 5: caught him, and carried him up a tree. He knew
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 5: just what to expect, so when the nuthatch set him
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 5: down on the bark to look at him, he unhooked
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 5: his feet from the bark and tumbled to the ground.
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 5: The nuthatch tried to catch him and broke off one
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 5: of his legs, but she never found him again, although
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 5: she looked and looked, and looked and looked. That was
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 5: because he crawled into a clump of ferns and kept
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 5: very still. His sister came and looked at him and said, now,
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 5: if you were only a spider, it would not be
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 5: long before you would have six legs. Again, her brother
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 5: waved first one feeler and then the other, and said,
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 5: do you think I would be a spider for the
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 5: sake of growing legs? Of course, I would rather be
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 5: a walking stick without any legs. Than to be a
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 5: spider with a hundred. Of course, you know, spiders never
• 1:40:26
  Speaker 5: do have a hundred, and the walking stick wouldn't be
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 5: walking without any. But that was just his way of speaking,
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 5: and it showed what kind of insect he was. His
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 5: relatives all waved their feelers one at a time and said, ah,
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 5: he has the true walking stick spirit. Then they paid
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 5: no more attention to him, and after a while he
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 5: and his sister and their green little friend left the
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 5: forest for the meadow. On the day when the grass
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 5: was cut, they had sat quietly in their trees and
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 5: looked genteel. Their feelers were held quite close together, and
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 5: they did not move their feet at all, only swayed
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 5: their bodies gracefully from side to side. Now they were
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 5: on the ground, hunting through the flat piles of cut
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 5: grass for some fresh and juicy bits to eat. The
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 5: tree frog was also out, sitting in a cool, damp
• 1:41:13
  Speaker 5: corner of the grass rows. The young grasshoppers were kicking
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 5: up their feet, The ants were scrambling around as busy
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 5: as ever, and life went on quite as though neither
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 5: men nor horses had ever entered the meadow. See cried
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 5: a spider who was busily looking after her web. There
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 5: comes a horse drawing something, and the farmer sitting on
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 5: it and driving. When the horse was well into the meadow,
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 5: the farmer moved a bar, and the queer looking machine
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 5: began to kick the grass this way and that with
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 5: its many stiff and shining legs. A frisky young grasshopper
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 5: kicked in the same way, and happened just happened, of course,
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 5: to knock over two of his friends. Then there was
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 5: a great scrambling, and the crickets frolicked with them. The
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 5: young walking stick thought it looked like great fun, and
• 1:41:58
  Speaker 5: almost wished herself some other kind of insect so that
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 5: she could tumble around in the same way. She did
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 5: not quite wish it, you understand, and would never have
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 5: thought of it if she had turned brown. Ah, said
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 5: the five legged walking stick. What scrambling? How very common? Yes, indeed,
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 5: said his sister. Why can't they learn to move slowly
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 5: and gracefully? Perhaps they can't help being fat, but they
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 5: might at least act genteel. What is it to be genteel?
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 5: Asked a grasshopper. Suddenly he had heard every word that
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 5: the walking stick said. Why said the five legged walking stick,
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 5: it is just to be genteel, to act as you
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 5: see us act, and to just here. The hay tedder
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 5: passed over them, and every one of the walking sticks
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 5: was sent flying through the air and landed on his back.
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 5: The grasshoppers declared that the walking sticks tumbled and kicked
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 5: and flopped around in a dreadfully common way until they
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 5: were right side up. Why, said the measuring worm, you
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 5: act like anybody else when the hay tedter comes along.
• 1:43:06
  Speaker 5: The walking sticks looked very uncomfortable, and the brother and
• 1:43:09
  Speaker 5: sister could not think of anything to say. It was
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 5: the young green one who spoke at last, I think,
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 5: said she that it is much easier to act genteel
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 5: when one is right side up. End of chapter eighteen.
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 7: Chapter nineteen of Among the Meadow People. This is a
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 7: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 7: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 7: Among the Metal People by Clara Dillingham Pearson, Chapter nineteen.
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 7: The day of the Great storm, everything in the meadow
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 7: was dry and dusty. The leaves and the milkweeds were
• 1:43:59
  Speaker 7: turning yellow with themst the field blossoms drooped their dainty
• 1:44:03
  Speaker 7: heads in sunshine, and the grass seemed to fairly rattle
• 1:44:07
  Speaker 7: in the wind. It was so brown and dry. All
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 7: the meadow people, when they met each other, would say, well,
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 7: this is hot. And the garter snake, who had lived
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 7: there longer than any one else, declared that it was
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 7: the hottest and driest time that he had ever known. Really,
• 1:44:23
  Speaker 7: he said, it is so hot that I cannot eat,
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 7: And such a thing never happened before. The grasshopper and
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 7: locusts were very happy, for such weather was exactly what
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 7: they liked. They didn't see how people could complain of
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 7: such delightful scorching days, But that, you know, is always
• 1:44:41
  Speaker 7: the way, for everybody cannot be sued at once and
• 1:44:45
  Speaker 7: all kinds of weather, and need to make a good year.
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 7: The poor tree frog crawled into the coolest place you
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 7: could find, hollow trees, shading nooks under the ferns, or
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 7: even beneath the corner of a great stone. Oh, said he,
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 7: I wish I were a tadpole again, swimming in a
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 7: shady pool. It is such a long, hot journey to
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 7: the marsh that I cannot go. Last night I dreamed
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 7: that I was a tadpole splashing in the water, and
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 7: it was hard to awaken and find myself only an
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 7: uncomfortable old tree frog over his head. The katy DIDs
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 7: were singing lovely weather, lovely weather, and the tree frog,
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 7: who is a good natured old fellow after all, winked
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 7: his eye at them and said, sing away. This won't
• 1:45:31
  Speaker 7: last always, and then it will be my turn to sing.
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 7: Sure enough, the next day, a tiny cloud drifted across
• 1:45:37
  Speaker 7: the sky, and the tree frog, who always knew when
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 7: the weather was about to change, began his rain song.
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 7: Pu Her up, sang he, pu her up. It will rain,
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 7: it will rain rain. The little white cloud grew bigger
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 7: and blacker, and another came following after, then another, and
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 7: another and another, until the sky was quite covered with
• 1:46:03
  Speaker 7: rushing black clouds. Then came a long, low rumble of thunder,
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 7: and all the meadow people hurried to find shelter. The
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 7: moss and butterflies hung on the under sides of great leaves.
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 7: The grasshoppers and their cousins crawled under birddock and mullion plants.
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 7: The ants scurried around to find their own homes. The
• 1:46:23
  Speaker 7: bees and wasps, who had been gathering honey for their nests,
• 1:46:27
  Speaker 7: flew swiftly back. Everyone was hurrying to be ready for
• 1:46:30
  Speaker 7: the shower. And above all the rustle and stir could
• 1:46:33
  Speaker 7: be heard the voice of the old frog. Pack her up,
• 1:46:37
  Speaker 7: pucker up. It will rain, It will rain. Rain. The
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 7: wind blew harder and harder. The branches swayed and tossed,
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 7: the leaves danced, and some even blew off their mother tree.
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 7: The hundreds of little clinging creatures clung more and more
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 7: tightly to the leaves that sheltered them. And then the
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 7: rain came, and such a rain, hurrying down from the sky,
• 1:47:02
  Speaker 7: crowding each other, beating down the grass, flaying the holmes
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 7: of the ants and digger wasps until they were half
• 1:47:08
  Speaker 7: choked with water, knocking over the grasshoppers and tumbling them
• 1:47:12
  Speaker 7: about like leaves. The lightning flashed, and the thunder pealed,
• 1:47:17
  Speaker 7: and often a tree would crash down the forest near
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 7: by when the wind blew a great blast. When everybody
• 1:47:23
  Speaker 7: was wet, and little rivulets of water were trickling through
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 7: the grass and running the great puddles in the hollows,
• 1:47:30
  Speaker 7: the rain stopped, stopped. Suddenly, one by one, the meadow
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 7: people crawled or swam in a sight. The digger wasp
• 1:47:39
  Speaker 7: was floating on leaf in a big puddle. He was
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 7: too tired and wet to fly, and the whirling of
• 1:47:45
  Speaker 7: the leaf made him feel sick and dizzy, but he
• 1:47:47
  Speaker 7: stirred firmly on his tiny boat and try to look
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 7: as though he enjoyed it. The ants were rushing around
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 7: to put their homes in shape. The spiders were busily
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 7: eating their old webs which had been broken and torn
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 7: in the storm, and some were already beginning new ones.
• 1:48:02
  Speaker 7: A large family of bees whose tree home had been
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 7: blown down, passed over the meadow and searched for a
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 7: new dwelling. And everybody seemed busy and happy in the
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 7: cool air that followed the storm. The snake, when gliding
• 1:48:15
  Speaker 7: through the wet grass, as hungry as ever. The tree
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 7: frog was as happy as winning was a tadpole. And
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 7: only the grasshoppers and their cousins, the locusts and katydids,
• 1:48:24
  Speaker 7: were cross such a horrid rain, they grumbled. It spoilt
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 7: all our fun, and after such lovely hot weather too. Now,
• 1:48:34
  Speaker 7: don't be silly, said the tree frog, who could be
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 7: really severe when he thought best. The bees and the
• 1:48:40
  Speaker 7: ants are not complaining, and they had a good deal
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 7: harder time than you can't You make the best of anything.
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 7: A nice hungry cross lot you would be if it
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 7: didn't rain, because then you would have no good juicy food.
• 1:48:53
  Speaker 7: It's better for you in the end as it is,
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 7: but even if it were not, you might make the
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 7: best of it, as I did of the hot weather.
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 7: When you have lived as long as I have, you
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 7: will know that neither grasshoppers nor tree frogs can have
• 1:49:05
  Speaker 7: their way all the time, but that always comes out
• 1:49:09
  Speaker 7: all right in the end, without their fraying about it.
• 1:49:13
  Speaker 7: End of chapter nineteen.
