Here Grandfather Grasshopper stopped. The elves could not imagine why. It was so sudden that Spider Eyes lost his balance and was tossed over the grasshopper’s head.
He came down with such a thump that he could hardly tell his head from his heels.
He heard the grasshopper and the elves laughing, but he could not see them, for he was under a sheaf of wheat.
He called out angrily to them: “You may laugh, if you will; but I tell you it is no fun to be thrown in mid air and land on your head. You would not like it a bit, Chip Wing, to be tangled up in this place. I can not get out by myself, so do come and take some of these straws away. They are tearing my wings and my clothes.”
They called, “Where are you, Spider Eyes? We cannot see you; speak again, so that we may find you.”
“Here I am, right here! Now I will kick, and you will see where to pull away the straws. Quick! I am smothering.”
The elves flew to the top of the sheaf, from where Spider Eyes’ voice sounded, and saw that he had been pitched into a hole, where he lay on his back, fighting and struggling with the straws.
They looked at each other in dismay, asking: “How can we get him out of that hole?”
By this time Grandfather Grasshopper had hopped to the top. He said: “I can tell you how to do it.”
The elves asked quickly, “How?”