Once there was a grasshopper named Josh.  Everyday Josh would get up early to play.  'I can’t wait because I love playing in the grass so much,' he thought. And my favorite thing to play in the grass is jumping as high as I can on warm summer days.  But what I don’t like is when the others call me names like, “Jumpin’ Josh,” he said, even though there was no one there to hear him.

Josh went over to the spot where all the grasshoppers gather to play on sunny days. He couldn’t help but notice all the grasshoppers hopped about the same height.  Then Josh wanted to join in the fun. He started running and jumping all over the place.

First he jumped by his favorite tree.  Then he hopped near the water. Then, in a flash, he was back to the tree again. And he jumped so high; the others thought he was flying.  And he flew right into the tree. “Help, I’m stuck!”  He yelled.  The others took their time hopping over to him.  They were used to Josh getting into trouble.

“Now how do you expect us to get you down from there?” they all asked Josh, when they got to the tree.  Then they looked at each other and said, "We can’t even jump that high,” too quietly for Josh to hear them.

“I’m terribly sorry,” said Josh, hanging his head low.  Then he called down to them, “don’t worry, I’ll get myself down. So Josh hopped from branch to branch, until he was closer to the ground and then he yelled, “Here I go, I’m coming down!”

“I can’t believe it!” they all whispered to each other. But, when Josh landed on the ground; they all started yelling at him. "You’re driving us crazy, always getting into so much trouble!”

“I don’t mean to,” said Josh, keeping his head down.

"Well, you have to stop it.  Remember the time you had to be pulled out of the water and the time you got tangled in the bushes?” Then they turned and hopped away, and Josh hung his head all day.  Even the beautiful weather was not enough to cheer him up.

But then early the next morning, Josh had an idea. He decided to jump alone for a while, really wildly, then when the others got there later, he’d be so tired he wouldn’t even want to jump anymore.  So he jumped higher than ever, carefully staying away from the tree.  But when the others came to play, Josh still felt like jumping.  In fact, it almost scared him how much he still felt like jumping and he was even more wild than usual, too.  And the others made him feel worse than usual.

They laughed and called him”Jumpin’ Josh” again. 'Even though I know it isn’t a bad name, it always makes me cry, because I know they mean it in a mean way,' thought poor Josh. “I don’t know what to do anymore.  The others don’t like me.  They don’t want to play with me, and they call me names.  What’s wrong with me?” he said, even though there was no one there to hear him.  But to his surprise, there was a jack-rabbit that did hear what he said.

“Excuse me,” said the jack rabbit.  “My name is Jitters and I heard what you said.  Why do you think your grasshopper friends don’t like you?”

“Well, it’s because of the way I hop,” Josh replied.  “They get mad when I can’t play right because I jump too high and too wildly,” he said, looking at the ground.

“Oh, is that so?  Well guess what?  I have the same problem.  Let me tell you what I’ve learned.  You have to remember that with all your ability, it could be that the others want to jump as high as you and they are mad because they can’t."

“Hmm,” said Josh, "I never thought of my jumping high as ability before.  I think I’ll talk to the others."  But when he got over to where the others were playing, he couldn’t believe his eyes.  All the other grasshoppers were having a high jump contest! So Josh sat there for a moment and watched.  Then he said out loud, even though there was no one there to hear him:  “I guess they do like me after all.” And now, Josh loves holding his head as high as he can as much as he loves jumping as high as he can.