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 6: Chapter twenty of Among the Meadow People. This is a
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 6: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 1:49:29
  Speaker 6: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 1:49:35
  Speaker 6: Recording by Lynn Thompson. Among the Meadow People by Clara
• 1:49:40
  Speaker 6: Dillingham Pearson. Chapter twenty The Story of Lillipad Island. This
• 1:49:48
  Speaker 6: is the story of a venturesome young spider who left
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 6: his home in the meadow to seek his fortune in
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 6: the great world. He was a beautiful spider and belonged
• 1:49:59
  Speaker 6: to one of the best families in the country around
• 1:50:02
  Speaker 6: He was a worker too, for, as he had often said,
• 1:50:06
  Speaker 6: there wasn't a lazy leg on his body, and he
• 1:50:09
  Speaker 6: could spin the biggest, strongest, and shiniest web in the meadow.
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 6: All the young people in the meadow liked him, and
• 1:50:16
  Speaker 6: he was invited to every party or dance or picnic
• 1:50:20
  Speaker 6: that they planned. If he had been content to stay
• 1:50:23
  Speaker 6: at home as his brothers and sisters were, he would
• 1:50:27
  Speaker 6: in time have become as important and well known as
• 1:50:30
  Speaker 6: the tree frog, or the fat old cricket, or even
• 1:50:33
  Speaker 6: as the garter snake. But that would not satisfy him
• 1:50:37
  Speaker 6: at all, and one morning he said good bye to
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 6: all his friends and relatives and set sail for unknown lands.
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 6: He set sail, but not on water. He crawled up
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 6: a tree and out to the end of one of
• 1:50:51
  Speaker 6: its branches. There he began spinning a long silken rope
• 1:50:56
  Speaker 6: and letting the wind blow it away from the tree.
• 1:51:00
  Speaker 6: He held fast to one end, and when the wind
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 6: was quite strong, he let go of the branch and
• 1:51:05
  Speaker 6: sailed off through the air, carried by his rope balloon
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 6: and blown along by the wind. The meadow people on
• 1:51:14
  Speaker 6: the ground below watched him until he got so far
• 1:51:17
  Speaker 6: away that he looked about as large as a fly,
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 6: and then he looked no bigger than an ant, and
• 1:51:24
  Speaker 6: then no bigger than a clover seed, and then no
• 1:51:28
  Speaker 6: bigger than the tiniest egg that was ever laid. And
• 1:51:32
  Speaker 6: then well, you could see nothing but sky, and the
• 1:51:37
  Speaker 6: spider was truly gone. The other young spiders all wished
• 1:51:41
  Speaker 6: that they had gone, and the old spiders said they
• 1:51:44
  Speaker 6: might much better stay at home, as their fathers and
• 1:51:47
  Speaker 6: mothers had done. There was no use talking about it
• 1:51:51
  Speaker 6: when they disagreed, so and very little more was said. Meanwhile,
• 1:51:56
  Speaker 6: the young traveler was having a very fine time. He
• 1:52:00
  Speaker 6: was carried past trees and over fences down toward the river.
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 6: Under him were all the bright flowers of the meadow,
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 6: and the bushes which used to tower above his head.
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 6: After a while, he saw the rushes of the marsh
• 1:52:15
  Speaker 6: below him, and wondered if the frogs there would see
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 6: him as he passed over them. Next he saw a beautiful,
• 1:52:22
  Speaker 6: shining river, and in the quiet water by the shore
• 1:52:25
  Speaker 6: were great white water lilies growing, with their green leaves
• 1:52:29
  Speaker 6: or pads floating beside them. Ah thought he I shall
• 1:52:34
  Speaker 6: pass over the river and land on the farther side,
• 1:52:38
  Speaker 6: and he began to think of eating his rope balloon
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 6: so that he might sink slowly to the ground, when
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 6: the wind suddenly stopped blowing, and he began falling slowly, down, down, down, down.
• 1:52:53
  Speaker 6: How he longed for a branch to cling to. How
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 6: he shivered at the thought of plunging into the cold water.
• 1:52:59
  Speaker 6: How he wished that he had always stayed at home.
• 1:53:03
  Speaker 6: How he thought of all the naughty things that he
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 6: had ever done, and was sorry that he had done them.
• 1:53:09
  Speaker 6: But it was of no use. For still he went down, down, down.
• 1:53:16
  Speaker 6: He gave up all hope and tried to be brave,
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 6: and at that very minute he felt himself alight on
• 1:53:22
  Speaker 6: a great green lily pad. This was indeed an adventure,
• 1:53:27
  Speaker 6: and he was very joyful for a little while, but
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 6: he got hungry and there was no food near. He
• 1:53:34
  Speaker 6: walked all over the leaf lily pad island he named it,
• 1:53:39
  Speaker 6: and ran around its edges as many as forty times.
• 1:53:43
  Speaker 6: It was just a flat, green island, and at one
• 1:53:46
  Speaker 6: side was a perfect white lily which had grown so
• 1:53:50
  Speaker 6: pure and beautiful out of the darkness and slime of
• 1:53:54
  Speaker 6: the river bottom. The lily was so near that he
• 1:53:58
  Speaker 6: jumped over to it, He nestled in its sweet yellow
• 1:54:02
  Speaker 6: center and went to sleep. When he fell asleep, it
• 1:54:06
  Speaker 6: was late in the afternoon, and as the sun sank
• 1:54:09
  Speaker 6: lower and lower in the west, the lily began to
• 1:54:13
  Speaker 6: close her petals and get ready for the night. She
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 6: was just drawing under the water when the spider awakened.
• 1:54:20
  Speaker 6: It was dark and close, and he felt himself shut
• 1:54:23
  Speaker 6: in and going down. He scrambled and pushed and got
• 1:54:28
  Speaker 6: out just in time to give a great leap and
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 6: a light on lily Pad Island once more, And then
• 1:54:34
  Speaker 6: he was in a sad plight. He was hungry and cold,
• 1:54:38
  Speaker 6: and night was coming on. And what was worst of all,
• 1:54:42
  Speaker 6: In his great struggle to free himself from the lily,
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 6: he had pulled off two of his legs, so he
• 1:54:48
  Speaker 6: only had six left. He never liked to think of
• 1:54:52
  Speaker 6: that night afterward. It was so dreadful. In the morning,
• 1:54:56
  Speaker 6: he saw a leaf come floating down the stream, watched it.
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 6: It touched Lillipad Island for just an instant, and he
• 1:55:04
  Speaker 6: jumped on. He did not know where it would take him,
• 1:55:07
  Speaker 6: but anything was better than staying where he was and starving.
• 1:55:12
  Speaker 6: It might float to the shore or against one of
• 1:55:14
  Speaker 6: the rushes that grew in the shallower parts of the river.
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 6: If it did that, he would jump off and run
• 1:55:21
  Speaker 6: to the top and set sail again. But the island
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 6: where he had been was too low to give him
• 1:55:27
  Speaker 6: a start. He went straight down stream for a while.
• 1:55:32
  Speaker 6: Then the leaf drifted into a little eddy and whirled
• 1:55:35
  Speaker 6: around and around until the spider was almost too dizzy
• 1:55:39
  Speaker 6: to stand on it. After that it floated slowly, very slowly,
• 1:55:44
  Speaker 6: toward the shore, and at last came a joyful minute
• 1:55:48
  Speaker 6: when the spider could jump to some of the plants
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 6: that grew in the shallow water, and by making rope
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 6: bridges from one to another, get on solid ground. After
• 1:55:58
  Speaker 6: a few days, rest sat back to the meadow, asking
• 1:56:02
  Speaker 6: his way of every insect that he met. When he
• 1:56:05
  Speaker 6: got home, they did not know him he was so changed,
• 1:56:09
  Speaker 6: but thought him only a tramp spider and not one
• 1:56:12
  Speaker 6: of their own people. His mother was the first one
• 1:56:15
  Speaker 6: to find out who he was, and when her friend said,
• 1:56:19
  Speaker 6: just what I expected, he might have known better, she
• 1:56:22
  Speaker 6: hushed them and answered, the poor child has had a
• 1:56:25
  Speaker 6: hard time, and I won't scold him for going. He
• 1:56:29
  Speaker 6: has learned that home is the best place, and that
• 1:56:32
  Speaker 6: home friends are the dearest. I shall keep him quiet
• 1:56:36
  Speaker 6: while his new legs are growing, and then I think
• 1:56:39
  Speaker 6: he will spin his webs near the old place. And
• 1:56:43
  Speaker 6: so he did, and is now one of the steadiest
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 6: of all the meadow people. When anybody asks him his age,
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 6: he refuses to tell, for he says, most of me
• 1:56:54
  Speaker 6: is middle aged, but these two new legs of mine
• 1:56:57
  Speaker 6: are still very young. End of chapter twenty.
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 3: Chapter twenty one of Among the Meadow People. This is
• 1:57:11
  Speaker 3: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 1:57:15
  Speaker 3: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 1:57:20
  Speaker 3: Recording by Claire Among the Meadow People by Clara Dillingham Pearson,
• 1:57:25
  Speaker 3: Chapter twenty one, The Grasshopper who Wouldn't be Scared. There
• 1:57:30
  Speaker 3: were more ants in the meadow than there were of
• 1:57:32
  Speaker 3: any other kind of insects. In their family. There were
• 1:57:35
  Speaker 3: not only ants, but great aunts, cousins, nephews, and nieces,
• 1:57:39
  Speaker 3: until it made one sleepy to think how many relatives
• 1:57:42
  Speaker 3: each ant had. Yet they were small people and never noisy,
• 1:57:46
  Speaker 3: so perhaps the grasshoppers seemed to be the largest family there.
