[Illustration: And the last thing that Winnie remembers was the Great Green Grasshopper's Wife hurrying the little Skipjacks off to bed.] THE GREAT GREEN GRASSHOPPER'S BAND (CHRISTMAS DAY) [Illustration] "I beg your pardon!" said the Great Green Grasshopper's wife. "I think I ought to beg yours," said Winnie politely. Perhaps, however, you would like me to begin at the very beginning. Very well, then; but you must remember that, for most of it, I can only tell you what Winnie told me. It all seems to have happened between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. On Christmas Eve, our Cricket, who lives in the kitchen behind the hot-water pipes, had started chirruping as usual, and I had gone into the library, and hunted out an old, old Christmas book and started reading to my small friends a story which began with a cricket singing against a tea-kettle. Then we had had a snapdragon, and then the waits had come round, so everything had been as Christmassy as ever it could be. Just as the waits finished Winnie had got into bed and snuggled herself up. All this I can vouch for myself, for I was there all the time, and I can remember how good the snapdragon was, though I did not eat quite so many raisins as one little girl. However, as she said afterwards, "Even if I did eat thirty, Father, it was quite worth it." So much for the true part of the tale--now for the magic. Winnie tells me that she never went to sleep at all! The waits and the cricket and the snapdragon and the kettle were all mixed up in her head, and the snapdragon had turned hungry and was trying to snap up the waits, and the kettle was puffing like a little traction engine, and in between the puffs there was a sad little chirrupy sound which she thought must be the cricket. It seemed only kind then that she should slip out of bed, listen on the landing, and creep down to the kitchen to see how the cricket was getting on. She found him sitting on the hearthstone and watching the people in the fire going to church. [Illustration: WINNIE TELLS ME THAT SHE NEVER WENT TO SLEEP AT ALL!] "I can't attend to you now," he said, "I'm just going out." Winnie had half expected him to speak, but she was a little frightened all the same, and a little curious too. "Do take me with you," she said. "Where are you going?" "Where am I going?" said the Cricket in a surprised tone. "Why, it's Christmas Eve!" "Yes, isn't it lovely!" said Winnie; "and to-morrow there'll be presents. But where are you going?" "I'm going to be a wait, of course," said the Cricket. "I've been practising all the evening. Listen!"