"Sometimes they step on the holes and close them," said an Ant. "What would you do if you were in a hole and it stopped being a hole and was just earth?" "Crawl out, I suppose," answered the Milkweed Butterfly with a careless flutter. "Yes," said the Ant, "but I don't see what there would be to crawl out through." The Milkweed Butterfly was already gone. Butterflies never worry about anything very long, you know. "Has anybody seen the Measuring Worm?" asked the Katydid. "Where is he?" "Oh, I'm up a tree," answered a pleasant voice above their heads, "but I sha'n't be up a tree very long. I shall come down when the grass is cut." "Oh, dear, dear, dear!" cried the Ants, hurrying around. "We can't think what we want to do. We don't know what we ought to do. We can't think and we don't know, and we don't think that we ought to!" "Click!" said a Grasshopper, springing into the air. "We must hurry, hurry, hurry!" He jumped from a stalk of pepper-grass to a plantain. "We _must_ hurry," he said, and he jumped from the plantain back to the pepper-grass. Up in the tree where the Measuring Worm was, some Katydids were sitting on a branch and singing shrilly: "Did you ever? Did you ever? Ever? Ever? Ever? Did you ever?" And this shows how much excited they were, for they usually sang only at night. Then the mower came sweeping down the field, drawn by the Blind Horse and the Dappled Gray, and guided by the farmer himself. The dust rose in clouds as they passed, the Grasshoppers gave mighty springs which took them out of the way, and all the singing and shrilling stopped until the mower had passed. The nodding grasses swayed and fell as the sharp knives slid over the ground. "We are going to be hay," they said, "and live in the big barn." "Now we shall grow some more tender green blades," said the grass roots. "Fine weather for haying," snorted the Dappled Gray. "We'll cut all the grass in this field before noon." "Good feeling ground to walk on," said the Blind Horse, tossing his head until the harness jingled. Then the Horses and the farmer and the mower passed far away, and the meadow people came together again. "Well," said the Tree Frog. "That's over for a while." The Ants and the Grasshoppers came back to their old places. "We did just the right thing," they cried joyfully. "We got out of the way." The Measuring Worm and the Katydids came down from their tree as the Milkweed Butterfly fluttered past. "The men left the grass standing around the Meadow Mouse's nest," said the Milkweed Butterfly, "and the Cows up by the barn are telling how glad they will be to have the hay when the cold weather comes." "Grass must grow and hay be cut," said the wise old Tree Frog, "and when the time comes we always know what to do. Puk-rup! Puk-r-r-rup!" "I think," said the fat old Cricket, as he crawled out of his hole, "that my lame leg is well enough to use. There is nothing like rest for a lame leg." [Illustration]