• 1:57:50
  Speaker 3: There were many different families of grasshoppers, but they were
• 1:57:53
  Speaker 3: all related. Some had short horns or feelers and red legs,
• 1:57:57
  Speaker 3: and some had long horns. Some in the lower part
• 1:58:00
  Speaker 3: of the meadow where it was damp and summoned the
• 1:58:03
  Speaker 3: upper part. The katydids, who really belonged to this family,
• 1:58:06
  Speaker 3: you know, stayed in trees and did not often sing
• 1:58:09
  Speaker 3: in the daytime. Then there were the great road grasshoppers,
• 1:58:13
  Speaker 3: who lived only in places where the ground was bare
• 1:58:15
  Speaker 3: and dusty, and whom you could hardly see unless they
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 3: were flying. When they lay in the dust, their wide
• 1:58:21
  Speaker 3: wings were hidden, and they showed only that part of
• 1:58:23
  Speaker 3: their bodies which was dust color. Let the farmer drive along, however,
• 1:58:28
  Speaker 3: and they rose into the air with a gentle whirring
• 1:58:30
  Speaker 3: sound and fluttered to a safe place. Then one could
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 3: see them plainly, for their large underwings were black with
• 1:58:37
  Speaker 3: yellow edges. Perhaps those grasshoppers who were best known in
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 3: the meadow were the clouded grasshoppers, large dirty brown ones
• 1:58:44
  Speaker 3: with dark spots, who seemed to be everywhere during the autumn.
• 1:58:48
  Speaker 3: The fathers and brothers in this family always crackled their
• 1:58:50
  Speaker 3: wings loudly when they flew anywhere, so one could never
• 1:58:54
  Speaker 3: forget that they were around. It was queer that they
• 1:58:57
  Speaker 3: were always spoken of as grasshoppers. Eight great great grandparents
• 1:59:02
  Speaker 3: were called locusts, and that was the family name. But
• 1:59:05
  Speaker 3: the cicadas liked that name and wanted it for themselves,
• 1:59:08
  Speaker 3: and made such a fuss about it that people began
• 1:59:10
  Speaker 3: to call them seventeen year locusts. And then, because they
• 1:59:14
  Speaker 3: had to call the real locusts something else, they called
• 1:59:17
  Speaker 3: them grasshoppers. The grasshoppers didn't mind this. They were jolly
• 1:59:20
  Speaker 3: and noisy, and as they grew older, were sometimes very pompous,
• 1:59:24
  Speaker 3: and you know what it is to be pompus. When
• 1:59:27
  Speaker 3: the farmer was drawing the last loads of hay to
• 1:59:30
  Speaker 3: his barn and putting them away in the great mows,
• 1:59:32
  Speaker 3: there three young clouded grasshopper brothers were frolicking near the wagon.
• 1:59:37
  Speaker 3: They had tried to see who could run the fastest,
• 1:59:40
  Speaker 3: crackle the loudest, spring the highest, flutter the farthest, and
• 1:59:43
  Speaker 3: eat the most. There seemed to be nothing more to do.
• 1:59:46
  Speaker 3: They couldn't eat another mouthful. The other fellows wouldn't play
• 1:59:50
  Speaker 3: with them, they wouldn't play with their sisters, and they
• 1:59:52
  Speaker 3: were not having any fun at all. They were sitting
• 1:59:55
  Speaker 3: on a haycock, watching the wagon. As it came nearer
• 1:59:58
  Speaker 3: and nearer. The farmer was on and one of his
• 2:00:01
  Speaker 3: men was walking beside it. Whenever they came to a haycock,
• 2:00:04
  Speaker 3: the farmer would stop the horses. The man would run
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 3: a long handled shining pitchfork into the hay on the
• 2:00:10
  Speaker 3: ground and throw it up to the farmer. Then it
• 2:00:13
  Speaker 3: would be trampled down on to the load. The farmer's
• 2:00:16
  Speaker 3: wife would rake up the scattering hay which was left
• 2:00:18
  Speaker 3: on the ground, and that would be thrown up also.
• 2:00:22
  Speaker 3: The biggest clouded grasshopper said to his brothers, you dare
• 2:00:25
  Speaker 3: not sit still while they put this hay on the load.
• 2:00:28
  Speaker 3: The smallest clouded grass upper said, I do too. The
• 2:00:32
  Speaker 3: second brother said, huh, guess I dare do anything you do.
• 2:00:36
  Speaker 3: He said it in a rather mean way, and that
• 2:00:38
  Speaker 3: may have been because he had eaten too much. Over
• 2:00:41
  Speaker 3: Eating will make any insect cross. Now, every one of
• 2:00:45
  Speaker 3: them was afraid, but each waited for the others to
• 2:00:47
  Speaker 3: back out. While they were waiting, the wagon stopped beside them.
• 2:00:51
  Speaker 3: The shining fork was run into the hay, and they
• 2:00:53
  Speaker 3: were shaken and stood on their heads and lifted through
• 2:00:56
  Speaker 3: the air on to the wagon. There they found themselves
• 2:00:59
  Speaker 3: all tangled up with hay in the middle of the load.
• 2:01:01
  Speaker 3: It was dark and they could hardly breathe. There were
• 2:01:04
  Speaker 3: a few stems of nettles in the hay, and they
• 2:01:06
  Speaker 3: had to crawl away from them. It was no fun
• 2:01:09
  Speaker 3: at all, and they didn't talk very much. When the
• 2:01:12
  Speaker 3: wagon reached the barn, they were pitched into the mow
• 2:01:15
  Speaker 3: with the hay, and then they hopped and fluttered around
• 2:01:18
  Speaker 3: until they were on the floor over the horses stalls.
• 2:01:21
  Speaker 3: They sat together on the floor and wondered how they
• 2:01:23
  Speaker 3: could ever get back to the meadow, because they had
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 3: come in the middle of the load and they did
• 2:01:27
  Speaker 3: not know the way. Oh, said they, Who were those
• 2:01:31
  Speaker 3: four legged people over there? Kittens sang a swallow over
• 2:01:34
  Speaker 3: their heads. Oh tit the little little The clouded grasshoppers
• 2:01:39
  Speaker 3: had never seen kittens. It is true that the old
• 2:01:42
  Speaker 3: cat often went hunting in the meadow, but that was
• 2:01:44
  Speaker 3: at night when grasshoppers were asleep. Meow, said the yellow kitten.
• 2:01:49
  Speaker 3: Look at those queer, little brown people on the floor.
• 2:01:51
  Speaker 3: Let's each catch one. So the kittens began crawling slowly
• 2:01:55
  Speaker 3: over the floor, keeping their bodies and tails low, and
• 2:01:58
  Speaker 3: taking very short steps. Not one of them took his
• 2:02:01
  Speaker 3: eyes off the clouded grass hupper, whom he meant to catch.
• 2:02:04
  Speaker 3: Sometimes they stopped and crouched and watched. Then they went
• 2:02:07
  Speaker 3: on nearer, nearer, nearer still, while the clouded grasshoppers were
• 2:02:12
  Speaker 3: more and more scared and wished they had never left
• 2:02:15
  Speaker 3: the meadow where they had been so safe and happy.
• 2:02:18
  Speaker 3: At last, the kittens jumped, coming down with their sharp
• 2:02:21
  Speaker 3: little claws just where the clouded grass uppers had been.
• 2:02:24
  Speaker 3: The clouded grass uppers had jumped too, but they could
• 2:02:27
  Speaker 3: not stay long in the air, and when they came down,
• 2:02:29
  Speaker 3: the kittens jumped again. So it went until the poor
• 2:02:32
  Speaker 3: clouded grasshoppers were very, very tired and could not jump
• 2:02:35
  Speaker 3: half so far as they had done at first. Sometimes
• 2:02:39
  Speaker 3: the kittens even tried to catch them while they were fluttering,
• 2:02:42
  Speaker 3: and each time they came a little nearer than before.
• 2:02:45
  Speaker 3: They were so tired that they never thought of leaping
• 2:02:48
  Speaker 3: up on the wall of the barn, where the kittens
• 2:02:50
  Speaker 3: couldn't reach them. At last, the smallest clouded grasshoppers said
• 2:02:54
  Speaker 3: to his brothers, let us chase the kittens. The brothers answered,
• 2:02:58
  Speaker 3: they're too bag. The small all this grasshopper who had
• 2:03:01
  Speaker 3: always been the brightest one in the family, called back,
• 2:03:03
  Speaker 3: We may scare them if they are big. Then all
• 2:03:06
  Speaker 3: the clouded grass uppers leaped towards the kittens and crackled
• 2:03:09
  Speaker 3: their wings and looked very, very fierce, And the kittens
• 2:03:13
  Speaker 3: ran away as fast as they could. They were in
• 2:03:15
  Speaker 3: such a hurry to get away that the yellow kitten
• 2:03:18
  Speaker 3: tumbled over the white kitten, and they rolled on the
• 2:03:20
  Speaker 3: floor in a furry little heap. The clouded grass uppers
• 2:03:23
  Speaker 3: leaped again, and the kitten scrambled away to their nest
• 2:03:26
  Speaker 3: in the hay, and stood against the wall and raised
• 2:03:28
  Speaker 3: their backs, and they pointed little tails and opened their
• 2:03:32
  Speaker 3: pink mouths and spat at them and said, ha, there,
• 2:03:36
  Speaker 3: said the smallest clouded grass upper to them. We won't
• 2:03:39
  Speaker 3: do anything to you this time, because you are young
• 2:03:42
  Speaker 3: and don't know very much. But don't you ever bother
• 2:03:44
  Speaker 3: one of us again. We might have hopped right on
• 2:03:47
  Speaker 3: to you, and then what could you have done to
• 2:03:49
  Speaker 3: help yourselves. The clouded grass uppers started off to find
• 2:03:53
  Speaker 3: their way back to the meadow, and the frightened kittens
• 2:03:55
  Speaker 3: looked at each other and whispered, just supposing they had
• 2:03:59
  Speaker 3: hopped on to us, what could we have done? End
• 2:04:02
  Speaker 3: of chapter twenty one. Recording by Claire, Chapter twenty two
• 2:04:11
  Speaker 3: of Among the Meadow People. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 2:04:15
  Speaker 3: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 2:04:18
  Speaker 3: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
• 2:04:22
  Speaker 3: by Claire. Among the Meadow People by Clara Dillingham Pearson,
• 2:04:27
  Speaker 3: Chapter twenty two, The earthworm Half Brothers. Early one morning,
• 2:04:32
  Speaker 3: a long earthworm came out of his burrow, did not
• 2:04:35
  Speaker 3: really leave it, but he dragged most of his body
• 2:04:37
  Speaker 3: out and just let the tip end of it stay
• 2:04:39
  Speaker 3: in the earth. Not having any eyes, he could not
• 2:04:42
  Speaker 3: see the heavy gray clouds that filled the sky, nor
• 2:04:45
  Speaker 3: the milkweed stalks so heavy with rain drops that they
• 2:04:48
  Speaker 3: drooped their pink heads. He could not see these things,
• 2:04:51
  Speaker 3: but he could feel the soft, damp grass and the
• 2:04:53
  Speaker 3: cool clear air. And as for seeing, why earthworms never
• 2:04:58
  Speaker 3: do have eyes, and never think of one them any
• 2:05:00
  Speaker 3: more than you would want six legs or feelers on
• 2:05:03
  Speaker 3: your head. This earthworm had been out of his burrow
• 2:05:06
  Speaker 3: only a little while when there was a flutter and
• 2:05:08
  Speaker 3: a rush, and something flew down from the sky and
• 2:05:11
  Speaker 3: bit his poor body in two. Oh, how it hurt.
