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+Project Gutenberg's The Tale of Freddie Firefly, by Arthur Scott Bailey
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Tale of Freddie Firefly
+
+Author: Arthur Scott Bailey
+
+Posting Date: January 26, 2013 [EBook #5727]
+Release Date: May, 2004
+First Posted: August 18, 2002
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF FREDDIE FIREFLY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  TUCK-ME-IN TALES
+  (Trademark Registered)
+
+  THE TALE OF FREDDIE FIREFLY
+
+  BY
+
+  ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY
+  Author of
+  "SLEEPY-TIME TALES"
+  (Trademark Registered).
+
+  ILLUSTRATED BY
+  HARRY L. SMITH
+
+NEW YORK
+
+1918
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+  I.     A MERRY DANCER
+  II.    A FINE PLAN
+  III.   FREDDIE AGREES TO HELP
+  IV.    GETTING READY
+  V.     AT THE STONE WALL
+  VI.    THE BANNERS
+  VII.   THE TORCHLIGHT PARADE
+  VIII.  BUSTER'S SCHEME
+  IX.    FREDDIE'S PROMISE
+  X.     DRAWING LOTS
+  XI.    PEPPERY POLLY
+  XII.   A TERRIBLE SONG
+  XIII.  CAUGHT BY A THISTLE
+  XIV.   JENNIE JUNEBUG
+  XV.    THE FAT LADY'S SECRET
+  XVI.   FREDDIE'S ESCAPE
+  XVII.  BAD BENJAMIN BAT
+  XVIII. PLEASING FARMER GREEN
+  XIX.   BENJAMIN FEELS GUILTY
+  XX.    MRS. LADYBUG'S ADVICE
+  XXI.   ALL ABOUT TRAINS
+  XXII.  WORK ON THE RAILROAD
+  XXIII. WHY FREDDIE WAS GLAD
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+YOU'RE TERRIBLY CARELESS WITH THAT
+LIGHT OF YOURS . . . Frontispiece
+
+FREDDIE SAT ON TOP OF THE BANNER
+
+FREDDIE PLAYS A JOKE ON PEPPERY POLLY BUMBLEBEE
+
+FREDDIE WAS BUMPED INTO BY JENNIE JUNEBUG
+
+
+
+
+  THE TALE OF
+  FREDDIE FIREFLY
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+A MERRY DANCER
+
+
+Nobody in Pleasant Valley ever paid any attention to Freddie Firefly in
+the daytime. But on warm, and especially on dark summer nights he always
+appeared at his best. Then he went gaily flitting through the meadows.
+And sometimes he even danced right in Farmer Green's dooryard, together
+with a hundred or two of his nearest relations.
+
+No one could help noticing those sprightly revelers, flashing their
+greenish-white lights through the gloom. And many of the field people,
+as well as the folk that lived in the farmhouse, thought that the
+dancers made a pretty sight.
+
+But there were others who said that the Firefly family might better be
+spending their time in some more serious way.
+
+Benjamin Bat, who lived in Cedar Swamp, was one of those who found fault
+with the merry dancers. He grumbled a good deal about them--and
+especially about Freddie Firefly.
+
+"He's so proud of that light he carries!" Benjamin often exclaimed,
+"Now, if he could hang by his feet from the limb of a tree--and SLEEP at
+the same time--he'd have something to boast of!"
+
+No doubt Benjamin Bat was jealous. Anyhow, Solomon Owl declared that
+there was still another reason why Benjamin did not like Freddie
+Firefly. Solomon claimed that Benjamin would have liked to EAT Freddie.
+But he didn't quite dare to grab him for fear of getting burned by
+Freddie's light.
+
+If that was so, then it was no wonder that Freddie kept flashing his
+light in the dark. And it was lucky that he had a light, because--like
+Benjamin Bat himself--he was a night-prowler.
+
+Unlike Farmer Green, Freddie believed that the night air was very
+healthful. And together with all his family, he thought that a damp
+place was much to be preferred to a dry one.
+
+He often remarked that the pollen upon which he frequently dined tasted
+best when the dew was upon it. And he never could understand why Buster
+Bumblebee's sisters, the ill-tempered workers, always gathered nectar
+for their honey-making in the daytime.
+
+"Everyone to his own taste!" Freddie sometimes said. "And I suppose that
+those who sleep from sunset to dawn don't know what they're missing."
+
+Johnnie Green, who went to bed almost as early as the Bumblebee family,
+couldn't help envying Freddie Firefly and all his sprightly company.
+Johnnie thought it must be great fun to frolic the whole night long--if
+only Solomon Owl wouldn't scare a person half out of his wits with that
+unearthly hooting of which Solomon was so fond.
+
+But you may be sure that Freddie Firefly never bothered HIS head over
+Solomon Owl. Perhaps he knew that Solomon was too busy hunting for mice
+to take notice of anybody so small as he was, even if he did carry a
+bright light everywhere he went.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+A FINE PLAN
+
+
+Chirpy Cricket was one of Freddie Firefly's neighbors. He was a good
+neighbor for anybody to have, too, because he was one of the most
+cheerful of all the field and forest-folk that lived in Pleasant Valley.
+Freddie Firefly liked him. And he often remarked that he would rather
+hear Chirpy Cricket sing than sing himself.
+
+Since he was so fond of hearing Chirpy's songs, it was lucky for Freddie
+that his sprightly neighbor usually chose to sing at night, when Freddie
+could better enjoy his shrill ditty. And Freddie frequently went out of
+his way on a fine, dark, summer's night to find Chirpy Cricket and thank
+him for his kindness.
+
+At such times Chirpy Cricket always smiled mysteriously, saying "I'm
+glad my voice pleases you." But it must be confessed that he was not
+singing for Freddie Firefly's benefit at all. He was singing for his own
+entertainment--and maybe to please some lady of his acquaintance as
+well. And he chose night time for his chirping because he didn't dare
+sing during the day. He knew that after sunset almost all the birds were
+asleep--except for Solomon Owl and Willie Whip-poor-will and a few other
+feathered folk who preferred the dark to the daylight. They were not so
+numerous that they worried Chirpy very much. But between dawn and sunset
+there were altogether too many birds awake to please him. Then Chirpy
+Cricket kept quite silent. He didn't wish to draw attention to himself
+by singing, because he didn't care to be gobbled up by any bird, no
+matter how handsome or hungry the bird might be.
+
+Perhaps it is a wonder that Chirpy could be so cheerful as he was,
+living under such difficulties as he did. But on the other hand, maybe
+he felt so carefree at night that he couldn't help being jolly.
+
+Anyhow, he was always ready for a good time. And if there was no good
+time at hand, usually Chirpy Cricket could think of some sort of frolic.
+
+And so, at last, he hit upon the idea of a torchlight procession.
+Somebody had told him that Farmer Green's family had seen such a parade
+in the village one evening. And Chirpy Cricket saw no reason why he and
+his friends should not enjoy one too, right there in the shadow of Blue
+Mountain.
+
+"What they can do in the village, we can do here!" he exclaimed. And
+though it was still broad daylight--being not later than the middle of
+the afternoon--Chirpy set out at once to find Freddie Firefly, because
+he simply had to get Freddie to help him.
+
+He found Freddie in the swampy part of the meadow, near the place where
+the cat-tails grew. And though Freddie was a bit sleepy, he became wide
+awake the moment he heard Chirpy Cricket's voice.
+
+"I've thought of a fine plan!" Chirpy Cricket cried. "I'm going to have
+a torchlight procession and I want you and all your family to take part
+in it."
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+FREDDIE AGREES TO HELP
+
+
+Never in all his life had Freddie Firefly heard of a torchlight
+procession--nor of any other sort of procession, either. So when Chirpy
+Cricket first mentioned his plan it was no wonder that Freddie looked
+somewhat blank.
+
+But when Chirpy explained that a procession was a parade, which meant
+that you followed a leader--and a good many others--in a long line,
+Freddie Firefly began to understand.
+
+"I need you and a few hundred of your nearest relations to furnish the
+lights," Chirpy Cricket continued. "And I wish you'd ask your whole
+family to take part in the procession, for we really can't have too many
+of you."
+
+"When will the procession take place?" Freddie Firefly wanted to know.
+
+"To-night, as soon as it's dark enough!" Chirpy told him.
+
+"And where are we going to march?"
+
+"Oh, all around the meadow!" said Chirpy Cricket. "The line will form
+along the stone wall by the roadside. ... Do you think you'll be there?"
+he inquired somewhat anxiously.
+
+"You certainly can count on me," Freddie Firefly promised. "Of course, I
+can't very well accept your invitation for more than about fifty-five of
+my brothers--and maybe six dozen of my cousins. But I HOPE there'll be
+more of us than that."
+
+"Well, I hope so, too," Chirpy Cricket said. "But even if there were no
+more than you can promise, we ought to have enough. Fifty-five and six
+dozen make one hundred and twenty-seven; and you make one hundred and
+twenty-eight."
+
+"Yes," replied Freddie Firefly, though he thought it would have been
+more polite had Chirpy Cricket counted him first instead of last, since
+he was the first of his family to be invited. But he really couldn't be
+angry with anyone so cheerful as Chirpy Cricket.
+
+"I'll have to leave you now," Chirpy announced, "for I must be on my
+way. I shall have to make a great many calls before sunset, because I
+want to invite all my friends to join the procession. ... I'll see you
+later," he said, as he turned away.
+
+He had not gone far before he stopped and called to Freddie Firefly.
+
+"Don't forget to bring your light with you to-night!" he cautioned him.
+
+"I'll try not to!" Freddie shouted. But if the truth was known, he
+couldn't have forgotten his light, even if he had wanted to! It was just
+as much a part of him as his eyes or his six legs. But Chirpy Cricket
+didn't seem to know that. And Freddie Firefly didn't choose to enlighten
+him.
+
+Then Chirpy Cricket hurried away. He went straight to the clover field,
+because he wanted to ask Buster Bumblebee to take part in the torchlight
+procession. And Chirpy knew that the clover field was the best place to
+look for him, on account of Buster's being so fond of clover juice.
+
+Reaching the field where the red clover grew, Chirpy began to hunt for
+the biggest blossom of them all. And when he found it, there was Buster
+Bumblebee, sitting on top of it and enjoying a hearty meal.
+
+He listened, between sucks at the sweet juice, to Chirpy Cricket's
+invitation. He seemed interested, too.
+
+"What music are you going to have at your parade?" he inquired, for
+Buster was very fond of music.
+
+Chirpy Cricket replied that he hadn't thought much about that, but he
+said he expected to sing.
+
+Buster Bumblebee grunted when he heard that. To tell the truth, he
+didn't care much for Chirpy's voice, which he considered altogether too
+shrill.
+
+"Are you going to take part in the procession?" Chirpy asked him.
+
+"I'll let you know to-morrow," said Buster Bumblebee. "Ah, but that will
+be too late!" Chirpy cried. "We're going to have the procession
+to-night."
+
+"To-night!" Buster exclaimed. "Then I can't come. For I shall be sound
+asleep right after sunset."
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+GETTING READY
+
+
+Buster Bumblemee's mind was made up. Although Chirpy Cricket told him it
+would be a shame for him to miss the torchlight procession, which was
+sure to be a great success, because Freddie Firefly had promised to be
+there with one hundred and twenty-seven of his relations, Buster still
+shook his head.
+
+"I wouldn't think of such a thing as staying out after dark!" he
+declared with much firmness.
+
+"But you ought to see the Firefly family when they're all lighted up!"
+Chirpy Cricket cried.
+
+"Are they as bright as the sun?" Buster asked.
+
+"N-no--but they're brighter than some of the stars," Chirpy replied.
+
+"Well, I don't care if they are," said Buster. "I need my rest at night.
+And you'll have to get along without me, though of course, I'm much
+obliged for the invitation."
+
+Seeing that further urging was useless, Chirpy Cricket left Buster and
+hurried away to find Jennie Junebug. And to his delight, she said at
+once that she would be much pleased to attend the torchlight procession.
+She did wish, however, that he had invited her earlier, because she
+would have liked a new gown for the occasion.
+
+"Oh, come just as you are!" said Chirpy Cricket.
+
+"What! With my apron on?" Jennie Junebug exclaimed.
+
+Chirpy Cricket went off laughing. Buster Bumblebee had caused him some
+disappointment. But now he was feeling quite cheerful again.
+
+As he went from place to place inviting his friends to come to the
+torchlight procession that night, he found that a good many felt as
+Buster Bumblebee did. They declined to break their life-long rule of
+going early to bed. But there were others, such as Mr. Moses Mosquito,
+Kiddie Katydid, and Mehitable Moth, who said at once that they were glad
+he asked them and that they wouldn't miss the fun for anything.
+
+Meanwhile Freddie Firefly was just as busy as Chirpy Cricket. And he had
+somewhat better luck. For not only did fifty-five of his brothers and
+six dozen of his cousins promise to take part in the procession--and
+bring their lights, too--but at least three hundred others, including
+some of Freddie's second and third cousins, agreed gladly to join in the
+evening's sport.
+
+So before dark Freddie sent a message to Chirpy Cricket by Greenie
+Grasshopper, telling him that he might count on a big turnout of the
+Firefly family.
+
+That was good news. And Chirpy Cricket felt so happy that he began to
+sing earlier in the evening than was his custom.
+
+While it was still dusk he went to the stone wall where the procession
+was to form. And of course he had to wait there a long time before the
+first of the Firefly family appeared.
+
+Even for a person as cheerful as Chirpy Cricket, it was hard to wait.
