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CHAPTER VI RUTH GOES TO A CONCERT
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 Oh, sweet and tiny cousins that belong,
One to the fields, the other to the hearth1,
Both have your sunshine.
—Leigh Hunt.
Ruth and Belinda were crossing the meadow, when a big grasshopper2 made a flying leap, and landed on Belinda’s head.
 
“Do excuse me,” he said; “I missed my aim. No one hurt, I hope, or frightened?”
 
“Oh, no,” answered Ruth. “Belinda is real sensible; she isn’t afraid of anything, and I am just as glad—as glad—to see you. Maybe you will——”
 
83Ruth hesitated, hoping he would know what she meant to say. She was sure he could tell her a great many things, if only he would. He was so polite and nice; besides, he looked very wise.
 
“I suppose you’re going to the concert,” said Mr. Grasshopper, after waiting a second for Ruth to finish her sentence.
 
“Concert?” she repeated, opening her eyes wide. “What concert?”
 
“Why the Straightwings’ Concert. They give one every sunny day in Summer. Didn’t you know that? Dear me, where were you hatched and where have you been living since? Well, why do you stare at me so? Don’t you like my looks?”
 
“Oh, yes,” Ruth hastened to answer. “You look very nice—something like a little old man.”
 
“I’ve heard that before, and there’s a story about it. Shall I tell it?”
 
“Yes, please; I just love stories.”
 
“Very well. Once upon a time, long, 84long ago, there lived in Greece a beautiful young man named Tithonus. Now it chanced that Tithonus loved Aurora4, the Goddess of the Dawn.”
 
“Greece?” said Ruth. “Why, that’s where Arachna lived, the one who turned into a spider, you know?”
 
“Do you want to hear my story or don’t you?” asked Mr. Grasshopper, sharply.
 
“I do want to hear it. I really do.”
 
“Very well, then, don’t interrupt me again. As I was saying, Tithonus loved Aurora, and every morning he would lie in the meadow and wait for her coming. Then the fair goddess would give him her sweetest smiles. But one day Tithonus grew pale and ill, and all the love of Aurora could not make him well again. ‘Alas!’ he cried, ‘I am mortal, and I must die.’ ‘Nay,’ answered Aurora, ‘you shall not die, for I will win for you the gift of the gods.’ And, speeding to the mighty5 Jupiter, she begged that Tithonus might be as a god, and live forever. So 85for a while they were happy together, but as the years passed Tithonus grew old and bent6, for Aurora had forgotten to ask that he might always be young. Grieving much, Tithonus lay under the shadow of the trees and sighed through the long days.”
 
“‘Ah, my Tithonus,’ whispered Aurora, ‘I love you too well to see you thus unhappy. No more shall you be sad or bend beneath an old man’s weakness, but, as a child of the meadow, happy and free, you shall sing and dance through the golden hours.’ In that moment Tithonus became a grasshopper, and ever since then his descendants have danced and sung in the sunshine. That’s the end of the story. I might have made it twice as long, but Summer is so short, and I want to dance.”
 
“It was a very nice story,” said Ruth, “but do you really dance?”
 
“Of course, our kind of dancing.”
 
“But don’t you do lots of other things too?”
 
86“Yes; we give concerts, and we eat. We are hatched with big appetites, and a strong pair of jaws7, and we start right in to use them on the tender grasses around us. We only follow our instincts, though men call it doing damage. You eat, don’t you?”
 
“Why, yes, but I don’t eat grass, you know.”
 
“Because it isn’t your food. You see it’s this way: In the kingdom of nature all creatures have a certain work to do, and each is exactly fitted for its place, for all are governed by laws more wonderful than any man has made. Not that I wish to speak lightly of man, he is good enough in his place, but he is apt to think himself the whole thing, and he isn’t. Maybe he doesn’t know that for every human creature on earth there are millions of plants and animals.”
 
“Oh,” said Ruth, “really and truly?”
 