• 2:05:15
  Speaker 3: Both halves of them wriggled and twisted with pain, and
• 2:05:18
  Speaker 3: there is no telling what might have become of them
• 2:05:20
  Speaker 3: if another and bigger something had not come rushing down
• 2:05:23
  Speaker 3: to drive the first something away. So there the poor
• 2:05:26
  Speaker 3: earthworm lay in two aching wriggling pieces, and although it
• 2:05:30
  Speaker 3: had been easy enough to bite him in two, nothing
• 2:05:32
  Speaker 3: in the world could ever bite him into one. After
• 2:05:36
  Speaker 3: a while the aching stopped, and he had time to think.
• 2:05:39
  Speaker 3: It was very hard to decide what he ought to do.
• 2:05:42
  Speaker 3: You can see just how puzzling it must have been,
• 2:05:44
  Speaker 3: for if you should suddenly find yourself two people instead
• 2:05:47
  Speaker 3: of one, you would not know which one was which
• 2:05:50
  Speaker 3: at this very minute. Who should come along? But the cicada,
• 2:05:53
  Speaker 3: and one of the earthworm pieces asked his advice. The
• 2:05:57
  Speaker 3: cicada thought that he was the very person who had
• 2:06:00
  Speaker 3: in such a case, because he had such a puzzling
• 2:06:02
  Speaker 3: time himself. So he said, in a very knowing way, pooh,
• 2:06:07
  Speaker 3: that is a simple matter. I thought I was too
• 2:06:09
  Speaker 3: sicadas once, but I wasn't. The thinking, moving part is
• 2:06:13
  Speaker 3: the real one. Whatever happens, So that part of the
• 2:06:16
  Speaker 3: worm which thinks and moves is the real worm. I
• 2:06:19
  Speaker 3: am the thinking part, cried each of the pieces. The
• 2:06:23
  Speaker 3: cicada rubbed his head with his front legs. He was
• 2:06:25
  Speaker 3: so surprised. And I am the moving part, cried each
• 2:06:29
  Speaker 3: of the pieces, giving a little wriggle to prove it. Well, well,
• 2:06:32
  Speaker 3: well well, exclaimed the socada. I believe I don't know
• 2:06:36
  Speaker 3: how to settle this. I will call the garter snake,
• 2:06:39
  Speaker 3: and he flew off to get him. A very queer
• 2:06:42
  Speaker 3: couple they made, the garter snake and the cicada. As
• 2:06:45
  Speaker 3: they came hurrying back from the snake's home, the garter
• 2:06:48
  Speaker 3: snake was quite excited. Such a thing has not happened
• 2:06:51
  Speaker 3: in our meadow for a long time, he said, and
• 2:06:53
  Speaker 3: it is a good thing. There is somebody here to
• 2:06:55
  Speaker 3: explain it to you, or you would be dreadfully frightened.
• 2:06:58
  Speaker 3: My family is related to the worms, and I know
• 2:07:01
  Speaker 3: both of you pieces are worms. Now the bitten ends
• 2:07:04
  Speaker 3: will soon be well, and you can keep house side
• 2:07:07
  Speaker 3: by side if you don't want to live together, Well
• 2:07:10
  Speaker 3: said the earthworms. If we are no longer the same worm,
• 2:07:13
  Speaker 3: but two worms? Are we related to each other? Are
• 2:07:15
  Speaker 3: we brothers?
• 2:07:16
  Speaker 8: Or what?
• 2:07:17
  Speaker 4: Why?
• 2:07:18
  Speaker 3: Answered the garter snake with a funny little smile. I
• 2:07:21
  Speaker 3: think you might call yourself half brothers. And to this
• 2:07:24
  Speaker 3: very day they are known as the earthworm half brothers.
• 2:07:27
  Speaker 3: They are very fond of each other and are always
• 2:07:29
  Speaker 3: seen together. A jolly young grass supper, who is a
• 2:07:33
  Speaker 3: great eater and thinks rather too much about food, said
• 2:07:36
  Speaker 3: he wouldn't mind being bitten into two grass suppers if
• 2:07:38
  Speaker 3: it would give him two stomachs and let him eat
• 2:07:40
  Speaker 3: twice as much. The cicada had told the garter snake
• 2:07:44
  Speaker 3: this one day, and the garter snake said, tell him
• 2:07:46
  Speaker 3: not to try it. The earthworms are the only meadow
• 2:07:49
  Speaker 3: people who can live after being bitten in two. That way,
• 2:07:53
  Speaker 3: the rest of us have to be one or nothing.
• 2:07:55
  Speaker 3: And as for having two stomachs, he is just as
• 2:07:58
  Speaker 3: well off with one, for if he had two he
• 2:08:00
  Speaker 3: would get twice as hungry. End of chapter twenty two.
• 2:08:05
  Speaker 3: Recording by Claire, Chapter twenty three of Among the Meadow People.
• 2:08:14
  Speaker 3: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 2:08:18
  Speaker 3: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 2:08:22
  Speaker 3: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Claire. Among the Meadow
• 2:08:26
  Speaker 3: People by Clara Dillingham Pearson, Chapter twenty three, A gossiping fly.
• 2:08:32
  Speaker 3: Of all the people who lived and worked in the
• 2:08:34
  Speaker 3: meadow by the river, there was not one who gave
• 2:08:37
  Speaker 3: so much thought to other people's business as a certain
• 2:08:39
  Speaker 3: blue bottle fly. Why this should be so, nobody could say.
• 2:08:44
  Speaker 3: Perhaps it was because he had nothing to do but
• 2:08:46
  Speaker 3: eat and sleep, for that is often the way with
• 2:08:48
  Speaker 3: those who do little work. Truly, his cares were liked,
• 2:08:52
  Speaker 3: to be sure, he ate much, but then with nearly
• 2:08:55
  Speaker 3: sixty teeth for nibbling in a wonderful long tongue for sucking,
• 2:08:58
  Speaker 3: he could eat a great deal in a very short time.
• 2:09:01
  Speaker 3: And as for sleeping, well, sleeping was as easy for
• 2:09:05
  Speaker 3: him as for any one else. However, it was he
• 2:09:08
  Speaker 3: saw nearly everything that happened, and he thought it over
• 2:09:11
  Speaker 3: in his queer little three cornered head until he was
• 2:09:14
  Speaker 3: sure that he ought to go to talk about it
• 2:09:16
  Speaker 3: with somebody else. It was no wonder that he saw
• 2:09:19
  Speaker 3: so much, for he had a great bunch of eyes
• 2:09:21
  Speaker 3: on each side of his head, and three bright shining
• 2:09:24
  Speaker 3: ones on the very top of it that let him
• 2:09:27
  Speaker 3: see almost everything at once. And beside this, his neck
• 2:09:30
  Speaker 3: was so exceedingly slender that he could turn his head
• 2:09:33
  Speaker 3: very far around. This particular fly, like all other flies,
• 2:09:37
  Speaker 3: was very fond of the sunshine, and kept closely at
• 2:09:40
  Speaker 3: home in the dark or wet weather. He had no house,
• 2:09:43
  Speaker 3: but stayed in a certain elder bush on cloudy days,
• 2:09:46
  Speaker 3: and called that his home. He had spent all of
• 2:09:49
  Speaker 3: one stormy day there hanging on the under side of
• 2:09:52
  Speaker 3: a leaf, with nothing to do but think. Of course,
• 2:09:54
  Speaker 3: his head was down and his feet were up, But
• 2:09:57
  Speaker 3: blue bottle flies think in that position as well as
• 2:09:59
  Speaker 3: in any other, and the two sticky pads on each
• 2:10:02
  Speaker 3: side of his six feet held him there very comfortably.
• 2:10:05
  Speaker 3: He thought so much that day that when the next
• 2:10:08
  Speaker 3: morning dawned sunshiny and clear, he had any number of
• 2:10:11
  Speaker 3: things to tell people, and he started out at once.
• 2:10:14
  Speaker 3: First he went to the tree frog. What do you suppose?
• 2:10:17
  Speaker 3: Said he that the garters snake is saying about you.
• 2:10:20
  Speaker 3: It is very absurd, yet I feel that you ought
• 2:10:23
  Speaker 3: to know. He says that your tongue is fastened at
• 2:10:26
  Speaker 3: the wrong end, and that the tip of it points
• 2:10:28
  Speaker 3: down your throat. Of course I knew it couldn't be true.
• 2:10:31
  Speaker 3: Still I thought I would tell you what he said,
• 2:10:33
  Speaker 3: and then you could see him and put a stop
• 2:10:35
  Speaker 3: to it. For an answer to this, the tree frog
• 2:10:38
  Speaker 3: ran out his tongue, and sure enough it was fastened
• 2:10:41
  Speaker 3: at the front end. The snake is quite right, he
• 2:10:43
  Speaker 3: said pleasantly, And my tongue suits me perfectly. It is
• 2:10:46
  Speaker 3: just what I need for the kind of food I eat.