+But he consoled himself by chirping his loudest.
+
+"I suppose Freddie Firefly and all his relations are very busy getting
+their lights ready," he thought.
+
+At last, when it was quite dark, Freddie Firefly lighted on a head of
+timothy grass close beside the stone wall and began to flash his light
+right in Chirpy Cricket's face.
+
+"Here I am, just as I promised!" he called.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+AT THE STONE WALL
+
+
+"Where's the rest of your crowd?" Chirpy Cricket asked Freddie Firefly,
+when they met by the stone wall. "It's getting darker every minute. And
+the torchlight procession ought to start right away."
+
+"They're coming," said Freddie. "If you look sharp you can see them now,
+crossing the meadow."
+
+Chirpy Cricket tried to see through the blackness of the night. After
+gazing steadily for a few moments he was able to make out a patch of
+twinkling lights, which looked a good deal like stars, except that they
+were too low. Since they kept growing brighter, Chirpy Cricket knew that
+they must be moving towards him, and that many of the Firefly family had
+accepted his invitation.
+
+Soon a great host of Freddie's relations surrounded Chirpy Cricket. They
+flashed their lights in his eyes, so that he was almost blinded by the
+glare. And it was only with much difficulty that he could see Moses
+Mosquito, Kiddie Katydid, and Mehitable Moth, who had also arrived by
+that time.
+
+"What are we going to do?" everybody asked Chirpy Cricket at the same
+time. So there was nothing he could do but mount the wall and make a
+speech.
+
+"Friends--" he said, in his loudest voice--"I'm glad to see so many of
+you present. Our torchlight procession is going to be an even greater
+success than the one that Farmer Green went to see in the village--if
+you'll only follow my directions."
+
+"We will!" his listeners cried.
+
+"Please don't ask us to march after dawn breaks, for we'll be ready for
+bed by that time," Freddie Firefly interrupted.
+
+"I understand," Chirpy Cricket replied. "And now this is what I want you
+all to do: you must fall in line one behind another. And when
+everybody's ready I'll take my place at the head of the procession and
+lead you all around the farm, and right past Farmer Green's window,
+too."
+
+"Forming a line is going to be hard work," somebody objected.
+
+But Chirpy Cricket arranged that matter simply enough.
+
+"Just form your line along the stone wall" he directed them. "The wall
+is straight enough. And to tell the truth, that's exactly why I told
+Freddie that we'd meet here."
+
+"But what about Moses Mosquito and Kiddie Katydid and Mehitable Moth?"
+Freddie inquired somewhat anxiously.
+
+"Well, what about them?" Chirpy asked him. "What do you mean?"
+
+"They haven't brought any lights," Freddie pointed out. "So what's the
+use of their being in the procession?"
+
+"Oh, that's all right!" Chirpy Cricket assured him. "They're going to
+carry the banners."
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE BANNERS
+
+
+When Chirpy Cricket mentioned "banners," Mehitable Moth, Kiddie Katydid,
+and Moses Mosquito stepped forward with looks of pride on their
+faces--so far as one could see their faces by the glimmer of the flashing
+lights of the Firefly family. And at the same time Freddie Firefly
+shouldered his way through the crowd and plucked at Chirpy Cricket's
+sleeve.
+
+"Don't you think--" he asked earnestly--"don't you think I ought to
+carry one of the banners myself?"
+
+"Perhaps so!" answered Chirpy Cricket. He was so taken aback that he
+really didn't know what else to say. "Which one do you prefer?"
+
+"I'd have to see them before I made a choice," Freddie Firefly told him
+in a more hopeful tone.
+
+So Chirpy ordered Kiddie Katydid and Moses and Mehitable to produce
+their banners, which they had left leaning against the wall.
+
+They brought them forth fearfully, each hoping that his--or hers--wasn't
+going to be taken away and handed over to Freddie Firefly to carry in
+the procession.
+
+"Here are the banners!" Chirpy Cricket said to Freddie. "Which one do
+you like best?"
+
+Freddie looked at the banners and read them slowly, for he was not a
+good reader.
+
+The first that he examined was the one Moses Mosquito had brought. And
+this is what it said:
+
+WHY FUSS ABOUT A BITE, IF IT MAKES SOMEBODY ELSE HAPPY?
+
+"I don't care for that one at all," Freddie Firefly announced. And he
+turned then to Kiddie Katydid's banner, which he spelled out with a good
+deal of trouble, because it was not so well printed.
+
+This banner made the following announcement:
+
+HONEST TO GOODNESS, I DIDN'T DO IT!
+
+"Why, I don't know what that's all about!" Freddie exclaimed
+impatiently. "Let me see the third one!" So he looked next at the banner
+of Mehitable Moth, which seemed to please him better, as he read it
+aloud:
+
+DON'T WORRY, MRS. GREEN! I'LL CALL AT THE FARMHOUSE BEFORE FALL.
+
+"That's better!" cried Freddie Firefly. "I'll carry this banner with a
+great deal of pleasure. And I can call at the farmhouse to-night--if
+Farmer Green's family doesn't go to bed too early."
+
+But there was one difficulty about Freddie's plan. Mehitable Moth did
+not like to have her banner, which she had made with great pains, taken
+away from her like that. And she drew Chirpy Cricket to one side and
+began talking to him in an undertone.
+
+Soon he turned again to Freddie Firefly, saying, "She thinks that if
+you're going to carry her banner in the procession you ought to let her
+take your light."
+
+"Oh, I can't do that!" Freddie exclaimed quickly. "I wouldn't THINK of
+doing that!"
+
+"It would be only fair, it seems to me," Chirpy Cricket observed.
+
+"Well, I won't do it, anyhow," Freddie declared. "I'd stay out of the
+procession first. And so would all my relations, too."
+
+Chirpy Cricket began to look worried. And it was no wonder. For he knew
+he could have no torchlight procession without the Firefly family. But
+pretty soon he cheered up noticeably.
+
+"I know what you can do!" he announced. "You can ride on top of
+Mehitable Moth's banner and keep flashing your light on it!"
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+THE TORCHLIGHT PARADE
+
+
+At last the torchlight procession was about to begin its march. Chirpy
+Cricket took his place at its head, as leader. And close behind him came
+Mehitable Moth, gaily bearing her banner aloft, with Freddie Firefly
+perched on top of it, and flashing his greenish-white light so that its
+rays fell full upon the words, which told Farmer Green's wife not to
+worry, because Mehitable Moth agreed to pay her a call before cold
+weather set in.
+
+It would be hard to say which was the prouder--the person under the
+banner or the one on top of it. Anyhow, Chirpy Cricket was prouder than
+both of them together, because his torchlight procession promised to be
+a great success.
+
+"Are you ready?" he cried, looking back at the marchers, who stretched
+behind him in a long line beside the stone wall.
+
+Everybody shouted "Aye, aye, sir!" So Chirpy Cricket pranced away across
+the meadow, wearing a broad smile. Probably he had never before looked
+quite so cheerful.
+
+But he had not gone far before something happened that drove the smile
+from his face, replacing it with a dark frown. He had glanced behind
+him, because he wanted--quite naturally--to look at that long line of
+lights twinkling through the night. And to his distress he saw that
+Freddie Firefly's relations were flying helter-skelter in all
+directions. They had bolted out of the line and were dancing off across
+the meadow after a fashion that no torchlight procession ought to
+follow.
+
+"Stop! Stop!" Chirpy Cricket called.
+
+Even as he spoke, as many as a dozen lights flashed past him and went
+flittering on across the fields.
+
+Really, the only ones besides Chirpy that had stayed in the line as they
+should were Mehitable Moth, who still carried her banner right behind
+him, and Freddie Firefly, who sat on top of the banner.
+
+And even Freddie Firefly was becoming restless. When he saw his brothers
+and cousins go dancing off in the dark he couldn't help wanting to dance
+too.
+
+"You'd better hurry!" he said to Chirpy Cricket. "Those fellows--" he
+pointed to the dozen that had just passed them--"those fellows have got
+ahead of you. And it looks to me very much as if you were out of line."
+
+Chirpy Cricket stared at Freddie Firefly in astonishment.
+
+"Do you think so?" he exclaimed. "I don't see how it happened."
+
+"Neither do I!" Freddie Firefly said. "But if I'm to stay in the
+procession I certainly can't sit on this banner any longer. And besides,
+if I'm going to call on Farmer Green's wife I shall have to travel
+faster than we're moving now."
+
+Since they were then standing stock-still in the meadow, there was a
+good deal of truth in what Freddie Firefly said.
+
+"But you don't need to call on Mrs. Green!" Chirpy Cricket cried.
+"That's not your banner, you know. It belongs to Mehitable Moth."
+
+"I'm afraid Mrs. Green has heard I'm coming; and I don't want to
+disappoint her," Freddie replied.
+
+And then he sprang from his perch and went zigzagging away.
+
+One might think that Chirpy Cricket would have been quite upset by the
+breaking up of his torchlight procession. But being naturally cheerful,
+he merely smiled and said that it was plain that the Fireflies were a
+very flighty family.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+BUSTER'S SCHEME
+
+
+About the time summer was half gone, Buster Bumblebee's mother, the
+Queen, began to worry. She was afraid her workers were not going to make
+enough honey for her family's needs.
+
+Then came a few days of steady rain, when the workers of the Bumblebee
+family couldn't venture away from home, on account of getting their
+wings wet. And of course the Queen was terribly upset.
+
+"I don't know what to do!" she kept exclaiming. "The days are already
+growing shorter. It's a pity the honeymakers can't work in the dark."
+
+Buster Bumblebee happened to hear his mother talking in that fashion
+with some of the older members of the family. And he spoke up at once
+and said:
+
+"I know of a plan that might help."
+
+Nobody paid the slightest attention to his remark, because the whole
+family thought that Buster was not only fat and lazy, but somewhat
+stupid as well.
+
+"I know of something you could do that would help," he persisted, in a
+much louder voice. "The honey-makers could work after dark if you'd only
+get the Firefly family to furnish lights for them."
+
+A number of Buster's relations snickered when they heard his plan. It
+struck them as being too silly for anything. But his mother, the Queen,
+looked very thoughtful.
+
+"I'm not sure but that this boy has a good idea," she observed, much to
+the surprise of the others. "For a long time I've been waiting for him
+to say something worth listening to. And now I do believe he has had a
+happy thought at last." She turned to Buster. "How did you chance upon
+this scheme?" she asked him.
+
+"Oh, the notion just came to me. I didn't have to WORK, to think of it,"
+Buster explained. And he wondered why everybody laughed.
+
+You know, Buster Bumblebee was so lazy that he never would lift a finger
+to do a stroke of work. And now the word "work" had a very funny sound,
+coming from his mouth.
+
+"How could we get the Firefly family to help us? Have you thought of a
+way to do that?" Buster's mother said to her son.
+
+"N-no, I haven't," he admitted. "But I'd go straight to Freddie Firefly
+and tell him what's wanted."
+
+"Suppose you do that, then," said the Queen.
+
+"You wouldn't call that WORKING, would you?" Buster inquired anxiously.
+Having long since promised himself that he would never work, of course
+he didn't want to break his word.
+
+His relations--that is, except his mother--couldn't help tittering when
+Buster said that. But to tell the truth, they were beginning to be the
+least bit jealous of Buster Bumblebee and his plan. When the Queen
+frowned at them severely, each of them tried to look as if it had been
+somebody else that laughed.
+
+Then the Queen assured Buster that paying a call on a person couldn't be
+said to be work.
+
+"You go and talk with Freddie Firefly," she directed him, "and if your
+plan proves to be a success, it will then be your turn to laugh at
+others."
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+FREDDIE'S PROMISE
+
+
+Buster Bumblebee did not find Freddie Firefly very easily. It was a
+sunny afternoon; and if Freddie was flashing his bright light, Buster
+was unable to see it. But at last he spied Freddie eating a meal of
+pollen in the meadow.
+
+"How would you like to work for my mother, the Queen?" Buster asked him.
+
+"I don't believe I'd care to, thank you," Freddie Firefly answered, with
+a mouth so full of food that Buster heard him only with great
+difficulty.
+
+"I'll wait a moment, until you have finished your lunch," said Buster.
+
+"You'd better not!" Freddie Firefly told him. "It will be dark by that
+time. And Chirpy Cricket tells me your family always goes to bed at
+sunset."
+
+"So we do!" Buster agreed. "But my mother, the Queen, is going to order
+her honey-makers to work overtime for the present. And she wants you and
+your family to furnish lights so they can see what they're doing." "Oh!
+That's different!" Freddie Firefly exclaimed. "I thought she wanted me
+to help make honey. And that's something I know nothing about. ... But
+when it comes to furnishing a light, I'm certainly a shining success."
+Freddie then laughed heartily. And much to his surprise, Buster
+Bumblebee gave him several hard slaps on the back, which hurt him not a
+little.
+
+"Don't do that!" Freddie Firefly cried.
+
+"I thought you were choking," Buster, explained.
+
+Freddie Firefly shook his head.
+
+"I was joking," he said.
+
+"Well, I didn't make much of a mistake; for joking and choking sound
+about the same," Buster Bumblebee replied.
+
+"I hope your mother's honey-makers can tell the difference," Freddie
+Firefly grumbled. "If they can't, I certainly don't care to spend a
+night in their company."
+
+"Oh, you won't have any trouble with them. They'll be working so busily
+that they'll hardly notice you," Buster Bumblebee assured him.
