Chapter 2

MRS. LADYBUG was determined to know the truth about Mr. P. Bug, the newcomer. And as soon as she had fully recovered from the rude blow that Peppery Polly Bumblebee dealt her, she set out for Farmer Green's garden and the potato patch.

For some time Mrs. Ladybug flew back and forth above the potato vines. It was not an easy matter to find so small a person as Mr. Bug in so big a field. But she discovered him at last. And she was somewhat surprised to see him still in his elegant yellow coat, with the black stripes. For Mrs. Ladybug had expected him to be hard at work, in overalls.

To be sure, Mr. P. Bug did appear to be busy about something or other. He was so busy that he scarcely so much as glanced at Mrs. Ladybug when she spoke to him, mumbling "Good morning!" in answer to her greeting, but not taking the trouble to doff his cap.

"He's at work anyhow," thought Mrs. Ladybug. "He's helping Farmer Green." Then she alighted on the potato vine where Mr. Bug was clinging.

"Don't you remember me?" she asked.

He shook his head. His mouth seemed to be full of something--Mrs. Ladybug wasn't sure what.

"Don't you recall speaking to me one time?" she persisted.

After swallowing, he answered.

"I can't say I do!"

"I'm the person that told you how to get to this potato patch," Mrs. Ladybug explained. "When you met me in the orchard, on your way from Colorado, you stopped and asked me to direct you to Farmer Green's potato patch."

For a moment or two Mr. Bug seemed puzzled--especially when Mrs. Ladybug mentioned Colorado. But by the time Mrs. Ladybug had finished speaking, he nodded.

"So I did!" he exclaimed. "I had forgotten all about that. Though now that you speak of it, I do remember meeting a very talkative dame dressed in a polka dot. Possibly I spoke to you about my settling in the potato patch for the summer?"

"No!" said Mrs. Ladybug. "But I thought I'd find you here. You seemed in a great hurry to reach this place."

"So I was!" said Mr. P. Bug. "And I'm glad I came. This is the finest potato patch in the whole valley--so I have been told."

"You must have seen a good many others on your journey from Colorado," Mrs. Ladybug ventured. "It's a long way from there to here, I suppose."

"I suppose it is," Mr. P. Bug murmured. He seemed to be a bit impatient, as if he were in haste to return to his work and didn't care to talk any longer.

"I suppose you were weeks on the road," Mrs. Ladybug went on. "Are you going back to Colorado after you've finished helping Farmer Green with the potato crop?"

"Colorado!" he blurted. "I don't know where that place is. I've never been there in all my life."

IX

THAT CARPETBAG

MR. P. BUG'S statement amazed Mrs. Ladybug. He said he had never been in Colorado. More than that, he declared he didn't even know where the place was.

Now, Peppery Polly Bumblebee had told Mrs. Ladybug that Mr. P. Bug was no stranger in Pleasant Valley. But Mrs. Ladybug had not believed what she said. Even hearing Mr. Bug's own words, Mrs. Ladybug couldn't help doubting them.

"Can it be true--" she asked him--"can it be true that you've never been off this farm?"

Mr. Bug quite plainly wished that she would go away and stop bothering him.

"It can be--it _is_ true," he replied carelessly.

At last Mrs. Ladybug had to believe what she heard.

"Then you're a fraud!" she cried. '"You're a cheat! For I read on your carpetbag, when we met in the orchard, 'P. Bug. Colorado.'"

"Oh!" said Mr. Bug with a smile. "Oh! So _that's_ where you got your odd notion. I wondered how you happened to make such a mistake."

"A perfectly natural mistake, I'm sure!" Mrs. Ladybug exclaimed indignantly.

"Well, I dare say it is," he admitted. "But you see, that's not my carpetbag. At least, I didn't get it new. It belonged to my great-great-great-grandfather. Indeed, I'm not sure he wasn't even still greater than I've said. _He_ lived in Colorado once--so I've been told. But I was born and raised on this farm."

"If all this is true," said Mrs. Ladybug, "what were you doing with that carpetbag? And why did you ask me the way to this potato patch?"

"I'm in a hurry to get to work," Mr. Bug remarked. "I'll answer just this once. When we met in the orchard I had been away on a little vacation. And Farmer Green's potato patch--so I learned--had been moved since last year."

"Dear me!" Mrs. Ladybug wailed. "People will laugh at me for having made such a serious mistake."

But Mr. P. Bug didn't say anything about that.

"Good-by!" he grunted. And he crawled under a leaf, out of sight.

For once in her life Mrs. Ladybug wasn't eager to talk to her neighbors. On the contrary, she seemed to avoid them. But Peppery Polly Bumblebee called on her and asked her if she had seen the handsome stranger, Mr. P. Bug.

