84 FARM SPIES 



able to find them again the next day. " Hello, 

 Pete," Freddie called to the old family horse which 

 stood near by looking at the boys across the garden 

 fence. " Pete ; what are you looking so grave about ? 

 You could not have heard what father said when he 

 was here in the garden some time ago. If you had 

 seen us watching and pitying an old grasshopper for 

 having gotten fast in an ant-burrow when it was 

 merely laying eggs, you could not stand there and 

 look as sober as you do." The boys had a good laugh 

 over what they had nearly forgotten ; and, answer- 

 ing their mother's call, they went to the house. 



"I am glad that father has forgotten about it," 

 Willie said as they were passing through the garden 

 gate. 



"So am I," remarked Freddie. 



After supper that evening their father asked, 

 "Did you find any more grasshoppers stuck fast 

 in ant-holes, boys?" The boys, after a rather 

 sheepish laugh, told what they had seen since their 

 father left them in the afternoon. Freddie, it seems, 

 had paid especial attention to the food of the insects. 

 "I never should have believed that anything on 

 earth could be as big a glutton as Mr. Stevens's bull 

 terrier. I have seen him gulp down a plate of po- 

 tatoes so fast that I have often wondered how he 

 did it. I thought he was about to bust when he 

 turned around and gave a large piece of an old ham, 