+
+So Freddie Firefly promised to be at the house of the Bumblebee family,
+in the meadow, at dusk. And he said he would try to bring plenty of his
+relations with him, so that there might be one of them to light the way
+for each of the honey-makers.
+
+And then Buster Bumblebee hurried away to tell his mother the news.
+
+The Queen praised Buster for what he had done, telling him that in her
+opinion he would soon be the wisest person in Pleasant Valley--not even
+excepting old Mr. Crow and Solomon Owl.
+
+Buster was so pleased that he made up his mind to stay awake that
+evening, in order to see the workers start out for the clover field
+after dark with Freddie Firefly and his relations. But when sunset came,
+Buster simply couldn't keep from falling asleep.
+
+Not until the next morning did he know how his plan had turned out. And
+since it proved to be less successful than he had expected, perhaps it
+was just as well that he was not present to hear the remarks that were
+made about him.
+
+Even Freddie Firefly said things about Buster that night that would not
+have been at all pleasant to listen to.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+DRAWING LOTS
+
+
+Buster Bumblebee's mother told her forty-nine honey-makers that Freddie
+Firefly and at least forty-eight of his relations were expected at the
+Bumblebees' house at dusk.
+
+"Each of the Fireflies will furnish each of you with a light," the Queen
+explained, "so you'll be able to go to the clover field almost as easily
+as you do in the daytime. You're to work until midnight. And after that
+you may sleep until the trumpeter wakes you at dawn."
+
+The Queen's announcement did not please the honey-makers in the least.
+They were an ill-tempered lot, anyhow. And when things did not go to
+suit them they sometimes made themselves most disagreeable.
+
+Of course they didn't dare grumble in the Queen's hearing. But behind
+her back they spoke their minds quite freely.
+
+"It's all the fault of that boy Buster," they told one another. "If he
+hadn't suggested his horrid plan to his mother we wouldn't have to work
+half the night and lose half our sleep."
+
+"I wish he was here now!" one of the honey-makers exclaimed fiercely.
+"I'd make it hot for him!"
+
+Usually the honey-makers began to grow very drowsy at that time of day
+(it was then late in the afternoon). But now they were so angry that
+they were not the least bit sleepy. Their own buzzing kept them awake.
+And the Queen was glad that it was so, because she herself never could
+have stopped so many of them from going to sleep. And even then, if the
+truth must be known, the Queen wished that she might go to bed. Never in
+all her life had she been up so late before.
+
+"I wish the Fireflies would hurry!" she exclaimed as she stood at the
+front-door of her house and looked across the fast darkening field.
+
+As she watched anxiously, the Queen soon spied a light, which kept
+growing brighter and brighter, until at last Freddie Firefly dropped
+down before her. He took off his cap and made a low bow.
+
+"Here I am, Queen!" he said.
+
+"Where's the rest of your family?" Buster Bumblebee's mother asked him.
+
+"They all had to go to a dance down by the swamp," Freddie Firefly
+explained. "They wanted me to go with them; but I had promised your son
+that I'd be here at dusk. And of course I wouldn't think of breaking my
+promise."
+
+Well, the Queen was terribly disappointed.
+
+"You never can furnish enough light for my forty-nine workers!" she
+cried.
+
+"Perhaps not!" Freddie admitted. "But I'd be glad to take one of them to
+the clover-patch to-night, just as a trial, you know."
+
+The Queen said that that was a good idea. And the honey-makers, who had
+come outside the house, all agreed that it was a fine suggestion. But
+not one of them wanted to go with Freddie.
+
+"Then you'll have to draw lots," the Queen told them severely.
+
+When the honey-makers heard that, one of them tried to slip away. But
+the Queen saw her and called her back.
+
+Then they drew lots. And strange to say, the worker who had tried to
+escape proved to be the unlucky one who was doomed to go to the clover
+field with Freddie Firefly and gather clover nectar until midnight.
+
+Unluckily for Freddie, she was the worst-tempered person in the whole
+Bumblebee household. And when she saw that she alone of the whole family
+was going to lose half her night's sleep you may be sure she felt very
+surly.
+
+Freddie noticed a wicked gleam in her eyes. And he began to wish he had
+gone to the dance over near the swamp.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+PEPPERY POLLY
+
+
+Freddie Firefly felt quite uncomfortable as he started off toward the
+clover field, together with the angry honey-maker. It had not made him
+feel any more at ease when the Queen of the Bumblebees told him the
+worker's name. It was Peppery Polly.
+
+"Don't go too fast!" Peppery Polly told Freddie Firefly. "And I'll tell
+you now that I'll make it warm for you if you try to play any tricks on
+me to-night."
+
+As a matter of fact, Freddie hadn't thought of such a thing as playing a
+single trick on her. But Peppery Polly's warning at once put that very
+idea into his head. So he began to try to think of a good joke that
+would bother her. And before they had crossed the meadow Freddie Firefly
+turned to Peppery Polly Bumblebee and said:
+
+"That light off there must be in the farmhouse."
+
+Now, never having been out at night before, his companion wanted to see
+all the strange sights. So she stopped at once and looked around.
+
+"How bright the light is!" she said. "Are you sure the farmhouse isn't
+on fire?"
+
+Not receiving any answer, she turned her head. And to her dismay, she
+couldn't see Freddie Firefly anywhere.
+
+"Oh! Oh! Where are you?" she cried. She was terribly frightened to be
+left alone in the dark. "Come back--please come back!" she begged.
+
+"Why, here I am!" said Freddie Firefly.
+
+And wheeling about quickly, Peppery Polly found him clinging to a blade
+of grass right behind her.
+
+Freddie had been hiding under a plantain leaf, so that she couldn't see
+his light. But Peppery Polly didn't know what had happened.
+
+"Did your light go out?" she inquired anxiously.
+
+"If it did, I never noticed it," he replied.
+
+"Well, don't you dare to leave me alone, no matter what happens!"
+Peppery Polly Bumblebee cried. "If you did, I'd never be able to find my
+way home in the dark."
+
+"Don't worry!" Freddie said. "You're perfectly safe with me. ... What
+I'm wondering is whether I'm perfectly safe with you."
+
+"You are--so long as you behave yourself," she declared. "But remember!
+I'll make it hot for you if you try any tricks on me! Don't forget that
+I carry a sting! And what's more, I know how to use it."
+
+Her threat, however, failed to frighten Freddie Firefly. As soon as he
+saw that his companion was afraid of the dark, he ceased to be afraid of
+her. So he flashed his light impudently in her eyes.
+
+"Come on!" he urged her with a grin which she could not see. "Let's get
+to the clover field, for I like to see people work."
+
+"You do, eh?" snapped Peppery Polly.
+
+"Yes! Watching others work is play for me," he remarked cheerfully. "And
+I hope to have as much fun to-night as I would have had if I'd gone to
+the dance over near the swamp."
+
+"Are you fond of music?" Peppery Polly asked him suddenly.
+
+"Am I?" he exclaimed. "I should say I was!"
+
+"Then tell me how you like this," she said. And she began to sing the
+most terrible song that Freddie Firefly had ever heard in all his life.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+A TERRIBLE SONG
+
+
+It was no wonder that Freddie Firefly grew uneasy again as he listened
+to the song of Peppery Polly Bumblebee, while they flew towards the
+clover field through the darkness. The chorus, especially, filled him
+with alarm. And he shuddered as the disagreeable honey-maker sang it:
+
+ "I've never learned to take a joke;
+    So if you try to trick me,
+  My sting in you I'll quickly poke--
+    You'll find that it will prick ye!
+  It feels like fire--though twice as hot.
+  And I would rather sting than not!"
+
+"How do you like that?" Peppery Polly inquired, after she had finished
+her song.
+
+"You have a beautiful voice," Freddie Firefly hastened to tell her.
+
+"Yes--of course!" she agreed. "But I refer to the words. What do you
+think of them?"
+
+"I think they're awful!" Freddie Firefly cried; for his companion had
+scared the truth out of him before he stopped to think how it would
+sound.
+
+"Quite right!" said Peppery Polly. "I made up that song. And I flatter
+myself it's about the worst I ever heard." To Freddie Firefly's relief,
+she seemed quite pleased.
+
+He was able to draw a deep breath again as they reached the field of red
+clover, where Peppery Polly Bumblebee settled quickly upon a clover-top
+and began sucking up the sweet nectar with her long tongue. For some
+time she worked busily without saying a word. And indeed, how could she
+have spoken with her tongue buried deep in the heart of a clover
+blossom?
+
+But when she withdrew her tongue and flitted from one clover-top to
+another, she never failed to fix her wicked eyes on Freddie Firefly and
+demand "more light--and be quick about it!"
+
+Since no harm had yet fallen him, he began to wonder after a while if
+Peppery Polly's bark was not worse than her bite--or perhaps it would be
+better to say that he wondered if her song was not worse than her sting.
+Anyhow, he knew that he was very tired of her masterful way of speaking
+to him. And he soon determined to play another trick on her.
+
+"Here's a big blossom you haven't tasted!" he called to her suddenly.
+And Peppery Polly--thinking that Freddie meant a clover
+blossom--hastened to a bloom that Freddie pointed out to her.
+
+She settled upon it quickly. And the next moment Peppery Polly gave a
+sharp cry of mingled rage and pain.
+
+"What's the matter?" Freddie Firefly asked her.
+
+"Matter!" she exclaimed. "It's a thistle--and I've pricked myself
+badly."
+
+"Why, so it is a thistle blossom!" said Freddie Firefly. "It's about the
+same color as a clover head; and I suppose you didn't know the
+difference in the dark."
+
+"The question is, did YOU know the difference?" Peppery Polly
+screamed--for she was terribly angry.
+
+"Really, I must decline to answer when you speak to me in such a tone,"
+said Freddie Firefly. And he was quite surprised that the furious
+honey-maker didn't dart towards him and try to sink her sting into him.
+
+But nothing of the sort happened. And Freddie soon saw that Peppery
+Polly was in some kind of trouble.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+CAUGHT BY A THISTLE
+
+
+"You'll have to help me," Peppery Polly Bumblebee said to Freddie
+Firefly through the darkness. "If you'd been a little less stingy with
+that light of yours I wouldn't have made the mistake of thinking this
+thistle was a clover blossom."
+
+"Well, there's nectar in it, isn't there?" he inquired.
+
+"I suppose so," she answered. "But I can't get it. And I'm so daubed
+with the sticky stuff that's spread right where I put my feet that I
+can't free myself."
+
+Freddie flew quite close to her and flashed his light upon her. And he
+saw that she had spoken truly.
+
+"What a pity!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Don't stop to talk!" the honey-maker snapped. "Just help me to get away
+from this thistle. And THEN you can talk all you want to. In fact, I'll
+give you something to talk about."
+
+Freddie Firefly was not so dull-witted but that he knew she intended to
+punish him for sending her to the thistle blossom.
+
+"I'll go back to your house and bring somebody to help you, if I can,"
+he said. "Don't you see that it wouldn't be safe for me to try to pull
+you loose? I might get stuck there myself. And we'd be prisoners for the
+rest of the night."
+
+Peppery Polly hadn't thought of that. And she was inclined to believe
+that there might be some such danger.
+
+"You may go for help," she said at last. "But please remember that
+there's no time to lose. The Queen won't like it at all when she hears
+about this accident, for she expected me to fetch home a good deal of
+nectar before midnight."
+
+"I'll hurry. And I'll be back as soon as I can bring one of your
+fellow-workers with me," Freddie Firefly promised.
+
+Since he was a person of his word, he went straight back to the home of
+the Bumblebee family in the meadow. Being used to finding his way about
+after dark, Freddie had no trouble reaching the Bumblebees' home. But
+rousing the household was an entirely different matter. Though he
+pounded his hardest at their door, none of the Bumblebee family heard
+him. Having always slept from sunset till dawn without once waking, they
+were wrapped in such heavy slumber that not one of them knew what was
+going on.
+
+To be sure, the family trumpeter--who awakened the household each
+morning and was a somewhat lighter sleeper than the others--the
+trumpeter claimed afterward that she DREAMED that she heard somebody at
+the door that night. But that was all the good that came of Freddie
+Firefly's efforts.
+
+After trying his best to rouse Peppery Polly's people, Freddie Firefly
+at last grew discouraged. He saw that the Bumblebee family was bound to
+sleep until dawn came, no matter what happened.
+
+He reflected, then, that there were two things he could do. He could go
+back alone to the clover field and try to set that ill-tempered worker
+free--and no doubt get stung by her for his pains. Or he could go to the
+dance of the Fireflies over near the swamp, and have a delightful time.
+
+"Let me see!" Freddie mused aloud. "I promised Peppery Polly that I'd
+come back with one of her own people--IF _I_ COULD. And since I can't do
+that, I ought not to go back to the clover-patch at all. For if I did,
+it would be about the same as breaking a promise. ... No! I'll go to the
+dance instead!" And away he flew.
+
+Luckily the dance was not half finished when he reached it. And he had
+such a pleasant time that he forgot all about that Bumblebee worker,
+stuck fast to the thistle blossom.
+
+But you may be sure that Peppery Polly did not forget him. After her
+friends set her free the following morning she spent the whole day
+looking for Freddie Firefly.
+
+But he lay very low. And all the rest of the summer he shunned the
+clover field--and the flower garden, too.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+JENNIE JUNEBUG
+
+
+On the day--or rather, on the night--when he first met Jennie Junebug,
+Freddie Firefly was ill at ease. In fact it might be truthfully said
+that he was quite upset.
+
+One beautiful, warm, dark night early in the summer Freddie was hurrying
+to join a big family party which was already gathering in the hollow
+beyond the hill.