“Really and truly. You couldn’t begin to count them, and do you know, if the earth was to grow quite bare, with only one living plant left on it, the seeds from that one plant could make it green again in a very few years. But if certain insects were left without other creatures to eat and keep them down, the poor old earth would soon be bare once more. So you see there must be laws to fix all these things. Nature balances one set of creatures against the other, so there will not be too many of any kind.”
 
Ruth had listened in open-eyed astonishment8. Surely this was a very wise grasshopper.
 
“You know a great deal,” she managed to say at last.
 
“Yes, I do,” was the answer. “I heard two men say the things I’ve just told you. They were walking across this meadow, and I listened and remembered. You see, I believe in learning even from men. But do listen to the concert—we are right in the middle of it.”
 
They certainly were in the middle of it. The zip, zip, zip, zee-e-ee-e of the meadow grasshoppers9 seemed to come from every part of the sunny field, while the shorthorns, or flying locusts10, were gently fiddling12 under the grass blades, their wing covers serving for strings13, and their thighs14 as fiddle15 bows, and the field crickets, not to be outdone, were scraping away with the finely notched16 veins17 of the fore3 wings upon their hind18 wings.
 
The longhorns were also there, some in green, others in brown or gray, all drumming away on the drum heads set in their fore wings.
 
“You would hear katydid too,” said Mr. Grasshopper, “only he refuses to sing in the day. He hides under the leaves of the trees while it is light, and comes out at night. If you think me wise, I don’t know what you would say of him. He is such a solemn-looking chap, always dressed in green, and his wing covers are like leaves. You might think him afraid if you saw him wave his long antennæ, but he isn’t. He is curious, that’s all. It is a high sort of curiosity, too, like mine—a wish to learn. I suppose you know we don’t make our music with our mouths?” he asked suddenly. “Well, that is something,” he added, as Ruth nodded “Yes.”
 
“I sing with the upper part of my wing covers, but my cousins, the shorthorns, sing with their hind legs. Why do you laugh? Aren’t legs as good to sing with as anything else?”
 
“I—I suppose so,” said Ruth. “It sounds funny, because I am not used to that kind of singing.”
 
“Just it. Now I shall tell you a few more facts about us. We belong to the order of the Straightwings, or the Orthoptera, as the wise men call it.”
 
“Will you please tell me what that means?” asked Ruth. “Do all insects belong to something ending in tera? Most everything I have talked to does except toads19 and spiders.”
 
“And they are not insects,” said Mr. 91Grasshopper. “Not even the spiders. The word insect means cut into parts, and all insects have three parts, a head, and behind that the thorax or chest, and the abdomen20. Then, too, they always have six jointed21 legs. Now maybe you have noticed that spiders are not built on this plan? There are only two parts of them. The head and thorax are in one. It is called the cephalothorax. I’d feel dreadfully carrying such a thing around with me, but the spiders do not seem to mind it. Their other part is their abdomen. I heard a little boy say it was like a squashy bag; and between ourselves that is about what it is. Of course you know that spiders have eight legs and that alone would settle the question. True insects never have but six. Now as to the orders: All insects are divided into groups, and it is something about the wings which gives them their names. That is why they all end in ptera, because ptera comes from pteron, a word which means wing. It isn’t an English word, you know, but is taken from a language called Greek.”
 
Ruth listened very patiently. If she had heard all this in school it would have seemed very dry, but when a grasshopper is telling you things it is of course quite different.
 
“But I am sure I can never remember it all,” she said.
 
“Ah, yes, you can. Remembering is easy if you only practise it.”
 
“Why, that’s like the White Queen,” cried Ruth. “She practised believing things till she could believe six impossible things at once, before breakfast.”
 
“I don’t know the person,” said the grasshopper.
 
“She lived in the Looking Glass Country,” began Ruth, but Mr. Grasshopper was not listening.
 
