At last Mrs. Cricky found what she wanted, and home she came. Chirp and
Chee and Chirk were fed, and then it was time to begin school. Mrs.
Cricky always taught her own children. She had rented three little
toad-stools, not any bigger than tacks, from Toadie Todson, and these
the children used for desks. She often said that she thought round-top
desks better than flat, for then the children were not so likely to lean
their elbows on them. School began promptly as the sun rose; nine
o'clock would have seemed a lazy hour to the little Cricketses. The
principal study Mrs. Cricky taught was Cheerfulness, much the same as
you are taught reading and writing. She said that the whole duty of a
cricket was to be cheerful. After this she gave them some lessons in
Fear. These lessons were something like the things your mother tells
you, such as, "Don't go near the water," "Fire burns," "Don't put beans
in your ears," "Look before you leap;" only Mrs. Cricky told Chirp and
Chee and Chirk never to go near one of old Stingy's spider-webs, and
when they saw a giant coming with a fish pole in his hand, to hop away
as fast as they could. Then, too, she said there was a four-footed
animal, called a cat, that caught little crickets to eat them up. After
this they all chirruped together as she waved a blade of grass to keep
time, then she rang a blue-bell and school was over. She put three
little clover-leaf sunbonnets on them and sent them out into the sun to
play.

Now Chirp and Chee and Chirk were like other little boys and girls who
do not learn their lessons very well. And Chee was careless about
listening to his lessons in Fear. They went right out with their three
little clover-leaf sunbonnets on and down to the edge of the lake. Chee
climbed way up to the top end of a large blade of grass, and was
balancing there, much as you like to on a spring-board, when
accidentally he fell into the lake. Chirp and Chirk ran to and fro,