"Yes!" said Mrs. Ladybug. "I've talked with him. And it's true that he has always lived here. There was a slight mistake about his carpetbag. It belonged to one of his ancestors. And since it bears his ancestor's name and address, naturally I thought they both belonged to this Mr. Bug."

Peppery Polly laughed.

"If you don't believe what I tell you, you can ask him yourself!" Mrs. Ladybug snapped. "He's at work over in the potato patch, helping Farmer Green."

Peppery Polly laughed again, more unpleasantly than ever.

"_Helping_ Farmer Green!" she exclaimed. "He's eating the leaves off the vines as fast as he can. I know that gentleman. He's Mr. Potato Bug. And he's one of the greatest pests on the farm."

X

A BIT OF NEWS

CHIRPY CRICKET was looking for Mrs. Ladybug. He had news for her. Now, it wasn't often that anybody could tell Mrs. Ladybug anything. Usually she was the one that told other people bits of gossip. So Chirpy Cricket was specially eager to find her and make known to her what he had learned.

It was about Mrs. Ladybug's cousin. At least, there was a person living in the vegetable garden who claimed to be a cousin of Mrs. Ladybug's.

Chirpy found Mrs. Ladybug in the orchard. But strange to say, she didn't seem at all interested in his news.

"I dare say I have a cousin in the garden," she told him. "Ours is a big family. I have more cousins than I could ever count. They're as plentiful as the leaves on the trees. I can't stop my work to go and see this one. If I called on all my cousins I'd never have time to help Farmer Green."

Chirpy Cricket looked disappointed. He had expected Mrs. Ladybug to show great interest in what he told her. She certainly always thought that others ought to pay strict attention when she related the happenings about the farm. And she always wanted them to act surprised and pleased, too.

"Aren't you going to the garden?" Chirpy Cricket demanded. "Don't you intend to be polite to your cousin?"

"Humph!" said Mrs. Ladybug. "She can't be any busier than I am. Why doesn't she come to the orchard to call on me?"

"She can't do that," he explained. "Your cousin says that it wouldn't be etiquette. She says you've lived on the farm longer than she has."

"Rubbish!" Mrs. Ladybug scolded. "I'm a plain working person. There's too much to do, during the summer, for me to bother with such nonsense."

Chirpy Cricket found her rather discouraging. Still he hadn't given up hope of making Mrs. Ladybug change her mind.

"I fear you're making a mistake," he remarked. "You ought to see this cousin. She's different from any of your family that I've ever met before."

"How is she different?" Mrs. Ladybug demanded, pausing in her pursuit of insects on the leaves of the apple tree. At last she began to show some signs of interest.

"I don't know," Chirpy Cricket replied. "I can't say. Maybe it's her clothes that make her look strange."

Mrs. Ladybug then started to ask him questions--which was the best of proof that her curiosity had been aroused.

"What sort of gown was my cousin wearing?" she inquired. "Was it a red polka dot, like mine?"

"I don't remember," he answered.

"What colors did she have on?"

"I didn't notice," said Chirpy Cricket.

Mrs. Ladybug gave him a look of disgust.

"Well, if that isn't just like a man!" she spluttered. "Men never can tell how a body's dressed. If I want to learn anything more about this cousin of mine I suppose I'll have to go and see her with my own eyes."

And that afternoon she went to the vegetable garden.

XI

THE NEW COUSIN

FOR Mrs. Ladybug, finding her unknown cousin in Farmer Green's vegetable garden was not an easy task. Since Chirpy Cricket hadn't been able to tell Mrs. Ladybug what colors her cousin wore, Mrs. Ladybug didn't know what to expect.

"I wish I knew whether she was dressed in red, black, blue, yellow or some other color," Mrs. Ladybug complained to herself. "But I don't know that. I don't even know if she carries an umbrella."

There was nothing Mrs. Ladybug could do except to ask everyone she met. So she inquired right and left if anybody happened to be acquainted with her cousin. And at last Betsy Butterfly came to Mrs. Ladybug's help.

"Look among the squash vines!" Betsy Butterfly advised her. "I noticed somebody there that looks a bit like you. Maybe it's your cousin."

That was very kind of Betsy Butterfly. Mrs. Ladybug was no friend of hers. Indeed, Mrs. Ladybug had often found fault with Betsy for being too pleasure-loving. But Betsy Butterfly was not one of the kind that nurses grudges. She was only too glad to do Mrs. Ladybug a favor.

Mrs. Ladybug thanked her--albeit somewhat grumpily. Then, flying to the place where Farmer Green had planted his squashes, she found a person at whom she stared hard for a few moments.