“You have met the Diptera, or Two Wings,” he said. “That’s easy. Then you’ve met the Neuroptera, or Nerve Wings. That’s easy too. And now you have met the Orthoptera, or Straightwings, meaning me, and if I’m not easy, I should like to know who is. You see our wings are——”
 
“Wings?” said Ruth in surprise.
 
“Of course. Look here,” and opening his straight wing covers, Mr. Grasshopper showed as nice a pair of wings as one could wish to possess. “Not all of us have wings,” he added, folding his own away, “but those of us who have not live under stones. Our order includes graspers, walkers, runners, and jumpers. Not all are musicians. The graspers live only in hot countries. Maybe you have seen the picture of one of them—the praying mantis22 he is called, just because he holds up his front legs as if he were praying. But it isn’t prayers he is saying. He is waiting for some insect to come near enough so he may grab and eat it. That will do for him. Next come the walkers. The walking stick is one, and he isn’t a good walker either, but the stick part of the name fits him. He is dreadfully thin. There is one on 94that twig23 now, and he looks so much like the twig you can scarcely tell which is which.”
 
“Why, so he does,” said Ruth, poking24 her finger at the twig Mr. Grasshopper pointed25 out. “Isn’t he funny?”
 
“Indeed,” grumbled26 the walking stick. “Maybe you think it polite to come staring at a fellow, and sticking your finger at him, and then call him funny, but I don’t. I want to look like a twig. That’s why I am holding myself so stiff. I have a cousin in the Tropics who has wings just like leaves.”
 
“Yes,” added the grasshopper, “and his wife is so careless she just drops her eggs from the tree to the ground and never cares how they fall.”
 
“Well, if that suits her no one else need object,” snapped the walking stick. “I believe in each one minding his own business.”
 
“An excellent idea,” said Mr. Grasshopper. “Now let me see, where was I? Oh! the runners; but you’ll excuse me, I will not speak of them at all. They include croton 95bugs and cock roaches, and it is quite enough to mention their names. With the jumpers it is different. They are the most important members of the order. I’m a jumper, I am also a true grasshopper. You can tell that by my long slender antennæ, longer than my body. For that reason I am called a longhorn, but my antennæ are really not horns.”
 
“I don’t see how any one could call them horns,” said Ruth.
 
“No more do I, but some people have queer ideas about things. Well, I don’t care much. There is my mate over there. Do you notice the sword-shaped ovipositor at the end of her body? She uses it to make holes in the ground and also to lay her eggs in the hole after it is finished. Yes, she is very careful. Her eggs stay there all Winter, and hatch in the Spring, not into grubs or caterpillars27, or anything of that sort. They will be grasshoppers, small, it is true, and without wings, but true grasshoppers, which need 96only to grow and change their skins to be just like us. And I’m sure we have nothing to be ashamed of. We have plenty of eyes, six legs, and ears on our forelegs, not like you people who have queer things on the sides of your heads. Such a place for hearing! but every one to his taste. Well, to go on, we have wing covers, and lovely wings under them, a head full of lips and jaws, and a jump that is a jump. What more could one wish? Do you know what our family name is?”
 
Ruth didn’t know they had a family name, so of course she could not say what it was.
 
“It is Locustidae,” said Mr. Grasshopper, answering his own question. “Funny too, for there isn’t a locust11 among us. Locusts are the shorthorned grasshoppers—that is, their antennæ are shorter than ours. They are cousins, but we are not proud of them. They are not very good.”
 
“No one is asking you to be proud,” said a grasshopper, jumping from a nearby grass blade. She had a plump gray and green 97body, red legs, and brown wings, with a broad lemon-yellow band.
 
“What’s the matter with me?” she demanded. “I guess you don’t know what you are talking about. It’s the Western fellow that is so bad. We Eastern locusts are different.”
 
“Well, I suppose you are,” agreed the longhorn. “I know the Western locusts travel in swarms28 and eat every green thing in sight. They are called the hateful grasshoppers.”
 
