跳高者的故事通过讲述三个跳高者跳骚、蚱蜢、跳鹅比赛跳高，最后三个跳高者结局各不同，告诉了我们一些人生的道理。跳骚虽然跳的很高，但是人们却认为他像没跳，没有人看见他的才华。蚱蜢跳第二，但是却惹恼国王。跳鹅虽然跳的最低，但是凭借聪明，跳到公主身上，国王将公主嫁给了他。这告诉我们虽然有的人外在条件不是很好，但是一样可以凭借聪明伶俐取得成功。
HE Flea, the Grasshopper, and the Skipjack1 once wanted to see which of them could jump highest; and they invited the whole world, and whoever else would come, to see the grand sight. And there the three famous jumpers were met together in the room.
“Yes, I’ll give my daughter to him who jumps highest,” said the King, “for it would be mean to let these people jump for nothing.”
The Flea stepped out first. He had very pretty manners, and bowed in all directions, for he had young ladies’ blood in his veins, and was accustomed to consort only with human beings; and that was of great consequence.
Then came the Grasshopper: he was certainly much heavier, but he had a good figure, and wore the green uniform that was born with him. This person, moreover, maintained that he belonged to a very old family in the land of Egypt, and that he was highly esteemed there. He had just come from the field, he said, and had been put into a card house three stories high, and all made of picture cards with the figures turned inwards. There were doors and windows in the house, cut in the body of the Queen of Hearts.
“I sing so,” he said, “that sixteen native crickets who have chirped from their youth up, and have never yet had a card house of their own, would become thinner than they are with envy if they were to hear me.”
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