"Do you want to speak to me?" this strange lady inquired. She was a gay appearing creature, dressed in yellow, with black patches on it.

"I can't tell whether I care to talk to you or not," said Mrs. Ladybug. "It all depends. If you're my cousin, I do. If you aren't, I don't."

The strange lady laughed lightly.

"I wonder--" she replied--"I wonder if you are Mrs. Ladybug."

"I am," said Mrs. Ladybug.

"Then I'm your cousin!" cried the other. "At last I've met you!" And she rushed towards Mrs. Ladybug with every intention of embracing her.

Mrs. Ladybug backed hastily away.

"Not so fast!" she exclaimed. "If you really are my cousin, well and good! But how do I know that you aren't an impostor?"

"A _what_?" the strange lady faltered. She was, quite naturally, somewhat taken aback by Mrs. Ladybug's coolness.

"How do I know that you're not a cheat?" Mrs. Ladybug asked her. "Have you any references?"

"Any _what_?" stammered the would-be cousin.

"Any letters about yourself," Mrs. Lady explained. "For all I know, you may be dissembling."

"I may be _whatting_?" quavered the lady in yellow.

"Dear me!" Mrs. Ladybug muttered to herself. "Must I address this person in words of one syllable?" Then, to her companion she said bluntly, "Tell me why you think you and I are related!"

"That's easy!" cried the yellow one. "I belong to the Ladybug family."

Now, you might think that would have satisfied Mrs. Ladybug. But she wasn't convinced yet.

"My family--" she declared--"my family are all famous workers. If you're one of us, where are your working clothes? Where's your red and black polka dot?"

The cousin tittered. She seemed to be a silly sort of creature.

"I haven't any red and black polka dot," she replied. "These are my working clothes that I'm wearing now."

Mrs. Ladybug shook her head. It was plain that she didn't approve of those clothes--nor of their wearer.

XII

A QUEER WAY TO HELP

MRS. LADYBUG wished that she hadn't come to the vegetable garden to see the person who called herself Mrs. Ladybug's cousin. She wasn't at all the sort of relation that Mrs. Ladybug cared to have.

Although the stranger in yellow was most agreeable, somehow Mrs. Ladybug disliked her exceedingly. And strange to say, Mrs. Ladybug couldn't have told exactly what it was in her cousin that displeased her. It wasn't alone the yellow gown that the new cousin wore. Nor her simpering smile. Nor her trifling manner. It was something else--something that made Mrs. Ladybug feel that she was not to be trusted.

"I must hurry back to the orchard," Mrs. Ladybug announced. "There's work waiting for me there. I really ought not to have left it to come to see you."

"Don't take your work so seriously!" her cousin advised her. "You ought to take more time for amusement. I hope you'll come to see me often."

Mrs. Ladybug's opinion of the stranger sank even lower.

"If some of us weren't earnest about our work the rest of the world would have a sorry time," she declared. "I may as well tell you that I shall not be able to call on you again. I shall be too busy. And there's no use of my urging you to come to see me, because of course you have your work to do too."

"Oh, naturally!" said Mrs. Ladybug's cousin with an odd smile. "Still, I could leave it once in a while to make a cousinly call."

"It won't be necessary," Mrs. Ladybug told her. "If I need you, I'll send for you." And she said to herself grimly, under her breath, "She'll never hear from me."

"If I can help you at any time, don't fail to let me know," the cousin told Mrs. Ladybug. "Doubtless I could be of some service, though I'd always rather work on vines--squash and pumpkin preferred."

Mrs. Ladybug thanked her. "I shouldn't want her helping me," she thought. "I'll warrant she's so careless that she would do more harm than good." And Mrs. Ladybug looked at the vine on which they were standing.

"I see you're helping Farmer Green with his squash vines at present," she remarked aloud.

"Yes!" said her cousin. "I have this one almost finished."

"Good!" said Mrs. Ladybug. And she took a closer look at the vine. It seemed far from healthy. In fact she noticed that the leaves were tattered and torn.

"What are these great holes in the squash leaves?" she inquired.

Her cousin fidgeted and made no reply. Glancing at her, Mrs. Ladybug thought she was growing a bit red in the face.

Then all at once Mrs. Ladybug guessed the dreadful truth.

"You've been _eating_ these leaves!" she cried.

Her cousin tossed her head.

"A person has to eat something," she retorted.

Mrs. Ladybug threw up her hands.

"I _knew_ you weren't trustworthy," she muttered. "I _knew_ you weren't the sort of relation I'd want anything to do with."

Then Mrs. Ladybug left her.

