“Well, call it five feet,” said Ethel, with a very serious face. “If you had the power of a grasshopper you could hop six hundred feet. That is to say, you could hop a _long_ city block.” The idea of Minerva hopping from Seventh Avenue to Eighth (for instance) was too much for me and I began to cough so hard that I had to go up stairs for a trochee. When I came down Ethel was saying, “You’ve heard the noises in the grass, haven’t you?” “’Deed I have,” said Minerva, dismally. “Did you know that the grasshoppers make a great deal of that noise?” “No’m,” said Minerva, her mouth wide open. “They do. And how do you suppose they do it?” “They blow, I suppose.” “No, they don’t blow. Do they, Philip?” “No, very few grasshoppers can blow. They can blow away, but they make that noise by—er—why, they make that noise—” The words of a college song came into my head, “I can play the fiddle with my left hind leg.” “They make fiddles of themselves and play, Minerva.” Minerva looked at me seriously. “That’s it, Minerva,” said Ethel eagerly. “They scrape their wings in some way and that makes the sound. You don’t know how many things there are to learn about the country and, Minerva, it isn’t half as dangerous as the city. To-morrow if it is pleasant, we’ll go out and try to catch a grasshopper playing his little fiddle. You may go, now, Minerva.” Minerva went out and closed the kitchen door and the next minute the house shook. I thought of the powder mills at Mildon. Again the house shook. “It is Minerva hopping,” said Ethel. “Pretty close to six hundred feet, from the sound,” said I. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER XII “THE SIMPLE LIFE.” I HAD strung up a hammock between two trees in front of the house and days when Ethel did not feel like walking she used to lie in it while I sat by her side and read to her. She would have been glad to read to me some times, but if there is anything I dislike it is to be read to. I can never follow what is being said unless I have a book in front of me, and besides as I cannot knit and do not know how to draw it would be time wasted for me to sit still and listen to reading.