+
+He was scooting along through the damp air, flashing his light at the
+rate of about thirty-six times a minute, when a heavy body bumped into
+him and knocked him head over heels upon the grass-carpeted ground.
+
+It was no wonder that he felt upset. And he felt quite peevish, too, as
+he picked himself up and looked about him to see what had happened.
+
+The next moment he was flashing his light into the blinking eyes of an
+enormous fat person, who seemed to be dazed, either by the shock of the
+collision or by the light--Freddie Firefly couldn't tell which.
+
+"Why don't you look where you're going?" Freddie cried impatiently. "You
+knocked the breath out of me. And you almost broke one of my legs." The
+next instant he was heartily ashamed of himself; for he saw, to his
+surprise, that he was talking to a lady. "Oh! I beg your pardon!" he
+cried. "Ex--excuse me! I hope you're not seriously injured?"
+
+"Oh, no!" wheezed the fat lady. "I'm all right. It's no matter, I assure
+you. I'm quite used to running into things after dark."
+
+Freddie Firefly didn't quite like being referred to as a THING. But he
+was too polite to say so.
+
+"You ought to be careful," he told the strange fat lady. "It's dangerous
+for one of your weight--"
+
+"Oh, don't!" she exclaimed quickly. "PLEASE don't tell me I'm fat! I've
+tried every remedy I know and I can't lose a single pound!"
+
+"Don't you think that flying makes you thinner?" Freddie Firefly asked
+her.
+
+But the stout person shook her head dolefully.
+
+"It only seems to make me bigger," she groaned.
+
+"Then why do you do it?"
+
+"Oh, I just adore flying!" she cried. "Don't you?"
+
+Freddie Firefly admitted that he did like to fly. And he was sorry, the
+next moment, that he had made such a statement. For the fat lady blinked
+happily at him. And clasping her hands together, she said:
+
+"Oh, do let's fly together, then!"
+
+Freddie Firefly was so taken aback that at first he couldn't think what
+to say. But at last he managed to stammer a reply.
+
+"Why--why--I--I'll be glad to, but I don't even know your name!" he told
+her.
+
+"It's Jennie Junebug," she explained, as she fanned herself with a fan
+made from a white clover leaf.
+
+"You're a newcomer in these parts, aren't you?" Freddie Firefly
+inquired.
+
+"I just arrived here this month," she informed him. "This is the month
+of June, you know. And I'm one of the well-known Junebug family. ... I
+already know who you are," she continued. "You've been pointed out to
+me. You are Freddie Firefly; and you can't deny it."
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+THE FAT LADY'S SECRET
+
+
+Somehow, the longer Freddie Firefly talked with Jennie Junebug, the more
+he wished that he might fly off and leave her there in the meadow. But
+he had just the same as told her that he would be glad to fly with her.
+And he really didn't see how he could escape that unpleasant duty.
+
+"Well, we may as well move on," he said at last. "Where were you going
+when we ran into each other?"
+
+"Oh, nowhere in particular!" she answered. "Where were YOU going?"
+
+Freddie Firefly had to bite his lip to keep from telling her that he had
+been on his way to a family party in the hollow beyond the hill. He
+certainly didn't want to go there in the company of that strange fat
+lady.
+
+"I WAS going over the hill," he faltered at last. "But I'd rather stay
+here in the meadow with you."
+
+"How nice of you to say that!" Jennie Junebug murmured. "And now let's
+begin flying at once!" she said.
+
+So they rose into the air. But they hadn't flown more than a few feet
+when Jennie once more banged squarely into her companion.
+
+It was a terrific blow. And Freddie Firefly soon found himself lying
+flat on the ground. He was so nearly stunned that he scarcely knew what
+had happened.
+
+"What fun!" the fat lady gurgled right in his ear, with a horrible
+laugh. "Come! Let's do it again!"
+
+"Do it again!" Freddie Firefly repeated after her, as a sudden fear
+gripped him. "Do you mean to tell me that you ran into me ON PURPOSE?"
+"Why, certainly!" she replied. "Running into a light is more than half
+the fun of flying."
+
+Her terrible secret was out at last. If Freddie Firefly had been older
+and wiser he would have known, in the beginning, that his first
+collision with the fat lady was no accident. The whole Junebug family
+were alike in one respect: preferring to fly at night, whenever they saw
+a light anywhere they made straight for it as fast as they could fly.
+Sometimes they landed with a crash against one of the farmhouse windows.
+Sometimes they struck the lantern, if Farmer Green happened to be
+carrying it across the farmyard. It really made little difference to a
+Junebug what he--or she--hit, so long as it gleamed brightly out of the
+night.
+
+Well, Freddie Firefly saw at last that he was in a terrible fix. He knew
+now why Jennie Junebug had asked him to fly with her. It was on account
+of his flashing light! And the dreadful creature actually expected him
+to fly for her so that she might have the pleasure of bowling him over
+every time he rose into the air.
+
+Such a practice was disagreeable, to say the least. Indeed, Freddie
+Firefly thought it was positively dangerous, for him.
+
+"Come! Come!" Jennie Junebug urged him playfully, even while he lay on
+the ground trying to get his breath. "If you don't hurry and fly some
+more I shall knock you over right where you are!"
+
+Freddie Firefly answered her with a faint moan. He couldn't run away
+from her. So he thought of hiding. But he had promised to fly with her.
+And she was a lady.
+
+What could he do?
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+FREDDIE'S ESCAPE
+
+
+There was really nothing Freddie Firefly could do except struggle to his
+feet and try to think at the same time. Flashing his light upon Jennie
+Junebug he saw that she was looking at him fondly. And that made him
+detest her more than ever.
+
+"You seem to be enjoying yourself," he said spitefully.
+
+"Yes, indeed!" the fat lady exclaimed. "I haven't had such sport for a
+whole week. One of your cousins flew with me one night. And we had a
+fine time. No doubt we'd be enjoying each other's company yet, if I
+hadn't had a bit of bad luck."
+
+"What was that?" Freddie Firefly asked her quickly. He thought that if
+he could only keep his dreadful companion TALKING, perhaps she would
+forget about FLYING--and knocking him down. "What was your bad luck?" he
+repeated impatiently.
+
+Jennie Junebug paused and wiped her eyes.
+
+"It was dreadful!" she said at last, as soon as she could control her
+shaking voice. "It was the worst accident that ever happened to me. ...
+Your cousin broke his neck!"
+
+Although Freddie Firefly sank back with a groan, she did not seem to
+notice him.
+
+"Your cousin--" she continued--"your cousin was the easiest thing to
+knock down that I ever saw. Why, once I knocked him over thirty-three
+times in one minute--or in other words, as fast as he flashed his light.
+. . . I had struck him so many times that he was growing weaker. Earlier
+in the evening, when he flashed thirty-six times to the minute, he was a
+little too quick for me."
+
+"Don't stop! Tell me more!" Freddie Firefly begged her, as the fat lady
+ceased talking and fanned herself rapidly. And then, while she continued
+to tell him about his unfortunate cousin, Freddie set his wits to work
+upon a plan to escape from the dreadful creature. He hardly knew what
+she was saying. But every time she paused he urged her on again with a
+"Yes, yes!" or a "Go on! Go on!"
+
+At first a wild hope came to him that he might be able to keep her
+talking all night. Then, of course, he would be safe; because when
+daylight came she would no longer be able to see his light.
+
+But he soon had to give up that plan, for he saw plainly enough that the
+fat lady was growing restless. And at last she told him flatly that she
+had talked all she cared to.
+
+"I'm ready to fly now," she announced with an awful eagerness.
+
+"One moment!" he said hastily. "Your fan--I see you've torn it! And if
+you'll let me take it I'll try to find you another just like it."
+
+"Will you?" Jennie Junebug asked him gratefully. "And will you promise
+to come back just as soon as you've found me a PERFECT match for my
+fan?"
+
+"I promise!" said Freddie Firefly, snatching the fan out of her hands in
+his haste. "Wait right here!" he cautioned her. And then he leaped into
+the air and started away.
+
+BANG! He hadn't flown longer than forty-six seconds when Jennie Junebug
+floored him again.
+
+"I simply couldn't resist hitting you once more!" she said sweetly. "And
+now, hurry! Or I shall never be able to let you leave me."
+
+Freddie Firefly needed no more urging. Though he was sore in every limb
+(and he had a great many!) he made his escape quickly.
+
+All the rest of the night he worked hard, trying to find a white clover
+leaf that exactly matched the one that Jennie Junebug had carried for a
+fan. But every single clover leaf was different from Jennie's in one way
+or another. Freddie Firefly had hoped that it would be so. For if he had
+found one precisely like Jennie Junebug's, he would have had to take it
+to her, as he had promised.
+
+How long the fat lady waited for him in the meadow, Freddie Firefly
+never knew. And to tell the truth, he didn't care. He was too happy
+because he had escaped the fate of his cousin, to bother his head over
+Jennie Junebug.
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+BAD BENJAMIN BAT
+
+
+For a long time Benjamin Bat had had his eye on Freddie Firefly. And
+every time the two met, Benjamin stopped to tell Freddie how plump he
+was growing.
+
+"You're just about ready to--AHEM!" Benjamin remarked when he came upon
+Freddie in Farmer Green's dooryard one fine evening.
+
+"What did you say?" Freddie inquired.
+
+"Never mind!" Benjamin Bat answered. "I was only talking to myself. It's
+a habit I have."
+
+"You're a queer one!" Freddie Firefly exclaimed. "But it's no wonder.
+People say that you've hung upside down so much that the inside of your
+head is all topsy-turvy."
+
+"When he heard that remark Benjamin Bat promptly flew into a rage.
+
+"You'd better be careful!" he warned Freddie. "I don't allow anybody to
+talk to me like that."
+
+"Oh! You mustn't mind what I just said," Freddie Firefly replied. "I was
+only talking to myself--AHEM AHEM!"
+
+But strange to say, Freddie's answer failed to please Benjamin.
+
+"Your remark was very disagreeable, anyhow," he declared.
+
+"Well--so was yours," Freddie retorted stoutly.
+
+"How can you say that?" Benjamin Bat inquired with a sly look. "I didn't
+finish it, did I?"
+
+"No!" replied Freddie. "But you can't fool me. I know what you meant, as
+well as you do."
+
+And straightway Benjamin Bat looked most uncomfortable, because he had
+been thinking that Freddie Firefly HAD BECOME PLUMP ENOUGH TO EAT.
+
+Indeed, there was only one thing that kept Benjamin from devouring
+Freddie Firefly right then and there. And that was Freddie's flashing
+light. Yes! Benjamin Bat was afraid that if he touched Freddie Firefly
+he would get burned.
+
+Once a forest fire broke out while Benjamin was asleep in the woods. And
+he didn't wake up until the tree in which he was hanging by his heels
+had begun to blaze. Luckily he escaped with his life. But the flames
+singed the tips of his wings and gave him such a fright that ever
+afterward he feared a fire or a light of any kind. And now he did wish
+that Freddie Firefly would put out his light, just for a short time. So
+he said, after a few moments:
+
+"Don't you think you ought to stop flashing your light?"
+
+"Do you mean--" asked Freddie--"do you mean that I ought to keep it
+glaring steadily all the time?"
+
+"Oh, no!" Benjamin Bat replied hurriedly. "I mean that you ought to put
+it out for a while."
+
+"Why should I do that?" Freddie Firefly wanted to know.
+
+"To please Farmer Green, of course," Benjamin replied glibly. "Don't you
+know that a light always draws mosquitoes? And it can't be very pleasant
+for Farmer Green to have half the mosquitoes in the neighborhood
+crowding into his dooryard."
+
+"What would be the use of my putting out my light, when all my relations
+are flashing theirs?" Freddie asked.
+
+"Well, maybe they'd follow your example," Benjamin Bat suggested. "And
+just think what a good turn you'd be doing Farmer Green!"
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+PLEASING FARMER GREEN
+
+
+Now, when Benjamin Bat spoke of his doing Farmer Green a good turn,
+Freddie Firefly looked puzzled.
+
+"What has Farmer Green ever done for me?" he inquired.
+
+"What has he done?" Benjamin cried. "Hasn't he furnished you a fine
+meadow in which to dance at night? And doesn't he let you come here in
+his dooryard whenever you please? I should think THAT was something to
+be thankful for!"
+
+"Now that you speak of it, I don't know but that you're right," Freddie
+Firefly admitted, "though I never thought of such a thing before." And
+not wishing to be ungrateful to Farmer Green, he promptly put out his
+light.
+
+Of course, that was just what Benjamin was waiting for. And since he
+could see perfectly in the dark, without a moment's warning he rushed
+straight at Freddie Firefly, with his mouth wide open.
+
+If Freddie hadn't happened to flash his light just at that moment he
+would never have flashed it again.
+
+As soon as Benjamin Bat saw the greenish-white gleam he was so afraid of
+getting burned--not knowing that Freddie's light could not harm him--he
+was so afraid that he swerved sharply to one side and zigzagged about
+the yard for a few seconds.
+
+But he soon returned to speak to Freddie Firefly once more.
+
+"You made a good beginning," he told Freddie. "But you turned your light
+on again too quickly. Just keep dark until I tell you to shine, and with
+a little practice you'll be able to do the trick very well. And Farmer
+Green will certainly be pleased. Now, just try it again!"
+
+But Freddie Firefly could not forget how terrible Benjamin had looked a
+few moments before. And he began to suspect that Benjamin Bat was
+playing a trick of his own.