“No one can say that our family has ever been called hateful or anything like it,” said a little cricket with a merry chirp29. “We are considered very cheery company, and one of the sweetest stories ever written was about our English cousin, the house cricket.”
 
“I am sure you mean ‘The Cricket on the Hearth,’” said Ruth. “It is a lovely story, and I think crickets are just dear. Are you a house cricket too?”
 
“No, I belong to the fields, and I sing all day. Sometimes I go into the house when Winter comes and sing by the fire at night, but my real home is in the earth. I dig a hole in a sunny spot and Mrs. Cricket lays her eggs at the bottom, and fastens them to the ground with a kind of glue. Sometimes there are three hundred of them, and you can imagine what a lively family they are when they hatch.”
 
“I should like to see them,” said Ruth, for it was quite impossible for her to imagine so many baby crickets together.
 
“Well, it is a sight, I assure you,” answered the little cricket. “Did you ever come across my cousin the mole30 cricket? She is very large and quite clever. She makes a wonderful home with many halls around her nest. She is always on guard too so that no one may touch her precious eggs. Then I have another cousin, who doesn’t dress in brown like me, but is all white. He lives on trees and shrubs31 and doesn’t eat leaves and grass as we do. He prefers aphides. You can 99hear him making music on Summer evenings. We crickets seldom fly. We——”
 
The sentence was not finished, for just then a long droning note grew on the air, increasing in volume, until it rose above the meadow chorus.
 
“Oh!” cried Ruth, spying a creature with great bulging32 eyes and beautiful, transparent33 wings, glittering with rainbow tints34, “There’s a locust! Isn’t he beautiful, Belinda? Maybe he will tell us some things. Oh, Belinda, aren’t we in luck?”