Later, when Chirpy Cricket met her, he asked her if she had seen her cousin who was spending the summer among the squash vines. And he was astonished when Mrs. Ladybug glared at him and exclaimed:

"Never mention her to me again!"

XIII

JENNIE JUNEBUG

JENNIE JUNEBUG was a frolicsome fat person. And she was a great joker. The joke that she loved most was this: she loved to bump into people that were flying through the air--to bump into them and knock them, spinning, upon the ground.

Being much heavier than many of her neighbors, Jennie Junebug suffered little from such collisions. And she never could understand why anybody should find fault with her favorite sport. If a body objected to her rough play Jennie Junebug only laughed heartily.

"I don't mind when I take a tumble," she would retort. "So why should you?"

And if the sufferer complained that it wasn't the tumble that hurt, so much as the shock of her hard, bulky self, Jennie would shake with merriment and crash into him again.

Really, it was useless to try to reason with her. The safest way was to avoid her if possible, especially after dark. For then was the time that she preferred for her rowdy tricks.

Mrs. Ladybug couldn't abide her. Not only did she dislike Jennie Junebug's jokes. She disapproved of her treatment of Farmer Green. For Jennie Junebug did everything she could to ruin the trees on the farm. She ate their leaves. And that was one thing that Mrs. Ladybug couldn't forgive in anybody.

"It's a shame--" Mrs. Ladybug often said--"it's a shame, the way Jennie Junebug riddles the foliage. Here I work my hardest to save the leaves by ridding them of tiny insects that feed upon them--insects that suck the juices from the leaves and make them wither. And there's Jennie Junebug, trying her best to destroy the leaves that I save.... It's enough to make an honest person weep."

Perhaps Jennie Junebug wasn't so bad, at heart, as Mrs. Ladybug thought her. Maybe she was merely a gay, careless creature who never stopped to consider that she was injuring Farmer Green when she hurt his trees. At least, that was what some of Mrs. Ladybug's other neighbors sometimes remarked.

But Mrs. Ladybug never could believe that Jennie had a single good trait--unless it was good nature. For she was always ready with a laugh, no matter what anybody said to her.

It was seldom that Mrs. Ladybug hesitated to speak her mind right out to a person if she happened to disapprove of him. But she had always kept out of Jennie Junebug's way. Jennie was many times bigger than little Mrs. Ladybug. Mrs. Ladybug trembled to think what might happen to her if Jennie should ever hurl her fat body against Mrs. Ladybug with a dull, sickening thud.

"If that ever happens," Mrs. Ladybug thought, "I fear I'll never be able to do another day's work for Farmer Green. It might be the end of me."

Now, in spite of her fears, Mrs. Ladybug had even more than her share of courage. And as time went on, and she saw the awful havoc that Jennie Junebug played with the trees, Mrs. Ladybug reached the point where she couldn't any longer stand by silently and let Jennie Junebug riddle the leaves. "Something will have to be done!" Mrs. Ladybug declared to her friends. "I can't compel Jennie Junebug to stop. She's too big for me to handle.

"I'm going to have a talk with her," said Mrs. Ladybug.

XIV

BUMPS

SOME busybody went straight to Jennie Junebug and told her what Mrs. Ladybug had said.

"Mrs. Ladybug is going to have a talk with you," this meddling person told the fat and frolicsome Jennie. "She wants you to stop eating leaves. She says you are doing your best--or your worst--to hurt the trees that she is trying to save. She claims that you are no friend of Farmer Green's. She--"

Jennie Junebug broke in upon her companion with a loud laugh.

"I'd like to have Mrs. Ladybug try to speak to me," she chuckled. "If she does, I'll have fun with her. I'll knock her over. I'll send her spinning."

Jennie's friend seemed somewhat alarmed at that.

"Now, be careful!" she begged the fat lady. "Don't forget that Mrs. Ladybug is a little creature! You'll injure her if you're too rough with her."

"Ho! ho!" laughed Jennie Junebug, and also, "Ha! ha!" She had to stop and hold her sides, while she rocked back and forth. "This is a great joke!" Jennie cried. "Imagine Mrs. Ladybug trying to talk with me! Why, she'll be lucky if she can get her breath after I've flown into her once."

"Dear me!" said the tale-bearer. "I wish I hadn't mentioned this matter to you. Of course, everybody knows that Mrs. Ladybug talks too much. And I thought maybe you'd enjoy meeting her and making her keep still. But I had no idea you would do her any harm."

"Bless you!" cried Jennie Junebug. "I wouldn't harm a hair of her head!" And she roared with laughter, for she had made a joke. You see, Mrs. Ladybug had no hair. She was quite bald.