+
+"It seems to me," said Freddie, "that you are a little too anxious about
+Farmer Green."
+
+"Oh! no, indeed!" Benjamin Bat declared. "Farmer Green is a fine man.
+He's a great friend of mine. He furnishes me a whole tree near the
+swamp, in which I sleep every day. If you passed that way any time
+between dawn and sunset you could see me hanging by my heels from one of
+the branches."
+
+"Just where is your tree?" Freddie Firefly inquired.
+
+Having no idea that Freddie could do him the slightest harm, Benjamin
+Bat explained that his special, favorite tree was a great cedar, which
+stood close to the old bridge that crossed Black Creek, at the lower end
+of the swamp.
+
+"I know where that is; and I'll go over there to-morrow and take a look
+at you," Freddie Firefly remarked.
+
+"Do!" said Benjamin Bat.
+
+"And I'll bring Solomon Owl with me," Freddie added. "For I know he'd
+like to see you, too."
+
+"Don't!" cried Benjamin Bat. "Oh, don't do that!"
+
+"What's the matter?" Freddie Firefly asked Benjamin Bat. "Why don't you
+want me to fetch Solomon Owl to your tree, to see you hanging by your
+heels when you're fast asleep?"
+
+"Solomon Owl is no friend of mine," Benjamin Bat explained with a
+shudder. "He'd eat me in a minute, if he could catch me."
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+BENJAMIN FEELS GUILTY
+
+
+Freddie Firefly and Benjamin Bat faced each other in Farmer Green's dark
+dooryard.
+
+"Yes!" Benjamin Bat's thin voice quavered. "Don't EVER bring Solomon Owl
+to my tree in the daytime. Although he doesn't see so well when it's
+light as he does at night, he could catch me without much trouble when I
+was asleep. And he would eat me in a minute--or only half a minute,
+maybe."
+
+"Well, wouldn't you like that?" Freddie Firefly inquired, as if he were
+greatly surprised.
+
+"Certainly not!" said Benjamin Bat. "You talk like a--AHEM!"
+
+"Perhaps I do," Freddie Firefly retorted. "But I should think it would
+be just as jolly for you to be eaten by Solomon Owl as it would be for
+me to be eaten by you."
+
+Benjamin started violently.
+
+"What in the world ever put such a strange idea into your head?"
+Benjamin Bat cried. He was greatly astonished, for he had not supposed
+that Freddie Firefly suspected exactly what was in his mind.
+
+"You put that idea into my head yourself," Freddie Firefly said very
+sternly.
+
+And the moment Benjamin Bat heard that, he felt very sheepish. But
+unlike most people who feel ashamed, he did not hang his head. Strangely
+enough, Benjamin Bat was never so proud as when his head hung lower than
+his heels. And he had a habit, when he felt guilty or uncomfortable, of
+RAISING his head, instead of dropping it. So now he lifted his head very
+high.
+
+And by that tell-tale sign Freddie Firefly knew at once that Benjamin
+Bat would have flushed with dismay, had he only known how.
+
+"You're a rascal!" Freddie cried fiercely, flashing his light again and
+again in Benjamin Bat's eyes, until that gentleman blinked so fast that
+it seemed as if his eyes must be in danger of turning inside out.
+
+"You'd better be off!" Freddie Firefly shouted. "And if you ever come to
+me again, coaxing me to put out my light--so you can eat me--I'll
+certainly bring Solomon Owl to your tree when you're asleep there."
+
+Still Benjamin Bat made no move. Yet he wanted to go away because he was
+in terror of being burned by Freddie Firefly's light. But he did not
+dare turn his back upon Freddie Firefly and his light and fly away. And
+he began to be sorry that he had never learned to fly backwards.
+
+"Please--" Benjamin Bat stammered at last--"please do me a favor. I'm
+not feeling very well. I'm afraid I'm going to be ill. Maybe you'll be
+good enough to go and ask my friend Farmer Green to step outside his
+house a moment. Just tell him I'm in trouble," he whined.
+
+"Trouble!" Freddie Firefly sneered, for he knew well enough--by this
+time--that Benjamin Bat was scared, though he couldn't quite guess the
+reason for Benjamin's fright. "You'll be in worse trouble if I show
+Solomon Owl where you sleep in the daytime."
+
+"Stand back!" Benjamin Bat shrieked suddenly. "You'll singe my wings if
+you're not careful!"
+
+Then Freddie Firefly knew exactly what Benjamin feared. And he was so
+amused that he couldn't help taking a turn around the dooryard, to dance
+and laugh and shout.
+
+And when he came back to the place where he had left Benjamin Bat, that
+odd gentleman had vanished.
+
+The terrified Benjamin had floundered away toward the swamp. And never,
+afterward, did he have a word to say to Freddie Firefly.
+
+But whenever Freddie Firefly caught sight of Benjamin Bat's dark shape,
+flitting in a zigzag path across the moon, he always cried out in a loud
+voice:
+
+"Look out, Benjamin Bat! Mr. Moon will singe your wings if you're not
+careful."
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+MRS. LADYBUG'S ADVICE
+
+
+Finding himself face to face with Mrs. Ladybug one night in Farmer
+Green's meadow, Freddie Firefly noticed, even before she spoke, that the
+little lady was not in a cheerful mood. In fact, she frowned at him
+darkly and pointed one of her knitting needles straight at him as she
+began to speak.
+
+"You're terribly careless with that light of yours," she said. "People
+are always warning me that my house is on fire and telling me that I'd
+better hurry home. Now--" she added--"now I think I've discovered the
+reason why my friends are forever worrying about fire. No doubt when
+they give me such advice they have seen you prowling around my house
+with that light of yours; and they think that if you haven't already set
+my house on fire, you're just a-going to."
+
+When Freddie Firefly saw that Mrs. Ladybug was making Benjamin Bat's
+mistake of thinking that his light could start a blaze, he had to smile.
+
+"Nonsense!" he cried. "I'm always very careful, Mrs. Ladybug, when I'm
+near your house. You know that I wouldn't want your charming children to
+burn up."
+
+And now Mrs. Ladybug pointed her other knitting needle at Freddie.
+
+"Well, if you're not careless, you're silly, anyhow," she snapped. "I
+wouldn't object so much to your light if only you'd put it to some good
+use. But as long as I've known you--and that's several weeks--I've never
+seen you do anything but caper about the meadow and dance." And then
+Mrs. Ladybug began to knit furiously, as if to show Freddie Firefly that
+she was never idle, even if she did spend a good deal of time away from
+home. "Do you intend always to fritter your nights away as you do now?"
+she inquired.
+
+"What else could I do? I should like to know--" Freddie began.
+
+"Why not use your light in some kind of work?" Mrs. Ladybug asked him.
+
+"What work, I should like to know--" Freddie said. And since Mrs.
+Ladybug did not at once answer him, he added: "I don't believe you can
+suggest anything--can you?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I can!" she declared quickly. "I was thinking. That's why I
+didn't reply sooner. Probably you don't know that I have helped many
+youngsters to begin to work. For instance, it was I that told Daddy
+Longlegs to help Farmer Green with his harvesting." Little Mrs. Ladybug
+felt so proud of herself that she dropped a stitch without noticing it.
+
+"Daddy Longlegs! HE'S not young!" Freddie Firefly exclaimed.
+
+"Oh! yes, he is! He's not so old as you think," Mrs. Ladybug replied.
+"He's just about your age. And if he can work, you certainly can."
+
+"But I didn't know that Daddy Longlegs was working for Farmer Green,"
+Freddie Firefly said.
+
+"He tried to, one day. But the wind blew too hard. ... It wasn't really
+Daddy's fault," Mrs. Ladybug explained. "And you ought not to attempt to
+work on windy nights, either," she went on. "For your light might go
+out, and then there'd be a terrible accident."
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+ALL ABOUT TRAINS
+
+
+"What do you mean?" Freddie Firefly asked little Mrs. Ladybug. "What
+accident could happen if the wind blew out my light?" And he laughed
+very hard, because he knew that no gale was strong enough even to dim
+his greenish-white gleams.
+
+"Why," replied Mrs. Ladybug, "the train would strike you and be wrecked.
+You see," she continued, "I have everything planned for you. You're
+going to spend your nights on the railroad tracks, signalling the
+trains."
+
+Well, Freddie Firefly rather liked Mrs. Ladybug's idea. And though he
+knew that she was mistaken about some things, he began to think that
+perhaps she was quite wise, after all.
+
+"Aren't you afraid I might set fire to the trains?" he inquired slyly.
+
+"No, indeed!" she answered. "You'd stop them, you know, before they ran
+over you."
+
+"But I don't know how to make a train stop," he objected. "I've never
+worked on a railroad in all my life."
+
+"Why, it's simple enough," said little Mrs. Ladybug. "When a train came
+along you would stand on the track right in front of it and wave your
+light." And while she smiled at Freddie Firefly as if to say, "You see
+how easy it is," she dropped six more stitches out of her knitting--and
+never found them, either.
+
+Freddie Firefly, however, did not smile at all. On the contrary, he
+looked somewhat worried.
+
+"Are you sure it's safe?" he asked her. "If the train failed to stop,
+with me on the track in front of it--"
+
+"Don't worry about that!" cried little Mrs. Ladybug. "You'll never
+amount to anything if you worry. And if you don't wish to fritter away
+your time dancing in this meadow, you'll take my advice and begin to
+work at once."
+
+"I'll think about the matter," said Freddie Firefly. And then he added
+somewhat doubtfully: "It's a long way to the railroad."
+
+"Pooh!" Mrs. Ladybug exclaimed. "Old Mr. Crow often visits it. And if he
+can fly that far, at his age, a youngster like you ought not to mind the
+trip."
+
+"Perhaps you know best," Freddie Firefly told Mrs. Ladybug at last.
+"I'll take your advice just this once, and I'll see how I like the work.
+But there's another question I'd like to ask you: What will the trains
+do after they stop?"
+
+While laughing over Freddie's question Mrs. Ladybug shook so hard that
+she unravelled sixteen rows of her knitting before she could stop.
+
+"Bless you!" she cried, as soon as she could speak. "I don't know what
+the trains will do. That's their affair--not yours nor mine. Everybody's
+aware that trains are made for two purposes--to start and to stop. But I
+never should think of being so rude as to ask them WHY, or WHAT, or
+WHEN, or WHERE."
+
+So Freddie Firefly thanked Mrs. Ladybug most politely. He was sure, now,
+that she was one of the wisest persons in the whole valley. No doubt, he
+thought, she knew almost as much as old Mr. Crow, or even Solomon Owl.
+And he wished he knew half what she did.
+
+"I'll start for the railroad track at once," Freddie told Mrs. Ladybug.
+And waving his cap at her, while she waved her knitting at him, he set
+forth towards the village, the lights of which twinkled dimly in the
+distance.
+
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+WORK ON THE RAILROAD
+
+
+Freddie Firefly did not intend to go into the village itself. He
+expected to travel only as far as the railroad tracks, where they curved
+around a bend in the river before stretching straight away towards the
+town.
+
+Though he spent a much longer time in making the journey than old Mr.
+Crow ever took, Freddie at last reached the railroad, where he promptly
+sat himself down between the rails to wait for a train. And there
+Freddie Firefly stayed all alone, in the dark, with nothing to keep from
+feeling forlorn except the croaking of a band of noisy frogs in a pool
+near-by.
+
+After a while Freddie began to grow so weary of his new task that he
+wished he had never taken Mrs. Ladybug's advice.
+
+"I don't believe I like working," he said with a sigh, as he thought of
+the good time his family was having at that very moment, dancing in
+Farmer Green's meadow.
+
+And then all at once he heard a faint whistle, far off down the valley.
+And a little later a low rumble caught his ear--a rumble which grew
+louder and louder until at last it turned into a roar, just as a stream
+of light shot around the curve in the track ahead of him, which followed
+the bend of the river.
+
+Freddie Firefly was startled. He couldn't think what made that long lane
+of light. And he was about to jump into the bushes and hide when he saw
+all at once that it was exactly what he had been waiting for.
+
+"It's a train!" he cried aloud. And he began flashing his light bravely
+while he swayed from side to side, for Mrs. Ladybug had told him that he
+must swing his light--if he expected to stop the train.
+
+And all the while the train tore on towards Freddie Firefly. To his
+great surprise it showed not the slightest sign of stopping. And in
+spite of what Mrs. Ladybug had said, Freddie Firefly began to be afraid
+that it wasn't going to pause at all.
+
+He soon saw that if he did not do something quickly the train would run
+over him. But by the time he had made up his mind to jump off the track,
+out of harm's way, it was too late for him to escape in that fashion.
+
+So Freddie Firefly crawled hurriedly into a chink beneath the railroad
+tie on which he had been sitting. And with a horrible scream the train
+thundered over him. To Freddie's dismay it paid no heed to his flashing
+light, though he thought it must surely have seen that signal.
+
+Those were terrible moments for Freddie Firefly, while the train was
+passing above him. The frightful noise, the trembling of the ground, the
+rush of the air--all those things made him wonder whether he could ever
+reach home again, alive and unharmed. He was even more scared than he
+had been when he found himself in the power of that dreadful creature,
+Jennie Junebug.
+
+
+
+
+XXIII
+
+WHY FREDDIE WAS GLAD
+
+
+Even after the train had rushed shrieking into the village two miles
+away, and the echoes had grown still, Freddie Firefly cowered in his
+hiding-place on the railroad track, crouched in the chink beneath one of
+the ties.
