The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1893-07-13
GRAssHoPPER STORY.

cRAssHoP PER sroRY.
The g e'+|ras-hopper Jumped and Freddy.
s.Oh'' Startled the Congregation.
Pop, said little Frankly Billions
'.tell me a story. Z
well, Frankly" said Mr.. Bill
tops, 'sonce there was q little boy
whose name was Freddy. His real
full name was Frederick Tmby, bull
every body always called him just
Freddy, quotes the New York Sun. &
FREDDY lived in the city, but every
summer he used to 60 to see his aunt.
who lived in the country in little
old village. There was an old church
in this village, and every Sunday
morning Freddy used to go there.
Generally his father and mother and
some of the other folks from the
house used to go, too; but one Sun
day, just Freddy and his aunt went
alone. r.
cit was a warm day and the win
dows of the church were pulled down
all around at the top to let in the air.
Freddy looked out through these open
windows and saw the sunshine and
saw the branches of the trees sway.
ing and heard the rustling Of the
leaves, and somehow it all made him
very sleepy, and the first thing, you
know, he was fast asleep. But Fred
dy's aunt knew that children
go to sleep in church some
times and she was looking
out for him all the time, and when
she saw him nod and nod and nod she
fixed it so that when he nodded clean
over his head fell against her, where
he was all safe. 5
.tsAfter a while Freddy woke up
suddenly, as folks do sometimes with
out knowing just what wakes them,
and he looked along the vacant part
Of the pew in which he was sitting.
You know there were only Freddy
and his aunt in the pew and they sat
at one end of it, SO there was long
vacant space between them and the
other end. Right square in the center
of this space Freddy saw big grass
hopper; he was sitting there perfectly
still with his head pointed toward
the pulpit. Freddy didn't know
whether the grasshopper was asleep,
| or what, but he kept on looking at
him, and pretty soon he knew
the grasshopper wasn't asleep,
for he saw him rub his right leg up
and down against his side, and then
he saw him rub his left leg up and
down that side; then the grasshopper
stood perfectly still again. Then he
turned half around right where he
stood and faced toward Freddy, and
just stood there very still, but all of
a sudden the grasshopper made
tremendous jump and landed right
on Freddy's shoulder, Freddy said
sOh!' "~
cit was only a very small word,
with only two letters in it, but it
startled the whole congregation and
made the minister stop preaching.
Everybody looked around toward
Freddy and his aunt. But. Freddy's
aunt is one :of those people who
always seem to know just what to do
when anything happens. The first
thing she did was to put her arm
around Freddy and draw him up near
err to her and sort of turn his face
toward her, for she knew that if
Freddy should see all the people
looking at him in that way it would
| make him feel bad; and when she had
done this she just looked straight
ahead as though nothing had hap
pened, as though she had never heard
of nything happening, and as though
she didn't expect anything was going
to happen for the next 7O) years.
THE minister had seen right
away that nothing wonderful had
happened and he had gone right on
preaching again. When the people
saw Freddy's aunt looking ahead in
that way they turned around again
and faced toward the pulpit once
more, and rything went on just
as before"
''What became of the grasshopper,
pop?" asked Frankly.
But that was something that Mr..
BillJOps could not answer.