点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 hearth n5by9     
n.壁炉炉床,壁炉地面
参考例句:
  • She came and sat in a chair before the hearth.她走过来,在炉子前面的椅子上坐下。
  • She comes to the hearth,and switches on the electric light there.她走到壁炉那里,打开电灯。
2 grasshopper ufqxG     
n.蚱蜢,蝗虫,蚂蚱
参考例句:
  • He thought he had made an end of the little grasshopper.他以为把那个小蚱蜢干掉了。
  • The grasshopper could not find anything to eat.蚱蜢找不到任何吃的东西。
3 fore ri8xw     
adv.在前面;adj.先前的;在前部的;n.前部
参考例句:
  • Your seat is in the fore part of the aircraft.你的座位在飞机的前部。
  • I have the gift of fore knowledge.我能够未卜先知。
4 aurora aV9zX     
n.极光
参考例句:
  • The aurora is one of nature's most awesome spectacles.极光是自然界最可畏的奇观之一。
  • Over the polar regions we should see aurora.在极地高空,我们会看到极光。
5 mighty YDWxl     
adj.强有力的;巨大的
参考例句:
  • A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
  • The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。
6 bent QQ8yD     
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的
参考例句:
  • He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
  • We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。
7 jaws cq9zZq     
n.口部;嘴
参考例句:
  • The antelope could not escape the crocodile's gaping jaws. 那只羚羊无法从鱷鱼张开的大口中逃脱。
  • The scored jaws of a vise help it bite the work. 台钳上有刻痕的虎钳牙帮助它紧咬住工件。
8 astonishment VvjzR     
n.惊奇,惊异
参考例句:
  • They heard him give a loud shout of astonishment.他们听见他惊奇地大叫一声。
  • I was filled with astonishment at her strange action.我对她的奇怪举动不胜惊异。
9 grasshoppers 36b89ec2ea2ca37e7a20710c9662926c     
n.蚱蜢( grasshopper的名词复数 );蝗虫;蚂蚱;(孩子)矮小的
参考例句:
  • Grasshoppers die in fall. 蚱蜢在秋天死去。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • There are usually a lot of grasshoppers in the rice fields. 稻田里通常有许多蚱蜢。 来自辞典例句
10 locusts 0fe5a4959a3a774517196dcd411abf1e     
n.蝗虫( locust的名词复数 );贪吃的人;破坏者;槐树
参考例句:
  • a swarm of locusts 一大群蝗虫
  • In no time the locusts came down and started eating everything. 很快蝗虫就飞落下来开始吃东西,什么都吃。 来自《简明英汉词典》
11 locust m8Dzk     
n.蝗虫;洋槐,刺槐
参考例句:
  • A locust is a kind of destructive insect.蝗虫是一种害虫。
  • This illustration shows a vertical section through the locust.本图所示为蝗虫的纵剖面。
12 fiddling XtWzRz     
微小的
参考例句:
  • He was fiddling with his keys while he talked to me. 和我谈话时他不停地摆弄钥匙。
  • All you're going to see is a lot of fiddling around. 你今天要看到的只是大量的胡摆乱弄。 来自英汉文学 - 廊桥遗梦
13 strings nh0zBe     
n.弦
参考例句:
  • He sat on the bed,idly plucking the strings of his guitar.他坐在床上,随意地拨着吉他的弦。
  • She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。
14 thighs e4741ffc827755fcb63c8b296150ab4e     
n.股,大腿( thigh的名词复数 );食用的鸡(等的)腿
参考例句:
  • He's gone to London for skin grafts on his thighs. 他去伦敦做大腿植皮手术了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The water came up to the fisherman's thighs. 水没到了渔夫的大腿。 来自《简明英汉词典》
15 fiddle GgYzm     
n.小提琴;vi.拉提琴;不停拨弄,乱动
参考例句:
  • She plays the fiddle well.她小提琴拉得好。
  • Don't fiddle with the typewriter.不要摆弄那架打字机了。
16 notched ZHKx9     
a.有凹口的,有缺口的
参考例句:
  • Torino notched up a 2-1 win at Lazio. 都灵队以2 比1 赢了拉齐奧队。
  • He notched up ten points in the first five minutes of the game. 他在比赛开始后的五分钟里得了十分。
17 veins 65827206226d9e2d78ea2bfe697c6329     
n.纹理;矿脉( vein的名词复数 );静脉;叶脉;纹理
参考例句:
  • The blood flows from the capillaries back into the veins. 血从毛细血管流回静脉。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • I felt a pleasant glow in all my veins from the wine. 喝过酒后我浑身的血都热烘烘的,感到很舒服。 来自《简明英汉词典》
18 hind Cyoya     
adj.后面的,后部的
参考例句:
  • The animal is able to stand up on its hind limbs.这种动物能够用后肢站立。
  • Don't hind her in her studies.不要在学业上扯她后腿。