+
+At last he crept out, trembling in every limb. But in spite of his
+terror he skipped off the track very spryly.
+
+Safe at one side of the rails, which gleamed in the moonlight, Freddie
+felt himself all over, to make sure that he had broken no bones.
+
+"I seem to be unhurt," he mused. "But never, never again will I listen
+to anything that Mrs. Ladybug says."
+
+And having made himself that solemn promise, he hurried away toward
+Farmer Green's meadow, which he reached just before dawn.
+
+As he crossed the fields he thought that he smelled smoke. But he
+couldn't see a blaze anywhere. And when he came to the meadow he was so
+eager to dance that he forgot to ask anybody if there had been a fire.
+
+Luckily he arrived in time to take part in the last dance of the night.
+And after the dance was over he astonished all his family with the
+strange tale that he told them.
+
+Before going to their homes all Freddie's relations gathered around him
+to listen to his story of the night's adventure. And there were many
+"Ohs" and "Ahs" when he reached the point where the train ran over him.
+
+"You're lucky you didn't have a leg cut off," his favorite cousin
+remarked, "though that wouldn't have been so bad as losing a wing."
+
+Freddie Firefly shuddered.
+
+"Anyway, you're better off than Mrs. Ladybug is," somebody piped up.
+
+"Why, what's happened to her?" Freddie Firefly inquired.
+
+"Haven't you heard?" several of his cousins cried.
+
+"No! no!" he shouted.
+
+"Her house caught fire to-night, while she was away from home," they
+explained.
+
+"I thought I smelled smoke as I was coming back from the railroad,"
+Freddie observed. And then a sad picture came into his mind.
+
+"And Mrs. Lady bug's children--" he began breathlessly.
+
+"Oh! The neighbors saved them," his favorite cousin said. "They're only
+slightly scorched. But their ma's house is ruined."
+
+Then, to everybody's great surprise, Freddie Firefly began to dance up
+and down and sing with joy.
+
+"Oh, I'm so glad! Oh, I'm so glad!" he chanted over and over again.
+
+His relations could scarcely believe that he was quite himself.
+
+"His fright on the railroad must have injured his mind," they said to
+one another. "Or perhaps the train ran over his head when he didn't know
+it." They could think of no other reason for Freddie's queer actions.
+Always before he had seemed too kind-hearted to rejoice over another
+person's ill luck.
+
+"What do you mean?" three hundred voices shouted. "Why are you glad?"
+
+"I'm glad I tried to stop the train," Freddie Firefly answered, "because
+now Mrs. Ladybug can't say that I set her house on fire. She knows that
+I was working on the railroad to-night. And nobody can be in two places
+at the same time."
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Tale of Freddie Firefly, by Arthur Scott Bailey
+
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+Project Gutenberg's The Tale of Freddie Firefly, by Arthur Scott Bailey
+#2 in our series by Arthur Scott Bailey
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
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+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: The Tale of Freddie Firefly
+
+Author: Arthur Scott Bailey
+
+Release Date: May, 2004 [EBook #5727]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on August 18, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF FREDDIE FIREFLY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+TUCK-ME-IN TALES
+(Trademark Registered)
+
+THE TALE OF FREDDIE FIREFLY
+
+BY
+
+ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY
+Author of
+"SLEEPY-TIME TALES"
+(Trademark Registered).
+
+ILLUSTRATED BY
+HARRY L. SMITH
+
+NEW YORK
+
+1918
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+I.     A MERRY DANCER
+II.    A FINE PLAN
+III.   FREDDIE AGREES TO HELP
+IV.    GETTING READY
+V.     AT THE STONE WALL
+VI.    THE BANNERS
+VII.   THE TORCHLIGHT PARADE
+VIII.  BUSTER'S SCHEME
+IX.    FREDDIE'S PROMISE
+X.     DRAWING LOTS
+XI.    PEPPERY POLLY
+XII.   A TERRIBLE SONG
+XIII.  CAUGHT BY A THISTLE
+XIV.   JENNIE JUNEBUG
+XV.    THE FAT LADY'S SECRET
+XVI.   FREDDIE'S ESCAPE
+XVII.  BAD BENJAMIN BAT
+XVIII. PLEASING FARMER GREEN
+XIX.   BENJAMIN FEELS GUILTY
+XX.    MRS. LADYBUG'S ADVICE
+XXI.   ALL ABOUT TRAINS
+XXII.  WORK ON THE RAILROAD
+XXIII. WHY FREDDIE WAS GLAD
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+YOU'RE TERRIBLY CARELESS WITH THAT
+LIGHT OF YOURS . . . Frontispiece
+
+FREDDIE SAT ON TOP OF THE BANNER
+
+FREDDIE PLAYS A JOKE ON PEPPERY POLLY BUMBLEBEE
+
+FREDDIE WAS BUMPED INTO BY JENNIE JUNEBUG
+
+
+THE TALE OF
+FREDDIE FIREFLY
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+A MERRY DANCER
+
+
+Nobody in Pleasant Valley ever paid any attention to Freddie Firefly in
+the daytime. But on warm, and especially on dark summer nights he always
+appeared at his best. Then he went gaily flitting through the meadows.
+And sometimes he even danced right in Farmer Green's dooryard, together
+with a hundred or two of his nearest relations.
+
+No one could help noticing those sprightly revelers, flashing their
+greenish-white lights through the gloom. And many of the field people,
+as well as the folk that lived in the farmhouse, thought that the
+dancers made a pretty sight.
+
+But there were others who said that the Firefly family might better be
+spending their time in some more serious way.
+
+Benjamin Bat, who lived in Cedar Swamp, was one of those who found fault
+with the merry dancers. He grumbled a good deal about them--and
+especially about Freddie Firefly.
+
+"He's so proud of that light he carries!" Benjamin often exclaimed,
+"Now, if he could hang by his feet from the limb of a tree--and SLEEP at
+the same time--he'd have something to boast of!"
+
+No doubt Benjamin Bat was jealous. Anyhow, Solomon Owl declared that
+there was still another reason why Benjamin did not like Freddie
+Firefly. Solomon claimed that Benjamin would have liked to EAT Freddie.
+But he didn't quite dare to grab him for fear of getting burned by
+Freddie's light.
+
+If that was so, then it was no wonder that Freddie kept flashing his
+light in the dark. And it was lucky that he had a light, because--like
+Benjamin Bat himself--he was a night-prowler.
+
+Unlike Farmer Green, Freddie believed that the night air was very
+healthful. And together with all his family, he thought that a damp
+place was much to be preferred to a dry one.
+
+He often remarked that the pollen upon which he frequently dined tasted
+best when the dew was upon it. And he never could understand why Buster
+Bumblebee's sisters, the ill-tempered workers, always gathered nectar
+for their honey-making in the daytime.
+
+"Everyone to his own taste!" Freddie sometimes said. "And I suppose that
+those who sleep from sunset to dawn don't know what they're missing."
+
+Johnnie Green, who went to bed almost as early as the Bumblebee family,
+couldn't help envying Freddie Firefly and all his sprightly company.
+Johnnie thought it must be great fun to frolic the whole night long--if
+only Solomon Owl wouldn't scare a person half out of his wits with that
+unearthly hooting of which Solomon was so fond.
+
+But you may be sure that Freddie Firefly never bothered HIS head over
+Solomon Owl. Perhaps he knew that Solomon was too busy hunting for mice
+to take notice of anybody so small as he was, even if he did carry a
+bright light everywhere he went.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+A FINE PLAN
+
+
+Chirpy Cricket was one of Freddie Firefly's neighbors. He was a good
+neighbor for anybody to have, too, because he was one of the most
+cheerful of all the field and forest-folk that lived in Pleasant Valley.
+Freddie Firefly liked him. And he often remarked that he would rather
+hear Chirpy Cricket sing than sing himself.
+
+Since he was so fond of hearing Chirpy's songs, it was lucky for Freddie
+that his sprightly neighbor usually chose to sing at night, when Freddie
+could better enjoy his shrill ditty. And Freddie frequently went out of
+his way on a fine, dark, summer's night to find Chirpy Cricket and thank
+him for his kindness.
+
+At such times Chirpy Cricket always smiled mysteriously, saying "I'm
+glad my voice pleases you." But it must be confessed that he was not
+singing for Freddie Firefly's benefit at all. He was singing for his own
+entertainment--and maybe to please some lady of his acquaintance as
+well. And he chose night time for his chirping because he didn't dare
+sing during the day. He knew that after sunset almost all the birds were
+asleep--except for Solomon Owl and Willie Whip-poor-will and a few other
+feathered folk who preferred the dark to the daylight. They were not so
+numerous that they worried Chirpy very much. But between dawn and sunset
+there were altogether too many birds awake to please him. Then Chirpy
+Cricket kept quite silent. He didn't wish to draw attention to himself
+by singing, because he didn't care to be gobbled up by any bird, no
+matter how handsome or hungry the bird might be.
+
+Perhaps it is a wonder that Chirpy could be so cheerful as he was,
+living under such difficulties as he did. But on the other hand, maybe
+he felt so carefree at night that he couldn't help being jolly.
+
+Anyhow, he was always ready for a good time. And if there was no good
+time at hand, usually Chirpy Cricket could think of some sort of frolic.
+
+And so, at last, he hit upon the idea of a torchlight procession.
+Somebody had told him that Farmer Green's family had seen such a parade
+in the village one evening. And Chirpy Cricket saw no reason why he and
+his friends should not enjoy one too, right there in the shadow of Blue
+Mountain.
+
+"What they can do in the village, we can do here!" he exclaimed. And
+though it was still broad daylight--being not later than the middle of
+the afternoon--Chirpy set out at once to find Freddie Firefly, because
+he simply had to get Freddie to help him.
+
+He found Freddie in the swampy part of the meadow, near the place where
+the cat-tails grew. And though Freddie was a bit sleepy, he became wide
+awake the moment he heard Chirpy Cricket's voice.
+
+"I've thought of a fine plan!" Chirpy Cricket cried. "I'm going to have
+a torchlight procession and I want you and all your family to take part
+in it."
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+FREDDIE AGREES TO HELP
+
+
+Never in all his life had Freddie Firefly heard of a torchlight
+procession--nor of any other sort of procession, either. So when Chirpy
+Cricket first mentioned his plan it was no wonder that Freddie looked
+somewhat blank.
+
+But when Chirpy explained that a procession was a parade, which meant
+that you followed a leader--and a good many others--in a long line,
+Freddie Firefly began to understand.
+
+"I need you and a few hundred of your nearest relations to furnish the
+lights," Chirpy Cricket continued. "And I wish you'd ask your whole
+family to take part in the procession, for we really can't have too many
+of you."
+
+"When will the procession take place?" Freddie Firefly wanted to know.
+
+"To-night, as soon as it's dark enough!" Chirpy told him.
+
+"And where are we going to march?"
+
+"Oh, all around the meadow!" said Chirpy Cricket. "The line will form
+along the stone wall by the roadside. ... Do you think you'll be there?"
+he inquired somewhat anxiously.
+
+"You certainly can count on me," Freddie Firefly promised. "Of course, I
+can't very well accept your invitation for more than about fifty-five of
+my brothers--and maybe six dozen of my cousins. But I HOPE there'll be
+more of us than that."
+
+"Well, I hope so, too," Chirpy Cricket said. "But even if there were no
+more than you can promise, we ought to have enough. Fifty-five and six
+dozen make one hundred and twenty-seven; and you make one hundred and
+twenty-eight."
+
+"Yes," replied Freddie Firefly, though he thought it would have been
+more polite had Chirpy Cricket counted him first instead of last, since
+he was the first of his family to be invited. But he really couldn't be
+angry with anyone so cheerful as Chirpy Cricket.
+
+"I'll have to leave you now," Chirpy announced, "for I must be on my
+way. I shall have to make a great many calls before sunset, because I
+want to invite all my friends to join the procession. ... I'll see you
+later," he said, as he turned away.
+
+He had not gone far before he stopped and called to Freddie Firefly.
+
+"Don't forget to bring your light with you to-night!" he cautioned him.
+
+"I'll try not to!" Freddie shouted. But if the truth was known, he
+couldn't have forgotten his light, even if he had wanted to! It was just
+as much a part of him as his eyes or his six legs. But Chirpy Cricket
+didn't seem to know that. And Freddie Firefly didn't choose to enlighten
+him.
+
+Then Chirpy Cricket hurried away. He went straight to the clover field,
+because he wanted to ask Buster Bumblebee to take part in the torchlight
+procession. And Chirpy knew that the clover field was the best place to
+look for him, on account of Buster's being so fond of clover juice.
+
+Reaching the field where the red clover grew, Chirpy began to hunt for
+the biggest blossom of them all. And when he found it, there was Buster
+Bumblebee, sitting on top of it and enjoying a hearty meal.
+
+He listened, between sucks at the sweet juice, to Chirpy Cricket's
+invitation. He seemed interested, too.
+
+"What music are you going to have at your parade?" he inquired, for
+Buster was very fond of music.
+
+Chirpy Cricket replied that he hadn't thought much about that, but he
+said he expected to sing.
+
+Buster Bumblebee grunted when he heard that. To tell the truth, he
+didn't care much for Chirpy's voice, which he considered altogether too
+shrill.
+
+"Are you going to take part in the procession?" Chirpy asked him.
+
+"I'll let you know to-morrow," said Buster Bumblebee. "Ah, but that will
+be too late!" Chirpy cried. "We're going to have the procession to-
+night."
+
+"To-night!" Buster exclaimed. "Then I can't come. For I shall be sound
+asleep right after sunset."
