Once, there was a grasshopper who lived beneath the grass. An owl also lived in the tree near the grasshopper. The grasshopper always kept singing. One day, the owl was sitting in a hollow tree, dozing away summer’s afternoon. He was very much disturbed by the grasshopper singing in the grass beneath. So far from keeping quiet, or moving away at the request of the owl, the grasshopper sang all the more, and called him an old blinker, that only came out at night when all honest people had gone to bed.
The owl waited in silence for a time, and then artfully addressed the grasshopper as follows, “Well, my dear, if one cannot be allowed to sleep, it is something to be kept awake by such a pleasant voice. And now I think of it; I have a bottle of delicious nectar. If you come up, you shall have a drop.” The silly grasshopper came hopping up to the owl, who at once caught and killed him, and finished his nap in comfort.