• 2:10:49
  Speaker 3: And the best of all is that it never makes
• 2:10:51
  Speaker 3: mischief between friends. After that, the fly could see nothing
• 2:10:55
  Speaker 3: more there, so he flew away in his noisiest manner
• 2:10:58
  Speaker 3: to find the grasshopper who lost the race. It was
• 2:11:01
  Speaker 3: a shame, said the fly to him, that the judges
• 2:11:03
  Speaker 3: did not give the race to you. The idea of
• 2:11:06
  Speaker 3: that little green measuring worm coming in here almost a
• 2:11:08
  Speaker 3: stranger and making so much trouble, I would have him
• 2:11:11
  Speaker 3: driven out the meadow if I were you. Oh that
• 2:11:14
  Speaker 3: is all right, answered the grass supper, who was really
• 2:11:16
  Speaker 3: a good fellow at heart. I was very foolish about
• 2:11:19
  Speaker 3: that race for a time. But the measuring worm and
• 2:11:22
  Speaker 3: I are firm friends, now, are we not. And he
• 2:11:25
  Speaker 3: turned to a leaf just back of him, and there,
• 2:11:27
  Speaker 3: peeping around their edge was the measuring worm himself. The
• 2:11:31
  Speaker 3: blue bottle fly left in a hurry for where people
• 2:11:33
  Speaker 3: were so good natured he could do nothing at all.
• 2:11:36
  Speaker 3: He went this time to the crickets, who found all
• 2:11:39
  Speaker 3: together by the fat old crickets hole I came, he said,
• 2:11:43
  Speaker 3: to find out if it were true as the meadow
• 2:11:45
  Speaker 3: people say that you were all dreadfully frightened when the
• 2:11:48
  Speaker 3: cow came. The crickets answered never a word, but they
• 2:11:51
  Speaker 3: looked at each other and began asking him questions. Is
• 2:11:55
  Speaker 3: it true, said one, that you do nothing but eat
• 2:11:57
  Speaker 3: and sleep? Is it true, said an, that your eyes
• 2:12:01
  Speaker 3: are used most of the time for seeing other people's faults?
• 2:12:04
  Speaker 3: And is it true, said another, that with all the
• 2:12:06
  Speaker 3: fuss you make, you do little but mischief. The blue
• 2:12:10
  Speaker 3: bottlefly answered nothing, but started at once were his home
• 2:12:13
  Speaker 3: in the elderbush, And they say that his three cornered
• 2:12:16
  Speaker 3: head was filled with very different thoughts from any that
• 2:12:19
  Speaker 3: had been there before. End of chapter twenty three. Recording
• 2:12:23
  Speaker 3: by Claire.
• 2:12:29
  Speaker 6: Chapter twenty four of Among the Meadow People. This is
• 2:12:33
  Speaker 6: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 2:12:38
  Speaker 6: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 2:12:44
  Speaker 6: Recording by Lynn Thompson. Among the Meadow People by Clara
• 2:12:49
  Speaker 6: Dillingham Pearson, Chapter twenty four. The frog hoppers go out
• 2:12:53
  Speaker 6: into the world. Along the upper edge of the meadow
• 2:12:58
  Speaker 6: and in the corners of the rail fence, there grew
• 2:13:01
  Speaker 6: golden rod. During the spring and early summer. You could
• 2:13:05
  Speaker 6: hardly tell that it was there unless you walked close
• 2:13:08
  Speaker 6: to it and saw the slender and graceful storks pushing
• 2:13:12
  Speaker 6: upward through the tall grass and pointing in many different
• 2:13:16
  Speaker 6: ways with their dainty leaves. The horses and cows knew it,
• 2:13:20
  Speaker 6: and although they might eat all around it, they never
• 2:13:23
  Speaker 6: pulled at it with their lips or ate it. In
• 2:13:27
  Speaker 6: the autumn, each stork was crowned with sprays of tiny,
• 2:13:30
  Speaker 6: bright yellow blossoms, which nodded in the wind and scattered
• 2:13:34
  Speaker 6: their golden pollen all around. Then it sometimes happened that
• 2:13:39
  Speaker 6: people who were driving past would stop, climb over the
• 2:13:42
  Speaker 6: fence and pluck some of it to carry away. Even then,
• 2:13:47
  Speaker 6: there was so much left that one could hardly miss
• 2:13:49
  Speaker 6: the storks that were gone. It may have been because
• 2:13:53
  Speaker 6: the golden rod was such a safe home that most
• 2:13:56
  Speaker 6: of the frog hoppers laid their eggs there. Laid eggs
• 2:14:00
  Speaker 6: in other plants and bushes, but most of them chose
• 2:14:03
  Speaker 6: the golden rod. After they had laid their eggs, they
• 2:14:07
  Speaker 6: wandered around on the grass, the bushes, and the few
• 2:14:10
  Speaker 6: trees which grew in the meadow, hopping from one place
• 2:14:13
  Speaker 6: to another and eating a little here and a little there.
• 2:14:17
  Speaker 6: Nobody knows why they should have been called frog hoppers,
• 2:14:21
  Speaker 6: unless it was because when you look them in the face,
• 2:14:24
  Speaker 6: they seem a very little like tiny frogs. To be sure,
• 2:14:28
  Speaker 6: they have six legs and teeth on the front pair,
• 2:14:31
  Speaker 6: as no real frog ever thought of having. Perhaps it
• 2:14:35
  Speaker 6: was only a nickname because their own name was so
• 2:14:37
  Speaker 6: long and hard to speak. The golden rod was beginning
• 2:14:42
  Speaker 6: to show small yellow green buds on the tips of
• 2:14:44
  Speaker 6: its stalks. When the little frog hoppers were now old
• 2:14:48
  Speaker 6: enough to talk and wonder about the great world. On
• 2:14:52
  Speaker 6: one stalk, four frog hopper brothers and sisters lived close together.
• 2:14:56
  Speaker 6: That was much pleasanter than having to grow up all alone,
• 2:15:00
  Speaker 6: as most young frog hoppers do, never seeing their fathers
• 2:15:03
  Speaker 6: and mothers, or knowing whether they ever would. These four
• 2:15:08
  Speaker 6: little frog hoppers did not know how lucky they were,
• 2:15:12
  Speaker 6: and that, you know, happens very often when people have
• 2:15:15
  Speaker 6: not seen others lonely or unhappy. They supposed that every
• 2:15:20
  Speaker 6: frog copper family had two brothers and two sisters living
• 2:15:24
  Speaker 6: together on a golden rod's stork. They fed on the
• 2:15:27
  Speaker 6: juice or sap of the golden rod, pumping it out
• 2:15:30
  Speaker 6: of the stork with their stout little beaks, and eating
• 2:15:34
  Speaker 6: or drinking it. After they had eaten it, they made
• 2:15:37
  Speaker 6: white foam out of it, and this foam was all
• 2:15:40
  Speaker 6: around them on the stalk. Any One passing by could
• 2:15:45
  Speaker 6: tell at once by the foam just where the frog
• 2:15:47
  Speaker 6: hoppers lived. One morning, the oldest frog hopper brother thought
• 2:15:53
  Speaker 6: that the sap pumped very hard. It may be that
• 2:15:56
  Speaker 6: it did pump hard, and it may be that he
• 2:15:59
  Speaker 6: was tired or lazy. Anyway, he began to grumble and
• 2:16:03
  Speaker 6: find fault. This is the worst stork of golden rod
• 2:16:07
  Speaker 6: I ever saw in my life. He said, It doesn't
• 2:16:10
  Speaker 6: pay to try to pump any more sap, and I
• 2:16:13
  Speaker 6: just won't try. So there he was quite right in
• 2:16:17
  Speaker 6: saying that it was the worst stork he had ever seen,
• 2:16:20
  Speaker 6: because he had never seen any other. But he was
• 2:16:23
  Speaker 6: much mistaken in saying that it didn't pay to pump sap.
• 2:16:27
  Speaker 6: And as for saying that it didn't pay, so there
• 2:16:30
  Speaker 6: we all know that when insects begin to talk in
• 2:16:33
  Speaker 6: that way, the best thing to do is to leave
• 2:16:36
  Speaker 6: them quite alone until they are better natured. The other
• 2:16:40
  Speaker 6: frog hopper children couldn't leave him alone because they hadn't
• 2:16:43
  Speaker 6: changed their skins for the last time. They had to
• 2:16:47
  Speaker 6: stay in their phone until that was done. After the
• 2:16:50
  Speaker 6: big brother spoke in this way, they all began to
• 2:16:53
  Speaker 6: wonder if the sap didn't pump hard before long. The
• 2:16:57
  Speaker 6: big sister wiggled impatiently and said, my beak is dreadfully tired.
• 2:17:03
  Speaker 6: Then they all stopped eating and began to talk. They
• 2:17:07
  Speaker 6: called their home stuffy and said there wasn't room to
• 2:17:10
  Speaker 6: turn around in it without hitting the foam. They didn't
• 2:17:13
  Speaker 6: say why they should mind hitting the foam. It was
• 2:17:16
  Speaker 6: soft and clean and always opened up away when they
• 2:17:20
  Speaker 6: pushed against it. I tell you what, said the big brother.
• 2:17:24
  Speaker 6: After I've changed my skin once more and gone out
• 2:17:27
  Speaker 6: into the great world, you won't catch me hanging around
• 2:17:30
  Speaker 6: this old golden rod, nor me, nor me, nor me,
• 2:17:36
  Speaker 6: said the other young frog hoppers. I wonder what the
• 2:17:39
  Speaker 6: world is like, said the little sister. Is it just
• 2:17:43
  Speaker 6: bigger foam and bigger golden rod and more frog hoppers. Huh,
• 2:17:48
  Speaker 6: exclaimed her big brother. What lots you know? If I
• 2:17:52
  Speaker 6: didn't know any more than that about it, I'd keep
• 2:17:55
  Speaker 6: still and not tell anybody. That made her feel badly,
• 2:17:59
  Speaker 6: and she'd He didn't speak again for a long time.
