"Oh dear! why do we have to get up?" said one little cricket, poking his head over the clothes. "Lots of bugs sleep all night."
"Yes, but they are up all the daytime," answered Dame Cricket, "and they run a great risk, I can assure you, my dear. Our family used to sing in the daytime, but if we had kept on there would be no cricket family. There is a reason for our sleeping days and singing at night."
"Oh, mother, is it a story?" asked all the little crickets, jumping out of bed with a bound and gathering about their mother.
"Yes, there is a story about our family, and if you will all hurry and dress I will tell it to you," she said.
Very quietly all the little crickets began to dress, and their mother began the story:
"Once, long, long ago," she said, "our family sang in the daytime and slept at night; but one day the Great-grandfather Cricket noticed that our singing was not as loud as usual, so he called all the children, big and little, about him and looked at their throats.
"'Strange, strange!' he remarked. 'You all have fine-looking throats, as fine as ever crickets had, and yet our singing is very faint; there is not as much volume to it as in the old days. I will call on Doctor Frog this very day, and see what he thinks about it.'
"Doctor Frog thought awhile and then he asked, 'How many have you in your family, now, Mr. Cricket?'
"Great-grandfather called us all about him and began to count, and to his amazement he found our family was only about half the size it should be.
"'Just as I thought,' said Dr. Frog, 'the voices are as good as ever, but there are not so many of you, and, of course, the singing is not so loud as it was once.