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+GETTING READY
+
+
+Buster Bumblemee's mind was made up. Although Chirpy Cricket told him it
+would be a shame for him to miss the torchlight procession, which was
+sure to be a great success, because Freddie Firefly had promised to be
+there with one hundred and twenty-seven of his relations, Buster still
+shook his head.
+
+"I wouldn't think of such a thing as staying out after dark!" he
+declared with much firmness.
+
+"But you ought to see the Firefly family when they're all lighted up!"
+Chirpy Cricket cried.
+
+"Are they as bright as the sun?" Buster asked.
+
+"N-no--but they're brighter than some of the stars," Chirpy replied.
+
+"Well, I don't care if they are," said Buster. "I need my rest at night.
+And you'll have to get along without me, though of course, I'm much
+obliged for the invitation."
+
+Seeing that further urging was useless, Chirpy Cricket left Buster and
+hurried away to find Jennie Junebug. And to his delight, she said at
+once that she would be much pleased to attend the torchlight procession.
+She did wish, however, that he had invited her earlier, because she
+would have liked a new gown for the occasion.
+
+"Oh, come just as you are!" said Chirpy Cricket.
+
+"What! With my apron on?" Jennie Junebug exclaimed.
+
+Chirpy Cricket went off laughing. Buster Bumblebee had caused him some
+disappointment. But now he was feeling quite cheerful again.
+
+As he went from place to place inviting his friends to come to the
+torchlight procession that night, he found that a good many felt as
+Buster Bumblebee did. They declined to break their life-long rule of
+going early to bed. But there were others, such as Mr. Moses Mosquito,
+Kiddie Katydid, and Mehitable Moth, who said at once that they were glad
+he asked them and that they wouldn't miss the fun for anything.
+
+Meanwhile Freddie Firefly was just as busy as Chirpy Cricket. And he had
+somewhat better luck. For not only did fifty-five of his brothers and
+six dozen of his cousins promise to take part in the procession--and
+bring their lights, too--but at least three hundred others, including
+some of Freddie's second and third cousins, agreed gladly to join in the
+evening's sport.
+
+So before dark Freddie sent a message to Chirpy Cricket by Greenie
+Grasshopper, telling him that he might count on a big turnout of the
+Firefly family.
+
+That was good news. And Chirpy Cricket felt so happy that he began to
+sing earlier in the evening than was his custom.
+
+While it was still dusk he went to the stone wall where the procession
+was to form. And of course he had to wait there a long time before the
+first of the Firefly family appeared.
+
+Even for a person as cheerful as Chirpy Cricket, it was hard to wait.
+But he consoled himself by chirping his loudest.
+
+"I suppose Freddie Firefly and all his relations are very busy getting
+their lights ready," he thought.
+
+At last, when it was quite dark, Freddie Firefly lighted on a head of
+timothy grass close beside the stone wall and began to flash his light
+right in Chirpy Cricket's face.
+
+"Here I am, just as I promised!" he called.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+AT THE STONE WALL
+
+
+"Where's the rest of your crowd?" Chirpy Cricket asked Freddie Firefly,
+when they met by the stone wall. "It's getting darker every minute. And
+the torchlight procession ought to start right away."
+
+"They're coming," said Freddie. "If you look sharp you can see them now,
+crossing the meadow."
+
+Chirpy Cricket tried to see through the blackness of the night. After
+gazing steadily for a few moments he was able to make out a patch of
+twinkling lights, which looked a good deal like stars, except that they
+were too low. Since they kept growing brighter, Chirpy Cricket knew that
+they must be moving towards him, and that many of the Firefly family had
+accepted his invitation.
+
+Soon a great host of Freddie's relations surrounded Chirpy Cricket. They
+flashed their lights in his eyes, so that he was almost blinded by the
+glare. And it was only with much difficulty that he could see Moses
+Mosquito, Kiddie Katydid, and Mehitable Moth, who had also arrived by
+that time.
+
+"What are we going to do?" everybody asked Chirpy Cricket at the same
+time. So there was nothing he could do but mount the wall and make a
+speech.
+
+"Friends--" he said, in his loudest voice--"I'm glad to see so many of
+you present. Our torchlight procession is going to be an even greater
+success than the one that Farmer Green went to see in the village--if
+you'll only follow my directions."
+
+"We will!" his listeners cried.
+
+"Please don't ask us to march after dawn breaks, for we'll be ready for
+bed by that time," Freddie Firefly interrupted.
+
+"I understand," Chirpy Cricket replied. "And now this is what I want you
+all to do: you must fall in line one behind another. And when
+everybody's ready I'll take my place at the head of the procession and
+lead you all around the farm, and right past Farmer Green's window,
+too."
+
+"Forming a line is going to be hard work," somebody objected.
+
+But Chirpy Cricket arranged that matter simply enough.
+
+"Just form your line along the stone wall" he directed them. "The wall
+is straight enough. And to tell the truth, that's exactly why I told
+Freddie that we'd meet here."
+
+"But what about Moses Mosquito and Kiddie Katydid and Mehitable Moth?"
+Freddie inquired somewhat anxiously.
+
+"Well, what about them?" Chirpy asked him. "What do you mean?"
+
+"They haven't brought any lights," Freddie pointed out. "So what's the
+use of their being in the procession?"
+
+"Oh, that's all right!" Chirpy Cricket assured him. "They're going to
+carry the banners."
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE BANNERS
+
+
+When Chirpy Cricket mentioned "banners," Mehitable Moth, Kiddie Katydid,
+and Moses Mosquito stepped forward with looks of pride on their faces--
+so far as one could see their faces by the glimmer of the flashing
+lights of the Firefly family. And at the same time Freddie Firefly
+shouldered his way through the crowd and plucked at Chirpy Cricket's
+sleeve.
+
+"Don't you think--" he asked earnestly--"don't you think I ought to
+carry one of the banners myself?"
+
+"Perhaps so!" answered Chirpy Cricket. He was so taken aback that he
+really didn't know what else to say. "Which one do you prefer?"
+
+"I'd have to see them before I made a choice," Freddie Firefly told him
+in a more hopeful tone.
+
+So Chirpy ordered Kiddie Katydid and Moses and Mehitable to produce
+their banners, which they had left leaning against the wall.
+
+They brought them forth fearfully, each hoping that his--or hers--wasn't
+going to be taken away and handed over to Freddie Firefly to carry in
+the procession.
+
+"Here are the banners!" Chirpy Cricket said to Freddie. "Which one do
+you like best?"
+
+Freddie looked at the banners and read them slowly, for he was not a
+good reader.
+
+The first that he examined was the one Moses Mosquito had brought. And
+this is what it said:
+
+WHY FUSS ABOUT A BITE, IF IT MAKES SOMEBODY ELSE HAPPY?
+
+"I don't care for that one at all," Freddie Firefly announced. And he
+turned then to Kiddie Katydid's banner, which he spelled out with a good
+deal of trouble, because it was not so well printed.
+
+This banner made the following announcement:
+
+HONEST TO GOODNESS, I DIDN'T DO IT!
+
+"Why, I don't know what that's all about!" Freddie exclaimed
+impatiently. "Let me see the third one!" So he looked next at the banner
+of Mehitable Moth, which seemed to please him better, as he read it
+aloud:
+
+DON'T WORRY, MRS. GREEN! I'LL CALL AT THE FARMHOUSE BEFORE FALL.
+
+"That's better!" cried Freddie Firefly. "I'll carry this banner with a
+great deal of pleasure. And I can call at the farmhouse to-night--if
+Farmer Green's family doesn't go to bed too early."
+
+But there was one difficulty about Freddie's plan. Mehitable Moth did
+not like to have her banner, which she had made with great pains, taken
+away from her like that. And she drew Chirpy Cricket to one side and
+began talking to him in an undertone.
+
+Soon he turned again to Freddie Firefly, saying, "She thinks that if
+you're going to carry her banner in the procession you ought to let her
+take your light."
+
+"Oh, I can't do that!" Freddie exclaimed quickly. "I wouldn't THINK of
+doing that!"
+
+"It would be only fair, it seems to me," Chirpy Cricket observed.
+
+"Well, I won't do it, anyhow," Freddie declared. "I'd stay out of the
+procession first. And so would all my relations, too."
+
+Chirpy Cricket began to look worried. And it was no wonder. For he knew
+he could have no torchlight procession without the Firefly family. But
+pretty soon he cheered up noticeably.
+
+"I know what you can do!" he announced. "You can ride on top of
+Mehitable Moth's banner and keep flashing your light on it!"
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+THE TORCHLIGHT PARADE
+
+
+At last the torchlight procession was about to begin its march. Chirpy
+Cricket took his place at its head, as leader. And close behind him came
+Mehitable Moth, gaily bearing her banner aloft, with Freddie Firefly
+perched on top of it, and flashing his greenish-white light so that its
+rays fell full upon the words, which told Farmer Green's wife not to
+worry, because Mehitable Moth agreed to pay her a call before cold
+weather set in.
+
+It would be hard to say which was the prouder--the person under the
+banner or the one on top of it. Anyhow, Chirpy Cricket was prouder than
+both of them together, because his torchlight procession promised to be
+a great success.
+
+"Are you ready?" he cried, looking back at the marchers, who stretched
+behind him in a long line beside the stone wall.
+
+Everybody shouted "Aye, aye, sir!" So Chirpy Cricket pranced away across
+the meadow, wearing a broad smile. Probably he had never before looked
+quite so cheerful.
+
+But he had not gone far before something happened that drove the smile
+from his face, replacing it with a dark frown. He had glanced behind
+him, because he wanted--quite naturally--to look at that long line of
+lights twinkling through the night. And to his distress he saw that
+Freddie Firefly's relations were flying helter-skelter in all
+directions. They had bolted out of the line and were dancing off across
+the meadow after a fashion that no torchlight procession ought to
+follow.
+
+"Stop! Stop!" Chirpy Cricket called.
+
+Even as he spoke, as many as a dozen lights flashed past him and went
+flittering on across the fields.
+
+Really, the only ones besides Chirpy that had stayed in the line as they
+should were Mehitable Moth, who still carried her banner right behind
+him, and Freddie Firefly, who sat on top of the banner.
+
+And even Freddie Firefly was becoming restless. When he saw his brothers
+and cousins go dancing off in the dark he couldn't help wanting to dance
+too.
+
+"You'd better hurry!" he said to Chirpy Cricket. "Those fellows--" he
+pointed to the dozen that had just passed them--"those fellows have got
+ahead of you. And it looks to me very much as if you were out of line."
+
+Chirpy Cricket stared at Freddie Firefly in astonishment.
+
+"Do you think so?" he exclaimed. "I don't see how it happened."
+
+"Neither do I!" Freddie Firefly said. "But if I'm to stay in the
+procession I certainly can't sit on this banner any longer. And besides,
+if I'm going to call on Farmer Green's wife I shall have to travel
+faster than we're moving now."
+
+Since they were then standing stock-still in the meadow, there was a
+good deal of truth in what Freddie Firefly said.
+
+"But you don't need to call on Mrs. Green!" Chirpy Cricket cried.
+"That's not your banner, you know. It belongs to Mehitable Moth."
+
+"I'm afraid Mrs. Green has heard I'm coming; and I don't want to
+disappoint her," Freddie replied.
+
+And then he sprang from his perch and went zigzagging away.
+
+One might think that Chirpy Cricket would have been quite upset by the
+breaking up of his torchlight procession. But being naturally cheerful,
+he merely smiled and said that it was plain that the Fireflies were a
+very flighty family.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+BUSTER'S SCHEME
+
+
+About the time summer was half gone, Buster Bumblebee's mother, the
+Queen, began to worry. She was afraid her workers were not going to make
+enough honey for her family's needs.
+
+Then came a few days of steady rain, when the workers of the Bumblebee
+family couldn't venture away from home, on account of getting their
+wings wet. And of course the Queen was terribly upset.
+
+"I don't know what to do!" she kept exclaiming. "The days are already
+growing shorter. It's a pity the honeymakers can't work in the dark."
+
+Buster Bumblebee happened to hear his mother talking in that fashion
+with some of the older members of the family. And he spoke up at once
+and said:
+
+"I know of a plan that might help."
+
+Nobody paid the slightest attention to his remark, because the whole
+family thought that Buster was not only fat and lazy, but somewhat
+stupid as well.
+
+"I know of something you could do that would help," he persisted, in a
+much louder voice. "The honey-makers could work after dark if you'd only
+get the Firefly family to furnish lights for them."
+
+A number of Buster's relations snickered when they heard his plan. It
+struck them as being too silly for anything. But his mother, the Queen,
+looked very thoughtful.
+
+"I'm not sure but that this boy has a good idea," she observed, much to
+the surprise of the others. "For a long time I've been waiting for him
+to say something worth listening to. And now I do believe he has had a
+happy thought at last." She turned to Buster. "How did you chance upon
+this scheme?" she asked him.
+
+"Oh, the notion just came to me. I didn't have to WORK, to think of it,"
+Buster explained. And he wondered why everybody laughed.
+
+You know, Buster Bumblebee was so lazy that he never would lift a finger
+to do a stroke of work. And now the word "work" had a very funny sound,
+coming from his mouth.
+
+"How could we get the Firefly family to help us? Have you thought of a
+way to do that?" Buster's mother said to her son.
+
+"N-no, I haven't," he admitted. "But I'd go straight to Freddie Firefly
+and tell him what's wanted."
+
+"Suppose you do that, then," said the Queen.