• 2:18:02
  Speaker 6: Then the little brother spoke, I didn't know you had
• 2:18:06
  Speaker 6: ever been out into the world. He said, No, said
• 2:18:10
  Speaker 6: the big brother, I suppose you didn't. There are lots
• 2:18:13
  Speaker 6: of things you don't know. That made him feel badly,
• 2:18:17
  Speaker 6: and he went off into the farthest corner of the
• 2:18:19
  Speaker 6: foam and stuck his head in between a golden rod
• 2:18:22
  Speaker 6: leaf and the stork. You see, the big brother was
• 2:18:26
  Speaker 6: very cross, indeed, he was exceedingly cross. For a long time,
• 2:18:32
  Speaker 6: nobody spoke, and then the big sister said, I wish
• 2:18:35
  Speaker 6: you would tell us what the world is like. The
• 2:18:39
  Speaker 6: big brother knew no more about the world than the
• 2:18:41
  Speaker 6: other children, But after he had been cross and put
• 2:18:44
  Speaker 6: on airs, he didn't like to tell the truth. He
• 2:18:48
  Speaker 6: might have known that he would be found out. Yet
• 2:18:51
  Speaker 6: he held up his head and answered, I don't suppose
• 2:18:54
  Speaker 6: that I can tell you so that you will understand
• 2:18:57
  Speaker 6: because you have never seen it. There are lots of
• 2:19:00
  Speaker 6: things there, whole lots of them, and it is very big.
• 2:19:03
  Speaker 6: Some of the things are like golden rod, and some
• 2:19:06
  Speaker 6: of them are not. Some of them are not even
• 2:19:09
  Speaker 6: like foam. And there are a great many people there.
• 2:19:13
  Speaker 6: They all have six legs, but they are not so
• 2:19:15
  Speaker 6: clever as we are. We shall have to tell them things.
• 2:19:20
  Speaker 6: This was very interesting and made the little sister forget
• 2:19:23
  Speaker 6: to pout, and the little brother come out of his
• 2:19:26
  Speaker 6: foam corner. He even looked as though he might ask
• 2:19:29
  Speaker 6: a few questions, so the big brother added, now don't
• 2:19:33
  Speaker 6: talk to me, for I must think about something. It
• 2:19:37
  Speaker 6: was not long after this that the young frog hoppers
• 2:19:39
  Speaker 6: changed their skins for the last time. The outside part
• 2:19:43
  Speaker 6: of the foam hardened and made a little roof over
• 2:19:46
  Speaker 6: them while they did this, then they were ready to
• 2:19:49
  Speaker 6: go out into the meadow. The big brother felt rather uncomfortable,
• 2:19:54
  Speaker 6: and it was not his new skin which made him so.
• 2:19:57
  Speaker 6: It was remembering what he had said about the world outside.
• 2:20:03
  Speaker 6: When they had left their poae and their golden rod.
• 2:20:06
  Speaker 6: They had much to see and ask about. Every little
• 2:20:09
  Speaker 6: while one of the smaller frog hoppers would exclaim, why
• 2:20:13
  Speaker 6: you never told us about this? Or why didn't you
• 2:20:16
  Speaker 6: tell us about that? Then the big brother would answer, yes,
• 2:20:21
  Speaker 6: I did. That is one of the things which I
• 2:20:23
  Speaker 6: said were not like either golden rod or foam. For
• 2:20:28
  Speaker 6: a while they met only crickets, ants, grasshoppers, and other
• 2:20:32
  Speaker 6: six legged people, and although they looked at each other,
• 2:20:35
  Speaker 6: they did not have much to say. At last they
• 2:20:39
  Speaker 6: hopped near the tree frog, who was sitting by the
• 2:20:41
  Speaker 6: mossy trunk of a beech tree and looked so much
• 2:20:44
  Speaker 6: like the bark that they did not notice him at first.
• 2:20:48
  Speaker 6: The big brother was very near the tree frog's head.
• 2:20:51
  Speaker 6: Oh see, cried the others. There is somebody with only
• 2:20:55
  Speaker 6: four legs, and he doesn't look as though he ever
• 2:20:58
  Speaker 6: had any more. Why, brother, what does this mean? You
• 2:21:01
  Speaker 6: said everybody had six? At this moment the tree frog
• 2:21:06
  Speaker 6: opened his eyes a little and his mouth a great deal,
• 2:21:10
  Speaker 6: and shot out his quick tongue. When he shut his
• 2:21:14
  Speaker 6: mouth again, the big brother of the tree hoppers was
• 2:21:17
  Speaker 6: nowhere to be seen. They never had a chance to
• 2:21:20
  Speaker 6: ask him that question again. If they had but known it,
• 2:21:25
  Speaker 6: the tree frog at that minute had ten legs, for
• 2:21:28
  Speaker 6: six and four or ten. But then they couldn't know it,
• 2:21:33
  Speaker 6: for six were on the inside end of chapter twenty.
• 2:21:40
  Speaker 8: Four Chapter twenty five of Among the Meadow People. This
• 2:21:50
  Speaker 8: is a LibriVox recording. Are LibriVox recordings on the public domain.
• 2:21:55
  Speaker 8: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 2:22:02
  Speaker 8: Recording by Savannah all Day. Among the Meadow People by
• 2:22:07
  Speaker 8: Clara Dillingham Pearson, chapter twenty five. The mosquito tries to
• 2:22:13
  Speaker 8: teach his neighbors in this meadow, as in every other
• 2:22:18
  Speaker 8: meadow Since the world began, there were some people who
• 2:22:21
  Speaker 8: were always tired of the way things were, and thought
• 2:22:24
  Speaker 8: that if the world were only different, they would be
• 2:22:27
  Speaker 8: perfectly happy. One of these discontented ones was a certain mosquito,
• 2:22:32
  Speaker 8: a fella with a whining voice and disagreeable manners. He
• 2:22:36
  Speaker 8: had very little patience with people who were not like him,
• 2:22:39
  Speaker 8: and thought that the world would be a much pleasanter
• 2:22:42
  Speaker 8: place if all insects had been made mosquitoes. What's the
• 2:22:46
  Speaker 8: use of spatters and dragonflies, and beetles and butterflies, he
• 2:22:50
  Speaker 8: would say, abruptly, A mosquito's worth more than any of them.
• 2:22:54
  Speaker 8: You can just see how unreasonable he was. Of course,
• 2:22:58
  Speaker 8: mosquitoes and flies do help keep the air pure and sweet,
• 2:23:01
  Speaker 8: But that is no reason why they should set themselves
• 2:23:04
  Speaker 8: up above the other insects. Do not the bees carry
• 2:23:07
  Speaker 8: pollen from one flower to another, and so help the
• 2:23:10
  Speaker 8: plants raise their seed babies. And who would not miss
• 2:23:13
  Speaker 8: the bright, happy butterflies with the work of making the
• 2:23:16
  Speaker 8: world beautiful. But this mosquito never thought of those things.
• 2:23:21
  Speaker 8: And he said to himself, well, if they cannot help
• 2:23:23
  Speaker 8: be mosquitoes, they can at least try to live like them.
• 2:23:26
  Speaker 8: And I think they will call them together and talk
• 2:23:28
  Speaker 8: it over. So he sent word all around, and his
• 2:23:32
  Speaker 8: friends and neighbors gathered to hear what he had to say.
• 2:23:35
  Speaker 8: In the first place, he remarked, it is unfortunate that
• 2:23:39
  Speaker 8: you are not mosquitoes, But since you are not, one
• 2:23:42
  Speaker 8: must make the best of it. There are some things, however,
• 2:23:45
  Speaker 8: which you might learn from us fortunate creatures who are
• 2:23:48
  Speaker 8: For instance, notice the excellent habit to the mosquitoes. In
• 2:23:52
  Speaker 8: the matter of laying eggs, three or four hundred of
• 2:23:55
  Speaker 8: the eggs are fastened together and left floating on a
• 2:23:58
  Speaker 8: pand in such a way that when the babies break
• 2:24:01
  Speaker 8: their shells, they go head first into the water. Then
• 2:24:05
  Speaker 8: they do you think I would do that if I could,
• 2:24:09
  Speaker 8: interrupted a motherly old grasshopper, fix it to my children
• 2:24:13
  Speaker 8: who drowned them? And so they came out to the egg.
• 2:24:15
  Speaker 8: No indeed, and she hurried angrily away, followed by several
• 2:24:19
  Speaker 8: other loving mothers. But they don't drown, exclaimed the mosquito
• 2:24:24
  Speaker 8: in surprise. They don't if they're mosquitoes, replied the aunt.
• 2:24:28
  Speaker 8: But I am thankful to say my children and land
• 2:24:30
  Speaker 8: babies and our water babies. Why won't say anything more
• 2:24:34
  Speaker 8: about that? But I must speak of your voices, which
• 2:24:37
  Speaker 8: I certainly do heavy and allowed to be pleasant. I
• 2:24:40
  Speaker 8: should think you might speak and sing more softly, even
• 2:24:43
  Speaker 8: if you have no pockets on your wings like mine.
• 2:24:46
  Speaker 8: I've fluttered my wings and the air sticks whose pockets?
• 2:24:49
  Speaker 8: That makes my sweet voice hum exclaimed the bee. It
• 2:24:54
  Speaker 8: is a very poor place for pockets, and a very
• 2:24:56
  Speaker 8: poor used to make of them. Everybody knows that pockets
• 2:24:59
  Speaker 8: are handies on the hud iron legs, and should be
• 2:25:01
  Speaker 8: used for carrying pollen to the babies sent home. My
• 2:25:04
  Speaker 8: pocket is behind, said a spider, and my whipsak is
• 2:25:08
  Speaker 8: kept there. I can live without a pocket. Some of
• 2:25:12
  Speaker 8: the metal people were getting angry, so the garter snake,
• 2:25:15
  Speaker 8: who had always rather laugh than quarrel, glided forward and said,
• 2:25:20
  Speaker 8: my friends and neighbors, our speaker here has been so
• 2:25:23
  Speaker 8: kind as to tell us how the mosquitoes do a
• 2:25:25
  Speaker 8: great many things, than to try to teach us their way.
