35 



CHAPTER VI. 



A NATURE STUDY LESSON ON THE GRASSHOPPER. 

 By JULIA E. ROGKRS, East High School,' Des Moines. 



The day the fall term began the teacher asked the children to 

 fetch in some live grasshoppers and put them into a cage that 

 stood on her desk. It was a strange' looking cage, and made in 

 the following way: A strip of wire netting 36 inches long and 9 

 inches wide, was cut from an old screen door. This strip was 

 bent so as to form the four sides of a nine inch cube. T\vo pieces 

 each 9 inches square, were set in to form the top aud bottom. The 

 corner seams were sewed with a wire thread over and over. A 

 round hole two inches in diameter was cut in the top, and a three 

 inch disc of cardboard formed the cover, held in place by a brass 

 paper fastener. (The teacher and the little boy where she boarded 

 made this cage on Saturday. ) 



The children came on the second morning and nearly all had 

 "hoppers" to slip into the cage. There were several of the ordi- 

 nary red legged variety, a few delicate-looking green ones, a big, 

 striped fellow which looked muscular and pugnacious, and didn't 

 like the cage at all. When the bell rang, and the opening exercises 

 were over the following conversation took place: 



'Did you have any trouble finding grasshoppers this morning?" 



The tone and manner of the teacher were so pleasant and re- 

 assuring that the children were soon at their ease and ready to tell 

 their experience. John was not shy, and the teacher said, nodd- 

 ing to him, "Tell us how you got the big one." 



"He was in the road and I almost stepped on him. He made a 

 loud snapping noise as he flew away and I lost him; he is just the 

 color of the road. But I ran him down and caught him under my 

 hat." 



Mary. "I heard mine singing in the grass, and went up close, 

 but it stopped. I looked a long time and at last it began again, 

 and I saw it on a grass stem. It was just the same color. I grab 

 bed it before it had time to get away, and brought it to school in 

 my handkerchief." 



Alice. "I got the brown one last night on our grape vine. It 

 was hard to find, too, 'cause its the same color as the vine." 



Jim. "I came acrost Gray's niedder, and I found this fer yuh," 

 and he laid in the teacher's hand a piece of sod in which was a 

 large mass of eggs, cemented together, and packed away for safe 

 keeping. 



