CHAPTER IV
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?”
“You wait here,” he replied, “and I will hunt through the field for two long and stout straws to bind together.”
Off he started in quest of the straws, and the little elves sat down to wait.
Spider Eyes, who had not heard what the grasshopper said, thought he had lain there long enough, and he cried out to his three companions, “Now, Dusty Cap, Chip Wing, Pointed Toes! I call that mean. I would help you. But you sit chattering, and leave me here in distress.”
Then Spider Eyes kicked away at the straws very impatiently.
“We are very sorry for you,” said Chip Wing. “Help is coming. Grandfather Grasshopper has gone for it.”
“Well,” said Spider Eyes, almost crying, “it is dreadful to lie here. The straws stick into my back and into my ears—even into my eyes—and when I move to get them out of my way, they raise such a dust that it chokes me almost to death; and I cannot see. I wish you would hurry. Do be quick!”
“Here comes Grandfather Grasshopper,” they all cried. “Now you can get out sure.”
Soon Grandfather Grasshopper arrived with the two straws of wheat lying across his back.
They looked like two logs of wood dragging on the ground.
As he came toward the elves he said: “You will have to pull them off. I cannot possibly do it myself. To put them on my back I had to have the help of neighbor Cricket. But he is so slow. He will not be here until we have Spider Eyes out of the hole.”
“Hello, Spider Eyes,” called Grandfather Grasshopper, “are you all ready for us?” and he leaped away.
Where was he going? They watched him in wonder.
He turned round and leaped backward, so that his back was toward the pile.