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Read Ebook: Beschrijving van het Rijks-Planetarium te Franeker Van 1772 tot 1780 uitgedacht en vervaardigd door Eise Eisinga by Eekhoff W Wopke Swinden Jan Hendrik Van Sannes K J Klaas Joh Illustrator
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Ebook has 699 lines and 60880 words, and 14 pages
Transcriber's note:
A letter preceded by a caret was superscripted in the original.
GRASSH^oPPER GREEN
MEAD^oW-MI^cE
A WORD ABOUT THIS BOOK
This is the story of the grasshopper who fiddled all summer and didn't have any place to go when the cold winter wind began to blow. "No, you can't live in my house this winter," said the hard-hearted ant, but a family of field mice took in Grasshopper Green and gave him gooseberry syrup for his cough and made him very comfortable. Eyes will grow big at the exciting climax of the story, when Grasshopper Green saves the mice children from a big black cat.
This is another one of the Sunny Books, made for the special delight of children by authors and artists who know and love them, and who leave out fear, mischief, and cruelty. The story of Grasshopper Green is full of lively humor and emphasizes the virtues of kindness and generosity without moralizing.
This book is planned for children from six to nine years old. It can be read to children of three and over.
GRASSHOPPER
GREEN
and the
MEADOW-MICE
Written and illustrated by
John Rae
Published by Algonquin Publishing Company New York
This Book is dedicated,
to Grasshoppers,
Meadow-Mice,
Fairies & Children:
especially to
Waltie,
Jackie
Robyn
GRASSHOPPER GREEN AND
THE MEADOW-MICE
Of Course you know the story of "The Grasshopper and the Ant"--how one autumn, when the winds were growing raw and cold and the nights frosty, the poor Grasshopper, who hadn't done anything but fiddle and dance all through the pleasant summer and had nothing laid by for the hard winter, went to the thrifty Ant and asked for a bite to eat and a chance to warm his toes in the chimney corner. And how the tight-fisted Ant refused and said to the shivering Grasshopper, "Keep on fiddling and dancing, it may help to keep you warm!"
Now you've probably wondered, just as I used to, whatever finally became of that Grasshopper.
Now, make yourself comfortable and cozy and listen.
After the sneering Ant had banged the door in his face, Grasshopper Green felt, as you may imagine, miserable, forlorn and friendless.
It was growing dark. He turned up the collar of his threadbare claw-hammer coat and shuffled along over the frozen ground, scarcely noticing where his benumbed feet were taking him.
He tried wrapping himself in a fallen leaf; it was red and looked as though it might be warm. But, alas! it proved to be a very thin covering against the biting, icy wind.
He tried to cheer himself up by playing on his little fiddle, but his fingers were too cold to play lively, cheerful tunes.
At last, feeling too chilled and hungry and discouraged to go any further, he sank down at the foot of an old apple tree. This was some protection at least from the wintry blasts which, by now, were moaning, "Whoo-ooh-whee-eeeh!" among the bare branches in a very disheartening way.
Poor Grasshopper Green wrapped his leaf cape tightly about him and, in spite of his chattering teeth, finally fell into an uneasy sleep.
He dreamed that he was wandering over an immense field of ice. Suddenly there appeared before him a little red table, upon which was a large yellow bowl of steaming, fragrant broth! Beside the table stood a chair, over the back of which was thrown a thick, fur-lined coat.
Just as he reached for the coat, he heard a terrific howling, and the next moment a gigantic hand had swept past him, snatching away the coat and the soup, and so terrifying Grasshopper Green that he fell over backward--and awoke.
"Well, singe my whiskers, what's this? What's this?" he heard a hearty voice exclaiming, and, looking up, was astonished to find himself in the cosy home of a family of Meadow-Mice!
This is how it had happened. When Grasshopper Green sank down exhausted among the roots of the old apple tree, he had not noticed, in the darkness, that he was leaning against a small door; this was the door of the home of the Meadow-Mouse family, who lived here in a hollow part of the tree, near the roots.
An especially strong gust of wind had blown the door open and tumbled Grasshopper Green into the room.
When he sat up and looked about he was not quite sure, at first, that this was not just a part of his dream.
Father and Mother Meadow-Mouse and their four children, Long-Tail, Sharp-Eyes, Pink-Ears, and Mouseykins, had finished their supper of cornbread and cheese, and Father Meadow-Mouse was telling of two narrow escapes he had had the night before, one from a horned owl and one from Farmer Green's cat, Mouser. He had just come to the most exciting part of his adventures and all the family were listening with breathless interest, when the door, which had been left unbolted, blew open, as I have told you, and in tumbled poor Grasshopper Green.
Father and Mother Meadow-Mouse helped him over to their most comfortable chair, by the fire, for the poor fellow was so benumbed by the cold that he could hardly even stand alone.
While Grasshopper Green was explaining, in a wheezing voice, interrupted by coughs, how it was that he had burst in on them so rudely, Mother Meadow-Mouse filled a plate with food for him; then, bustling over to a corner cupboard, she got down a little jug of homemade Gooseberry syrup, poured some of it into a pannikin and set this on the fire to heat, saying as she did so, "There's nothing like warmed Gooseberry syrup to break up a cough."
Father Meadow-Mouse would every now and then blow his nose and exclaim, "Well, singe my whiskers and twist my tail!" just to express his sympathy.
Of course the little Meadow-Mouse children looked on with the greatest interest. When they saw their mother's treasured Gooseberry juice brought out they all pretended to have coughs, and Mother Meadow-Mouse good-naturedly gave them each a few drops.
When famished Grasshopper Green had eaten all he could--which, of course, seemed like very little to the big, hearty Meadow-Mice--and when he had drunk the delicious Gooseberry juice, he sank back in the comfortable chair with a contented sigh.
Father Meadow-Mouse carried him into the children's room, where there was an old cradle which was about the right size for him, for you see a grown-up Grasshopper is not much bigger than a baby mouse.
Good Father Meadow-Mouse then covered him up carefully with the very warmest blanket from his own bed.
Grasshopper Green felt so much better when he awoke in the morning, and a fine sunny morning it was, too, for the storm was over. The kindness of the Meadow-Mice, even mere than the food and warmth, had made him feel almost like himself again, and if you've ever been acquainted with Grasshoppers, you know, of course, how sprightly and happy they naturally are.
He was still rather weak, however; so Mother Meadow-Mouse, who was a famous nurse, made him stay in bed and took care of him as if he had been one of her own family.
She put a mustard-seed poultice on his chest, and gave him a little hot corn gruel, and a drop or two of honey every two hours for his hoarseness.
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