• 2:25:29
  Speaker 8: It seems to me that we might repay some of
• 2:25:31
  Speaker 8: his kindness by showing him always, and seeing that he
• 2:25:34
  Speaker 8: learns by practice. I would ask the spiders to take
• 2:25:37
  Speaker 8: him with them and show him how to spin a web.
• 2:25:40
  Speaker 8: Then the bees could teach him how to comb, and
• 2:25:43
  Speaker 8: the tree frog how to croak, and the earthworms how
• 2:25:46
  Speaker 8: to burrow, and the caterpillar is how to spin a cocon.
• 2:25:50
  Speaker 8: Each of us will do something for him. Perhaps the
• 2:25:52
  Speaker 8: measuring one will teach him to walk as the worms
• 2:25:55
  Speaker 8: of his family do. I understand he does that very well.
• 2:25:59
  Speaker 8: Here everybody laughed, remembering the joke played on the caterpillars,
• 2:26:03
  Speaker 8: and the snake stopped speaking. The mosquito did not dare
• 2:26:07
  Speaker 8: refuse to be taught, and so he was taken from
• 2:26:10
  Speaker 8: one place to another and told exactly how to do
• 2:26:13
  Speaker 8: everything that he cannot possibly do, until he felt so
• 2:26:17
  Speaker 8: very meek and humble that he was willing the metal
• 2:26:20
  Speaker 8: people should be busy and happy in their own way,
• 2:26:24
  Speaker 8: end of chapter twenty five. Recording by Savannah all.
• 2:26:28
  Speaker 9: Day, Chapter twenty six of Among the Metal People. This
• 2:26:37
  Speaker 9: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
• 2:26:41
  Speaker 9: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
• 2:26:47
  Speaker 9: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Jill Ingall. Among the Metal
• 2:26:54
  Speaker 9: People by Clara Dillingham Pearson, Chapter twenty six. The frog
• 2:27:00
  Speaker 9: who thought herself sick. By the edge of the marsh
• 2:27:03
  Speaker 9: lived a young frog who thought a great deal about herself,
• 2:27:07
  Speaker 9: and much less about other people. Not that it was
• 2:27:11
  Speaker 9: wrong to think so much of herself, but it certainly
• 2:27:14
  Speaker 9: was unfortunate that she should have so little time left
• 2:27:17
  Speaker 9: in which to think of others and of the beautiful world.
• 2:27:21
  Speaker 9: Early in the morning, this frog would awaken and lean
• 2:27:24
  Speaker 9: far over the edge of a pool to see how
• 2:27:26
  Speaker 9: she looked after her night's rest. Then she would give
• 2:27:29
  Speaker 9: a spring and come down with a splash in the
• 2:27:32
  Speaker 9: cool water for her morning bath. For a while, she
• 2:27:35
  Speaker 9: would swim as fast as her dainty webbed feet would
• 2:27:37
  Speaker 9: push her. Then she would rest, sitting in the soft
• 2:27:40
  Speaker 9: mud with just her head above the water. When her
• 2:27:43
  Speaker 9: bath was taken, she had her breakfast, and that was
• 2:27:47
  Speaker 9: the way in which she began her day. She did
• 2:27:50
  Speaker 9: nothing but bathe and eat and rest from sunrise to sunset.
• 2:27:56
  Speaker 9: She had a fine, strong body and had never an
• 2:27:59
  Speaker 9: ache or a pain. But one day she got to thinking,
• 2:28:03
  Speaker 9: what if some time I should be sick? And then,
• 2:28:07
  Speaker 9: because she thought about nothing but her own self, she
• 2:28:10
  Speaker 9: was soon saying, I am afraid I shall be sick
• 2:28:15
  Speaker 9: in a little while. Longer it was I certainly am sick.
• 2:28:20
  Speaker 9: She crawled under a big toadstool and sat there, looking
• 2:28:23
  Speaker 9: very glum, indeed, until a cicada came along. She told
• 2:28:27
  Speaker 9: the cicada how sick she felt, and he told his cousins,
• 2:28:31
  Speaker 9: the locusts, and they told their cousins, the grasshoppers, and
• 2:28:36
  Speaker 9: they told their cousins the katy DIDs, And then everybody
• 2:28:40
  Speaker 9: told somebody else and started for the toadstool where the
• 2:28:44
  Speaker 9: young frog sat. The more she had thought of it,
• 2:28:47
  Speaker 9: the worse she felt, until by the time the meadow
• 2:28:50
  Speaker 9: people came crowding around, she was feeling very sick. Indeed,
• 2:28:54
  Speaker 9: where do you feel? Badly? They cried, and how long
• 2:28:58
  Speaker 9: have you been sick? And one cricket stared with big
• 2:29:01
  Speaker 9: eyes and said, how dreadfully she looks. The young frog
• 2:29:07
  Speaker 9: felt weaker and weaker, and answered in a faint little
• 2:29:11
  Speaker 9: voice that she had felt perfectly well until after breakfast,
• 2:29:15
  Speaker 9: but that now she was quite sure her skin was
• 2:29:18
  Speaker 9: getting dry. And oh dear, and oh dear. Now everybody
• 2:29:24
  Speaker 9: knows that frogs breathe through their skins as well as
• 2:29:28
  Speaker 9: through their noses, and for a frog's skin to get
• 2:29:30
  Speaker 9: dry is very serious, for then he cannot breathe through it.
• 2:29:34
  Speaker 9: So as soon as she said that, everybody was frightened
• 2:29:38
  Speaker 9: and wanted to do something for her. At once. Some
• 2:29:41
  Speaker 9: of the timid ones began to weep, and the others
• 2:29:44
  Speaker 9: bustled around, getting in each other's way, and all trying
• 2:29:48
  Speaker 9: to do something different. One wanted to wrap her in
• 2:29:51
  Speaker 9: mullen leaves. Another wanted her to nibble a bit of
• 2:29:54
  Speaker 9: peppermint which grew near. A third thought she should be
• 2:29:57
  Speaker 9: kept moving. And that was the way it went. Just
• 2:30:01
  Speaker 9: when everybody was at his wits end, the old tree
• 2:30:04
  Speaker 9: frog came along. Puger up. What's the matter with you?
• 2:30:09
  Speaker 9: He said, Oh, gasped the young frog weakly. I am
• 2:30:14
  Speaker 9: sure my skin is getting dry, and I feel as
• 2:30:17
  Speaker 9: though I had something in my head. Umph, grunted the
• 2:30:22
  Speaker 9: tree frog to himself. I guess there isn't enough in
• 2:30:25
  Speaker 9: her head to ever make her sick and ask for
• 2:30:28
  Speaker 9: her skin. It isn't dry yet, and nobody knows that
• 2:30:32
  Speaker 9: it ever will be. But as he was a wise
• 2:30:34
  Speaker 9: old fellow and had learned much about life, he knew
• 2:30:38
  Speaker 9: he must not say such things aloud. What he did
• 2:30:41
  Speaker 9: say was, I heard there was to be a great
• 2:30:44
  Speaker 9: race in the pool this morning. The young frog lifted
• 2:30:48
  Speaker 9: her head quite quickly, saying you did. Who are the racers?
• 2:30:53
  Speaker 9: Why all the young frogs who live around here? It
• 2:30:57
  Speaker 9: is too bad that you cannot go. I don't believe
• 2:31:00
  Speaker 9: it would hurt me any she said. You might take cold,
• 2:31:05
  Speaker 9: the tree frog said, besides, the exercise would tire you.
• 2:31:10
  Speaker 9: Oh but I am feeling much better, the young frog said,
• 2:31:15
  Speaker 9: and I am certain it will do me good. You
• 2:31:17
  Speaker 9: ought not to go, insisted all the older meadow people.
• 2:31:22
  Speaker 9: You really ought not. I don't care, she answered, I
• 2:31:25
  Speaker 9: am going anyway, and I am just as well as anybody.
• 2:31:29
  Speaker 9: And she did go, and it did seem that she
• 2:31:32
  Speaker 9: was as strong as ever. The people all wondered at it.
• 2:31:36
  Speaker 9: But the tree frog winked his eyes at them and said,
• 2:31:39
  Speaker 9: I knew that it would cure her. And then he
• 2:31:43
  Speaker 9: and the garter snake and the fat old cricket laughed together,
• 2:31:47
  Speaker 9: and all the younger meadow people wondered at what they
• 2:31:49
  Speaker 9: were laughing. End of chapter twenty six.
• 2:32:00
  Speaker 5: Of Among the Meadow People. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 2:32:05
  Speaker 5: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 2:32:08
  Speaker 5: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Among
• 2:32:15
  Speaker 5: the Meadow People by Clara Dillingham Pearson, Chapter twenty seven,
• 2:32:21
  Speaker 5: The Katydid's Quarrel. The warm summer days were passed, and
• 2:32:26
  Speaker 5: the katydids came again to the meadow. Everybody was glad
• 2:32:30
  Speaker 5: to see them, and the grasshoppers, who are cousins of
• 2:32:33
  Speaker 5: the katydids, gave a party in their honor. Such a
• 2:32:36
  Speaker 5: time as the meadow people had getting ready for that party.
• 2:32:40
  Speaker 5: They did not have to change their dresses, but they
• 2:32:42
  Speaker 5: scraped and cleaned themselves, and all the young grasshoppers went
• 2:32:45
  Speaker 5: off by the woods to practice jumping and get their
• 2:32:47
  Speaker 5: knees well limbered, because there might be games in dancing
• 2:32:50
  Speaker 5: at the party. And then how dreadful it would be
• 2:32:52
  Speaker 5: if any young grasshoppers should find that two or three
• 2:32:55
  Speaker 5: of his legs wouldn't bend easily. The grasshoppers did not
• 2:32:59
  Speaker 5: know at just what time they ought to have the party.
