THE GRASSHOPPER.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 226, 29 October 1887, Page 3

THE GRASSHOPPER.

A grasshopper sat in an oak troo green, Mending the shoos of the fairy queen, For he was a cobbler of all tho lays, Yellows and. purple 3 and greens and greys,. As ho sat on the limb of the old oak tree; Oh, merry and bold and ever so old. As I heard one day when this story was told I A bobolink skirmishing over the way, Called to the grasshopper, " Sir, t?ood day !M! M And the grasshopper, cobbling still at his shoe* Answered politely, "The samo toyou!" Arid nodded Ins head with a little bow, Though I couldn't exactly tell you how. For tho prince of good manners—tho grasshopper—he, ' As ho cobbled away in his old oak tree! " How much do you make by the day and the week ?" Tho bobolink asked with a flirt and a shriek: '" Three golden leaves of tho buttercup flower— Three crystal drops from the latest shower; Three sacks of meal from the pollen's best That the elves shake oft from the cowslip's. breast; And that doth keep mo both well and good* For I'm the boss cobbler of all tho wood!" A harefoot boy, as ho camo along. Had loitered to list to the bobolink's song, And shy a. stone, us woll as he could, At the little boss cobbler of all the wood; " You cobble a shoo !" ho cried as he laughed, " You're the funniest cobbler of all your craft; Why, your leather's a leat, and your paste—it is dew! Oh, what a cobbler to cobble a shoe." But, the bobolink answered with honest wrath. As ho peered at the boy in the woodland path, "Each ono is wisest and skiltullest, too, That knows just the work that he has to do; For ellln feet those slippers are best That are mado from the tiniest leaflets' vest: While Nature s leather seems fitto'i for you, As you wear it still!" And away he flew.