One night, though, the people who owned the great big old fashioned
house did not have a fire in the fireplace, and little Teeny Cricket
was bundled up in warm covers and rocked to sleep, and all the Cricket
family went to bed in the dark.

Johnny Cricket had just dozed into dreamland when he was awakened by
something pounding ... ever so loudly ... and he slipped out of bed and
into his two little red topped boots and felt his way to the crack in
the living room wall.

Johnny heard loud voices and merry peals of laughter, so he crawled
through the crack and looked out into the fireplace.

There in front of the fireplace he saw four pink feet and two laughing
faces way above, while just a couple of Cricket-hops from Johnny's nose
was a great big man. Johnny could not see what the man was pounding, but
he made an awful loud noise.

Finally the pounding ceased and the man leaned over and kissed the
owners of the pink feet. Then there were a few more squeals of laughter,
and the four pink feet pitter-patted across the floor and Johnny could
see the owners hop into a snow-white bed.

Then Johnny saw the man walk to the lamp and turn the light down low,
and leave the great big room.

Johnny Cricket jumped out of the crack into the fireplace and ran out
into the great big room so that he might see what the man had pounded.
The light from the lamp was too dim for him to make out the objects