GRASSHOPPERS 



WHEN Mrs. Emerson was sitting in the library of 

 her home one June afternoon reading an interesting 

 book, she heard a great noise outdoors. "Those 

 are the Blake boys ; I wonder what has happened," 

 she said to herself, and started reading again. In a 

 little while the noise broke out again, much louder 

 than before. The Blake boys lived next door to 

 her and were very noisy at times, but this time it 

 sounded to her as if something terrible had happened 

 and that the boys were calling for help. She ran 

 across the hall and through another room to that 

 side of the house where the noise came from, to find 

 out what the trouble could be. As she put one 

 hand on the closed shutters to open them she called, 

 "What is the matter, boys?" 



The boys answered at the top of their voices, 

 "Mrs. Emerson, Mrs. Emerson, don't open that 

 blind, and don't look out !" 



"Well, what can the trouble be?" she asked her- 

 self, nervously, and then called very loud : "What is 

 the trouble ? Is there a rattlesnake out there in the 

 rosebushes?" 



79 