19 toads 848d4ebf1875eac88fe0765c59ce57d1     
n.蟾蜍,癞蛤蟆( toad的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • All toads blink when they swallow. 所有的癞蛤蟆吞食东西时都会眨眼皮。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Toads have shorter legs and are generally more clumsy than frogs. 蟾蜍比青蛙脚短,一般说来没有青蛙灵活。 来自辞典例句
20 abdomen MfXym     
n.腹,下腹(胸部到腿部的部分)
参考例句:
  • How to know to there is ascarid inside abdomen?怎样知道肚子里面有蛔虫?
  • He was anxious about an off-and-on pain the abdomen.他因时隐时现的腹痛而焦虑。
21 jointed 0e57ef22df02be1a8b7c6abdfd98c54f     
有接缝的
参考例句:
  • To embrace her was like embracing a jointed wooden image. 若是拥抱她,那感觉活像拥抱一块木疙瘩。 来自英汉文学
  • It is possible to devise corresponding systematic procedures for rigid jointed frames. 推导出适合于钢架的类似步骤也是可能的。
22 mantis Gwayi     
n.螳螂
参考例句:
  • Praying mantis has two powerful claws like sharp knives.螳螂有一对强壮的爪子,它们像锋利的刀。
  • In her mind,it was a female mantis,devouring her mates.她的意识中,是一只雌螳螂正吞咽她的配偶。
23 twig VK1zg     
n.小树枝,嫩枝;v.理解
参考例句:
  • He heard the sharp crack of a twig.他听到树枝清脆的断裂声。
  • The sharp sound of a twig snapping scared the badger away.细枝突然折断的刺耳声把獾惊跑了。
24 poking poking     
n. 刺,戳,袋 vt. 拨开,刺,戳 vi. 戳,刺,捅,搜索,伸出,行动散慢
参考例句:
  • He was poking at the rubbish with his stick. 他正用手杖拨动垃圾。
  • He spent his weekends poking around dusty old bookshops. 他周末都泡在布满尘埃的旧书店里。
25 pointed Il8zB4     
adj.尖的,直截了当的
参考例句:
  • He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
  • She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。
26 grumbled ed735a7f7af37489d7db1a9ef3b64f91     
抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 ); 发牢骚; 咕哝; 发哼声
参考例句:
  • He grumbled at the low pay offered to him. 他抱怨给他的工资低。
  • The heat was sweltering, and the men grumbled fiercely over their work. 天热得让人发昏,水手们边干活边发着牢骚。
27 caterpillars 7673bc2d84c4c7cba4a0eaec866310f4     
n.毛虫( caterpillar的名词复数 );履带
参考例句:
  • Caterpillars eat the young leaves of this plant. 毛毛虫吃这种植物的嫩叶。
  • Caterpillars change into butterflies or moths. 毛虫能变成蝴蝶或蛾子。 来自辞典例句
28 swarms 73349eba464af74f8ce6c65b07a6114c     
蜂群,一大群( swarm的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • They came to town in swarms. 他们蜂拥来到城里。
  • On June the first there were swarms of children playing in the park. 6月1日那一天,这个公园里有一群群的孩子玩耍。
29 chirp MrezT     
v.(尤指鸟)唧唧喳喳的叫
参考例句:
  • The birds chirp merrily at the top of tree.鸟儿在枝头欢快地啾啾鸣唱。
  • The sparrows chirp outside the window every morning.麻雀每天清晨在窗外嘁嘁喳喳地叫。
30 mole 26Nzn     
n.胎块;痣;克分子
参考例句:
  • She had a tiny mole on her cheek.她的面颊上有一颗小黑痣。
  • The young girl felt very self- conscious about the large mole on her chin.那位年轻姑娘对自己下巴上的一颗大痣感到很不自在。
31 shrubs b480276f8eea44e011d42320b17c3619     
灌木( shrub的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • The gardener spent a complete morning in trimming those two shrubs. 园丁花了整个上午的时间修剪那两处灌木林。
  • These shrubs will need more light to produce flowering shoots. 这些灌木需要更多的光照才能抽出开花的新枝。
32 bulging daa6dc27701a595ab18024cbb7b30c25     
膨胀; 凸出(部); 打气; 折皱
参考例句:
  • Her pockets were bulging with presents. 她的口袋里装满了礼物。
  • Conscious of the bulging red folder, Nim told her,"Ask if it's important." 尼姆想到那个鼓鼓囊囊的红色文件夹便告诉她:“问问是不是重要的事。”
33 transparent Smhwx     
adj.明显的,无疑的;透明的
参考例句:
  • The water is so transparent that we can see the fishes swimming.水清澈透明,可以看到鱼儿游来游去。
  • The window glass is transparent.窗玻璃是透明的。
34 tints 41fd51b51cf127789864a36f50ef24bf     
色彩( tint的名词复数 ); 带白的颜色; (淡色)染发剂; 痕迹
参考例句:
  • leaves with red and gold autumn tints 金秋时节略呈红黄色的树叶
  • The whole countryside glowed with autumn tints. 乡间处处呈现出灿烂的秋色。


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