So on they went for a long time; and in the afternoon the grasshopper began to get very tired, and did not make anything like such long jumps as he had done at first. They were going down a grassy hill, and had just reached the bottom, when Ting-a-ling heard some one calling him. Looking around him in astonishment, he saw that it was a little fairy of his acquaintance, younger than himself, named Parsley, who was sitting in the shade of a wide-spreading dandelion.
"Hello, Parsley!" cried Ting-a-ling, reining up. "What are you doing there?"
"Why you see, Ting-a-ling," said the other, "I came out to look for the Princess."—
"You!" cried Ting-a-ling; "a little fellow like you!"
"Yes, I!" said Parsley; "and Sourgrass and I rode the same butterfly; but by the time we had come this far, we got too heavy, and Sourgrass made me get off."
"And what are you going to do now?" said Ting-a-ling.
"O, I'm all right!" replied Parsley. "I shall have a butterfly of my own soon."
"How's that?" asked Ting-a-ling, quite curious to know.
"Come here!" said Parsley; and so Ting-a-ling got off his grasshopper, and led it up close to his friend. "See what I've found!" said Parsley, showing a cocoon that lay beside him. "I'm going to wait till this butterfly's hatched, and I shall have him the minute he comes out."
The idea of waiting for the butterfly to be hatched, seemed so funny to Ting-a-ling, that he burst out laughing, and Parsley laughed too, and so did the grasshopper, for he took this opportunity to slip his head out of the bridle, and away he went!