Well, Mrs. Ladybug found Jennie Junebug that very evening. She knew that Jennie wasn't often seen except after sunset. For Jennie loved to see the lights twinkling through the gloom. And she delighted in surprising people in the dark, by flying _bang!_ into them and knocking them down. So Mrs. Ladybug didn't leave her work and set out to seek this dangerous fat lady until twilight came.

"Good evening!" said Mrs. Ladybug as soon as she spied Miss Junebug. "Have you a few minutes to spare? If you have, I'd like to talk with you."

Jennie Junebug grinned broadly.

"I can give you a few seconds of my valuable time," she replied. "I was just going over to the meadow, for Freddie Firefly will be there soon. He dances in the meadow every night. And I like to see his flickering light--and watch him bounce when I hit him. So you'll have to talk fast, for I'm in a hurry," said Jennie Junebug.

"Good!" thought Mrs. Ladybug. "She's going to listen to me, after all." And then she fixed Miss Junebug with her eye and spoke to her severely.

"Don't you think you ought--" she began.

And then Jennie Junebug bumped into her, sending Mrs. Ladybug sprawling.

"Don't I think I ought to frolic with you?" Jennie cried. "Certainly I do."

Mrs. Ladybug managed to rise off the ground.

"Won't you please--" she started to say.

"Won't I please knock you down? Of course I will!" Jennie Junebug exclaimed. And thereupon she struck Mrs. Ladybug again.

Poor Mrs. Ladybug was much shaken. In her fall she had dropped her umbrella, and her handkerchief too. But she didn't stop to pick them up. She scrambled to her feet and rose into the air again, angrier than she had ever been before in all her life.

"I'll thank you--" she spluttered.

"You'll thank me if I'll do that again, eh?" said Jennie Junebug, interrupting her rudely. "Very well! Here goes!" This time she gave Mrs. Ladybug a terrific blow. She dropped upon the grass, where she clung to a blade and swayed up and down for a few moments, dizzy and trembling. And she was gasping so hard, in order to get her breath, that she couldn't speak.

Watching her, Jennie Junebug shrieked with laughter. Then, seeing Freddie Firefly's light flashing in the meadow, Miss Junebug hurried away.

XV

ENOUGH!

"SUCH impudence!" Mrs. Ladybug gasped, as soon as she could speak. "That terrible Jennie Junebug didn't care whether I ever got my breath or not."

After bowling Mrs. Ladybug over three times, Miss Junebug had flown away, leaving poor little Mrs. Ladybug clinging to a blade of grass and wondering if she would be able to move again.

Mrs. Ladybug had attempted to take Jennie Junebug to task. She had intended to berate Jennie for devouring the leaves of Farmer Green's trees and to order her to stop such damage at once. But Jennie Junebug hadn't allowed her to say much. In her playful way she had knocked the breath out of Mrs. Ladybug.

"I must try some other plan," thought Mrs. Ladybug. "And I'll have to have help." So she sent Miss Moth over to the meadow, to find Freddie Firefly and ask him if he wouldn't come to the orchard because Mrs. Ladybug wanted to talk with him.

He came. He came at once; for he saw Jennie Junebug looking for him. And he was only too glad to escape her attentions. He found her too rough to suit him.

Mrs. Ladybug quickly explained her difficulty.

"What shall I do?" she asked him.

"I don't know," he answered. "I can't do a thing with Jennie Junebug. She knocks me down whenever I meet her. She annoys me."

"It's not so much myself I'm thinking of," said Mrs. Ladybug. "It's Farmer Green's fruit trees that I'm disturbed about. Jennie Junebug eats the leaves. I must put an end to that."

"I have it!" Freddie Firefly exclaimed suddenly. "I'll ask her why she doesn't bump into Solomon Owl!"

Mrs. Ladybug didn't seem to care for his suggestion. "What good would that do?" she inquired.

"Ah!" he said. "Solomon Owl wouldn't let her browbeat him. He'd soon cure her of her rude pranks."

"Then please speak to her, and to Solomon Owl at once--that is, if you dare to," said Mrs. Ladybug.

"I'm not afraid of him," Freddie Firefly boasted. "He won't touch me. He's a-scared of my light." And then Freddie Firefly flitted away.

He found Solomon Owl easily enough. He had heard Solomon's _Wha-wha_, _whoo-ah_! booming from the edge of the woods. And he soon persuaded Solomon to fly down into the meadow.

Solomon Owl sailed above the waving grass, while Freddie Firefly spoke to Jennie Junebug.

She liked his scheme. She thought it would be a great joke to bump into solemn Solomon Owl. And for once she forgot to fling herself against Freddie Firefly.