• 2:33:02
  Speaker 5: Some of the meadow people whom they wanted to invite
• 2:33:04
  Speaker 5: were used to sleeping all day, and some were used
• 2:33:06
  Speaker 5: to sleeping all night. So it really was hard to
• 2:33:09
  Speaker 5: find an hour at which all would be wide awake
• 2:33:11
  Speaker 5: and ready for fun. At last, the tree frog said,
• 2:33:15
  Speaker 5: book her up, book her up. Have it at sunset,
• 2:33:20
  Speaker 5: And at sunset it was everyone came on time, and
• 2:33:25
  Speaker 5: they hopped and chattered and danced and ate a party
• 2:33:27
  Speaker 5: supper of tender green leaves. Some of the little grasshoppers
• 2:33:31
  Speaker 5: grew sleepy and crawled among the plantains for a nap.
• 2:33:35
  Speaker 5: Just then a big katy did said he would sing
• 2:33:37
  Speaker 5: a song, which was a very kind thing for him
• 2:33:39
  Speaker 5: to do, because he really did it to make the
• 2:33:41
  Speaker 5: others happy, and not to show what a fine musician
• 2:33:44
  Speaker 5: he was. All the guests said, how charming, or we
• 2:33:49
  Speaker 5: should be delighted, and he seated himself on a low
• 2:33:52
  Speaker 5: swinging branch. You know how katy did sing with the
• 2:33:55
  Speaker 5: covers of their wings and so when he alighted on
• 2:33:58
  Speaker 5: the branch, he smoothed down his pale green suit and
• 2:34:00
  Speaker 5: rubbed his wing cases a little to make sure that
• 2:34:02
  Speaker 5: they were in tune. Then he began loud and clear,
• 2:34:06
  Speaker 5: Katy did, Katy did? Katy did? Of course, he didn't
• 2:34:10
  Speaker 5: mean any real Katy, but was just singing his song. However,
• 2:34:14
  Speaker 5: there was another Katy did there who had a habit
• 2:34:17
  Speaker 5: of contradicting, and he had eaten too much supper and
• 2:34:20
  Speaker 5: that made him feel crosser than ever. So when the
• 2:34:22
  Speaker 5: singer said Katie did this, fellow jumped up and said,
• 2:34:27
  Speaker 5: Katy didn't. Katie didn't, Katy didn't. And they kept at it,
• 2:34:32
  Speaker 5: one saying that she did and the other that she didn't,
• 2:34:34
  Speaker 5: until everybody was ashamed and uncomfortable, and some of the
• 2:34:37
  Speaker 5: little grasshoppers awakened and wanted to know what was the matter.
• 2:34:42
  Speaker 5: Both of the singers got more and more vexed, until
• 2:34:44
  Speaker 5: at last neither one knew just what he was saying.
• 2:34:47
  Speaker 5: And that, you know, is what almost always happens when
• 2:34:49
  Speaker 5: people grow angry. They just keep saying something as loud
• 2:34:52
  Speaker 5: and fast as possible, and thought all the while that
• 2:34:55
  Speaker 5: they were very bright, which was all they knew about.
• 2:34:58
  Speaker 5: Suddenly somebody noticed it, but the one who began to
• 2:35:00
  Speaker 5: say Katie did was screaming Katie didn't, and the one
• 2:35:05
  Speaker 5: who had said Katie didn't was roaring Katie did. Then
• 2:35:10
  Speaker 5: they all laughed, and the two on the branch looked
• 2:35:12
  Speaker 5: at each other in a very shamefaced way. The tree
• 2:35:15
  Speaker 5: frog always knew the right thing to do, and he
• 2:35:17
  Speaker 5: said buck her up, so loudly that all stopped talking
• 2:35:21
  Speaker 5: at once. When they were quiet, he said, we will
• 2:35:25
  Speaker 5: now listen to a duet Katie by the two singers
• 2:35:28
  Speaker 5: who are up in the tree. All please join in
• 2:35:31
  Speaker 5: the chorus. So it was begun again, and both the
• 2:35:36
  Speaker 5: leaders were good natured, and all the katy DIDs below
• 2:35:38
  Speaker 5: joined in with did or didn't? Did or didn't? Did
• 2:35:42
  Speaker 5: or didn't? And that was the end of the quarrel.
• 2:35:47
  Speaker 5: End of chapter twenty seven.
• 2:35:54
  Speaker 2: Chapter twenty eight of Among the Meadow People. This is
• 2:35:58
  Speaker 2: a LibriVox recording. All ibrivox recordings are in the public domain.
• 2:36:02
  Speaker 2: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 2:36:07
  Speaker 2: Recording by Jennifer Dore. Among the Meadow People by Clara
• 2:36:12
  Speaker 2: Dillingham Pearson, Chapter twenty eight, the last party of the season.
• 2:36:19
  Speaker 2: Summer had been a joyful time in the meadow. It
• 2:36:21
  Speaker 2: had been a busy time, too, and from morning till
• 2:36:25
  Speaker 2: night the chirping and humming of the happy people there
• 2:36:28
  Speaker 2: had mingled with the rustle of the leaves and the
• 2:36:30
  Speaker 2: soft swish swish of the tall grass as the wind
• 2:36:33
  Speaker 2: passed over it. True, there had been a few quarrels
• 2:36:37
  Speaker 2: and some unpleasant things to remember, but these little people
• 2:36:41
  Speaker 2: were wise enough to throw away all the sad memories
• 2:36:44
  Speaker 2: and keep only the glad ones. And now the summer
• 2:36:47
  Speaker 2: was over. The leaves of the forest trees were turning
• 2:36:51
  Speaker 2: from green to scarlet, orange and brown. The beech and
• 2:36:55
  Speaker 2: hickory nuts were only waiting for a friendly frost to
• 2:36:58
  Speaker 2: open their outer shells and loosen their stems so that
• 2:37:02
  Speaker 2: they could fall to the earth. The wind was cold now,
• 2:37:06
  Speaker 2: and the meadow people knew that the time had come
• 2:37:08
  Speaker 2: to get ready for winter. One chilly caterpillar said to another, Booh,
• 2:37:14
  Speaker 2: how cold it is. I must find a place for
• 2:37:16
  Speaker 2: my cocoon. Suppose we sleep side by side this winter,
• 2:37:20
  Speaker 2: swinging on the same bush. And his friend replied, we
• 2:37:24
  Speaker 2: must hurry then, or we shall be too old and
• 2:37:26
  Speaker 2: stiff to spin good ones. The garter snake felt sleepy
• 2:37:30
  Speaker 2: all the time and declared that in a few days
• 2:37:33
  Speaker 2: he would doze off until spring. The tree frog had
• 2:37:36
  Speaker 2: chosen his winter home already, and the bees were making
• 2:37:39
  Speaker 2: the most of their time and visiting the last fall
• 2:37:42
  Speaker 2: flowers and gathering every bit of honey they could find
• 2:37:45
  Speaker 2: for their cold weather stock. The last eggs had been laid,
• 2:37:49
  Speaker 2: and the food had been placed beside many of them
• 2:37:51
  Speaker 2: for the babies that would hatch out in the spring.
• 2:37:54
  Speaker 2: Nothing was left but to say good bye and fall asleep,
• 2:37:58
  Speaker 2: so a message was sent around the meadow for all
• 2:38:00
  Speaker 2: to come to a farewell party under the elm tree.
• 2:38:03
  Speaker 2: Everybody came, and all who could sing did so, and
• 2:38:07
  Speaker 2: the crickets and mosquitoes made music for the rest to
• 2:38:09
  Speaker 2: dance by. The tree frog led off with a black
• 2:38:13
  Speaker 2: and yellow spider. The garter snake followed with a potato bug,
• 2:38:17
  Speaker 2: and all the other crawling people joined in the dance
• 2:38:20
  Speaker 2: on the grass well over their heads. The butterflies and
• 2:38:23
  Speaker 2: other light winged ones fluttered to and fro with airy grace.
• 2:38:28
  Speaker 2: The snail and the fat old cricket had meant to
• 2:38:31
  Speaker 2: look on and really did so for a time from
• 2:38:33
  Speaker 2: a warm corner by the tree. But the cricket couldn't
• 2:38:37
  Speaker 2: stand it to not join in the fun. First, his
• 2:38:40
  Speaker 2: eyes gleamed, his feelers waved, and his feet kept time
• 2:38:43
  Speaker 2: to the music. And when a frisky young aunt beckoned
• 2:38:47
  Speaker 2: to him, he gave a great leap and danced with
• 2:38:49
  Speaker 2: the rest, balancing, jumping, and circling around in a most
• 2:38:53
  Speaker 2: surprising way. When it grew dark, the firefly's light shone
• 2:38:57
  Speaker 2: like tiny stars, and the dancing went on until all
• 2:39:00
  Speaker 2: were tired and ready to sing together the last song
• 2:39:03
  Speaker 2: of the summer, for on the morrow they would go
• 2:39:06
  Speaker 2: to rest, and this was their song. The autumn leaves
• 2:39:11
  Speaker 2: lying so thick on the ground, the summer birds flying
• 2:39:14
  Speaker 2: the meadow around, say goodbye. The seed babies dropping down
• 2:39:20
  Speaker 2: out of our sight. The dragonflies, stopping a moment in flight,
• 2:39:24
  Speaker 2: say goodbye. The red squirrels bearing their nuts to the tree.
• 2:39:28
  Speaker 2: The wild rabbits caring for babies, So wee say goodbye.
• 2:39:34
  Speaker 2: The sunbeams now showing are hazy and pale. The warm
• 2:39:38
  Speaker 2: breezes blowing have changed to a gale, So goodbye. The
• 2:39:43
  Speaker 2: season for working is passing away. Both playing and shirking
• 2:39:47
  Speaker 2: are ended today. So goodbye. The garter snake, creeping so
• 2:39:52
  Speaker 2: softly to rest. The fuzzy worms sleeping within their warm nest,
• 2:39:56
  Speaker 2: say goodbye. The honey bees crawling around the full comb.
• 2:40:01
  Speaker 2: The tiny ants, calling each one to the home, say goodbye.
• 2:40:06
  Speaker 2: We've ended our singing, our dancing and play, and nature's
• 2:40:10
  Speaker 2: voice ringing now tells us to say our goodbye. End
• 2:40:15
  Speaker 2: of Chapter twenty eight. End of Among the Meadow People
• 2:40:19
  Speaker 2: by Clara Dillingham Pearson