THE SINGER AND THE CRICKET.
One summer day, long ago, a great many people came together to listen to a festival of song. They sat around in bright colored tents, laughing and feasting.
By and by some one shouted, “The Mastersingers! The Mastersingers!” The people cheered them as they passed to their places.
First one and then another of the Mastersingers came forward and sang.
At last a young man took his lute and stood before the people. While he was singing a beautiful song of spring, one of the strings of his lute broke.
Just then a cricket jumped upon the lute. Whenever the singer touched the broken string, the cricket sang.
Those who listened did not know of the broken string. The song of the cricket was like the music of the lute.
When the song was ended, the women clapped their hands. The men waved their hats and cheered.
No one had ever heard such beautiful music. The Mastersong had been sung. They crowned the singer with flowers and hung a gold chain around his neck.
In the city where he lived there stands a beautiful statue of the Mastersinger.
In his left hand the Mastersinger holds a lute. The other hand points to a cricket that stands beside a broken string.
The statue tells us that the great man did not forget the little friend that helped him sing the Mastersong.
Suggested byRobert Browning’spoem, “The Two Poets of Crosie.”