+
+"You wouldn't call that WORKING, would you?" Buster inquired anxiously.
+Having long since promised himself that he would never work, of course
+he didn't want to break his word.
+
+His relations--that is, except his mother--couldn't help tittering when
+Buster said that. But to tell the truth, they were beginning to be the
+least bit jealous of Buster Bumblebee and his plan. When the Queen
+frowned at them severely, each of them tried to look as if it had been
+somebody else that laughed.
+
+Then the Queen assured Buster that paying a call on a person couldn't be
+said to be work.
+
+"You go and talk with Freddie Firefly," she directed him, "and if your
+plan proves to be a success, it will then be your turn to laugh at
+others."
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+FREDDIE'S PROMISE
+
+
+Buster Bumblebee did not find Freddie Firefly very easily. It was a
+sunny afternoon; and if Freddie was flashing his bright light, Buster
+was unable to see it. But at last he spied Freddie eating a meal of
+pollen in the meadow.
+
+"How would you like to work for my mother, the Queen?" Buster asked him.
+
+"I don't believe I'd care to, thank you," Freddie Firefly answered, with
+a mouth so full of food that Buster heard him only with great
+difficulty.
+
+"I'll wait a moment, until you have finished your lunch," said Buster.
+
+"You'd better not!" Freddie Firefly told him. "It will be dark by that
+time. And Chirpy Cricket tells me your family always goes to bed at
+sunset."
+
+"So we do!" Buster agreed. "But my mother, the Queen, is going to order
+her honey-makers to work overtime for the present. And she wants you and
+your family to furnish lights so they can see what they're doing." "Oh!
+That's different!" Freddie Firefly exclaimed. "I thought she wanted me
+to help make honey. And that's something I know nothing about. ... But
+when it comes to furnishing a light, I'm certainly a shining success."
+Freddie then laughed heartily. And much to his surprise, Buster
+Bumblebee gave him several hard slaps on the back, which hurt him not a
+little.
+
+"Don't do that!" Freddie Firefly cried.
+
+"I thought you were choking," Buster, explained.
+
+Freddie Firefly shook his head.
+
+"I was joking," he said.
+
+"Well, I didn't make much of a mistake; for joking and choking sound
+about the same," Buster Bumblebee replied.
+
+"I hope your mother's honey-makers can tell the difference," Freddie
+Firefly grumbled. "If they can't, I certainly don't care to spend a
+night in their company."
+
+"Oh, you won't have any trouble with them. They'll be working so busily
+that they'll hardly notice you," Buster Bumblebee assured him.
+
+So Freddie Firefly promised to be at the house of the Bumblebee family,
+in the meadow, at dusk. And he said he would try to bring plenty of his
+relations with him, so that there might be one of them to light the way
+for each of the honey-makers.
+
+And then Buster Bumblebee hurried away to tell his mother the news.
+
+The Queen praised Buster for what he had done, telling him that in her
+opinion he would soon be the wisest person in Pleasant Valley--not even
+excepting old Mr. Crow and Solomon Owl.
+
+Buster was so pleased that he made up his mind to stay awake that
+evening, in order to see the workers start out for the clover field
+after dark with Freddie Firefly and his relations. But when sunset came,
+Buster simply couldn't keep from falling asleep.
+
+Not until the next morning did he know how his plan had turned out. And
+since it proved to be less successful than he had expected, perhaps it
+was just as well that he was not present to hear the remarks that were
+made about him.
+
+Even Freddie Firefly said things about Buster that night that would not
+have been at all pleasant to listen to.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+DRAWING LOTS
+
+
+Buster Bumblebee's mother told her forty-nine honey-makers that Freddie
+Firefly and at least forty-eight of his relations were expected at the
+Bumblebees' house at dusk.
+
+"Each of the Fireflies will furnish each of you with a light," the Queen
+explained, "so you'll be able to go to the clover field almost as easily
+as you do in the daytime. You're to work until midnight. And after that
+you may sleep until the trumpeter wakes you at dawn."
+
+The Queen's announcement did not please the honey-makers in the least.
+They were an ill-tempered lot, anyhow. And when things did not go to
+suit them they sometimes made themselves most disagreeable.
+
+Of course they didn't dare grumble in the Queen's hearing. But behind
+her back they spoke their minds quite freely.
+
+"It's all the fault of that boy Buster," they told one another. "If he
+hadn't suggested his horrid plan to his mother we wouldn't have to work
+half the night and lose half our sleep."
+
+"I wish he was here now!" one of the honey-makers exclaimed fiercely.
+"I'd make it hot for him!"
+
+Usually the honey-makers began to grow very drowsy at that time of day
+(it was then late in the afternoon). But now they were so angry that
+they were not the least bit sleepy. Their own buzzing kept them awake.
+And the Queen was glad that it was so, because she herself never could
+have stopped so many of them from going to sleep. And even then, if the
+truth must be known, the Queen wished that she might go to bed. Never in
+all her life had she been up so late before.
+
+"I wish the Fireflies would hurry!" she exclaimed as she stood at the
+front-door of her house and looked across the fast darkening field.
+
+As she watched anxiously, the Queen soon spied a light, which kept
+growing brighter and brighter, until at last Freddie Firefly dropped
+down before her. He took off his cap and made a low bow.
+
+"Here I am, Queen!" he said.
+
+"Where's the rest of your family?" Buster Bumblebee's mother asked him.
+
+"They all had to go to a dance down by the swamp," Freddie Firefly
+explained. "They wanted me to go with them; but I had promised your son
+that I'd be here at dusk. And of course I wouldn't think of breaking my
+promise."
+
+Well, the Queen was terribly disappointed.
+
+"You never can furnish enough light for my forty-nine workers!" she
+cried.
+
+"Perhaps not!" Freddie admitted. "But I'd be glad to take one of them to
+the clover-patch to-night, just as a trial, you know."
+
+The Queen said that that was a good idea. And the honey-makers, who had
+come outside the house, all agreed that it was a fine suggestion. But
+not one of them wanted to go with Freddie.
+
+"Then you'll have to draw lots," the Queen told them severely.
+
+When the honey-makers heard that, one of them tried to slip away. But
+the Queen saw her and called her back.
+
+Then they drew lots. And strange to say, the worker who had tried to
+escape proved to be the unlucky one who was doomed to go to the clover
+field with Freddie Firefly and gather clover nectar until midnight.
+
+Unluckily for Freddie, she was the worst-tempered person in the whole
+Bumblebee household. And when she saw that she alone of the whole family
+was going to lose half her night's sleep you may be sure she felt very
+surly.
+
+Freddie noticed a wicked gleam in her eyes. And he began to wish he had
+gone to the dance over near the swamp.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+PEPPERY POLLY
+
+
+Freddie Firefly felt quite uncomfortable as he started off toward the
+clover field, together with the angry honey-maker. It had not made him
+feel any more at ease when the Queen of the Bumblebees told him the
+worker's name. It was Peppery Polly.
+
+"Don't go too fast!" Peppery Polly told Freddie Firefly. "And I'll tell
+you now that I'll make it warm for you if you try to play any tricks on
+me to-night."
+
+As a matter of fact, Freddie hadn't thought of such a thing as playing a
+single trick on her. But Peppery Polly's warning at once put that very
+idea into his head. So he began to try to think of a good joke that
+would bother her. And before they had crossed the meadow Freddie Firefly
+turned to Peppery Polly Bumblebee and said:
+
+"That light off there must be in the farmhouse."
+
+Now, never having been out at night before, his companion wanted to see
+all the strange sights. So she stopped at once and looked around.
+
+"How bright the light is!" she said. "Are you sure the farmhouse isn't
+on fire?"
+
+Not receiving any answer, she turned her head. And to her dismay, she
+couldn't see Freddie Firefly anywhere.
+
+"Oh! Oh! Where are you?" she cried. She was terribly frightened to be
+left alone in the dark. "Come back--please come back!" she begged.
+
+"Why, here I am!" said Freddie Firefly.
+
+And wheeling about quickly, Peppery Polly found him clinging to a blade
+of grass right behind her.
+
+Freddie had been hiding under a plantain leaf, so that she couldn't see
+his light. But Peppery Polly didn't know what had happened.
+
+"Did your light go out?" she inquired anxiously.
+
+"If it did, I never noticed it," he replied.
+
+"Well, don't you dare to leave me alone, no matter what happens!"
+Peppery Polly Bumblebee cried. "If you did, I'd never be able to find my
+way home in the dark."
+
+"Don't worry!" Freddie said. "You're perfectly safe with me. ... What
+I'm wondering is whether I'm perfectly safe with you."
+
+"You are--so long as you behave yourself," she declared. "But remember!
+I'll make it hot for you if you try any tricks on me! Don't forget that
+I carry a sting! And what's more, I know how to use it."
+
+Her threat, however, failed to frighten Freddie Firefly. As soon as he
+saw that his companion was afraid of the dark, he ceased to be afraid of
+her. So he flashed his light impudently in her eyes.
+
+"Come on!" he urged her with a grin which she could not see. "Let's get
+to the clover field, for I like to see people work."
+
+"You do, eh? "snapped Peppery Polly.
+
+"Yes! Watching others work is play for me," he remarked cheerfully. "And
+I hope to have as much fun to-night as I would have had if I'd gone to
+the dance over near the swamp."
+
+"Are you fond of music?" Peppery Polly asked him suddenly.
+
+"Am I?" he exclaimed. "I should say I was!"
+
+"Then tell me how you like this," she said. And she began to sing the
+most terrible song that Freddie Firefly had ever heard in all his life.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+A TERRIBLE SONG
+
+
+It was no wonder that Freddie Firefly grew uneasy again as he listened
+to the song of Peppery Polly Bumblebee, while they flew towards the
+clover field through the darkness. The chorus, especially, filled him
+with alarm. And he shuddered as the disagreeable honey-maker sang it:
+
+ "I've never learned to take a joke;
+    So if you try to trick me,
+  My sting in you I'll quickly poke--
+    You'll find that it will prick ye!
+  It feels like fire--though twice as hot.
+  And I would rather sting than not!"
+
+"How do you like that?" Peppery Polly inquired, after she had finished
+her song.
+
+"You have a beautiful voice," Freddie Firefly hastened to tell her.
+
+"Yes--of course!" she agreed. "But I refer to the words. What do you
+think of them?"
+
+"I think they're awful!" Freddie Firefly cried; for his companion had
+scared the truth out of him before he stopped to think how it would
+sound.
+
+"Quite right!" said Peppery Polly. "I made up that song. And I flatter
+myself it's about the worst I ever heard." To Freddie Firefly's relief,
+she seemed quite pleased.
+
+He was able to draw a deep breath again as they reached the field of red
+clover, where Peppery Polly Bumblebee settled quickly upon a clover-top
+and began sucking up the sweet nectar with her long tongue. For some
+time she worked busily without saying a word. And indeed, how could she
+have spoken with her tongue buried deep in the heart of a clover
+blossom?
+
+But when she withdrew her tongue and flitted from one clover-top to
+another, she never failed to fix her wicked eyes on Freddie Firefly and
+demand "more light--and be quick about it!"
+
+Since no harm had yet fallen him, he began to wonder after a while if
+Peppery Polly's bark was not worse than her bite--or perhaps it would be
+better to say that he wondered if her song was not worse than her sting.
+Anyhow, he knew that he was very tired of her masterful way of speaking
+to him. And he soon determined to play another trick on her.
+
+"Here's a big blossom you haven't tasted!" he called to her suddenly.
+And Peppery Polly--thinking that Freddie meant a clover blossom--
+hastened to a bloom that Freddie pointed out to her.
+
+She settled upon it quickly. And the next moment Peppery Polly gave a
+sharp cry of mingled rage and pain.
+
+"What's the matter?" Freddie Firefly asked her.
+
+"Matter!" she exclaimed. "It's a thistle--and I've pricked myself
+badly."
+
+"Why, so it is a thistle blossom!" said Freddie Firefly. "It's about the
+same color as a clover head; and I suppose you didn't know the
+difference in the dark."
+
+"The question is, did YOU know the difference?" Peppery Polly screamed--
+for she was terribly angry.
+
+"Really, I must decline to answer when you speak to me in such a tone,"
+said Freddie Firefly. And he was quite surprised that the furious honey-
+maker didn't dart towards him and try to sink her sting into him.
+
+But nothing of the sort happened. And Freddie soon saw that Peppery
+Polly was in some kind of trouble.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+CAUGHT BY A THISTLE
+
+
+"You'll have to help me," Peppery Polly Bumblebee said to Freddie
+Firefly through the darkness. "If you'd been a little less stingy with
+that light of yours I wouldn't have made the mistake of thinking this
+thistle was a clover blossom."
+
+"Well, there's nectar in it, isn't there?" he inquired.
+
+"I suppose so," she answered. "But I can't get it. And I'm so daubed
+with the sticky stuff that's spread right where I put my feet that I
+can't free myself."
+
+Freddie flew quite close to her and flashed his light upon her. And he
+saw that she had spoken truly.
+
+"What a pity!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Don't stop to talk!" the honey-maker snapped. "Just help me to get away
+from this thistle. And THEN you can talk all you want to. In fact, I'll
+give you something to talk about."
+
+Freddie Firefly was not so dull-witted but that he knew she intended to
+punish him for sending her to the thistle blossom.
+
+"I'll go back to your house and bring somebody to help you, if I can,"
+he said. "Don't you see that it wouldn't be safe for me to try to pull
+you loose? I might get stuck there myself. And we'd be prisoners for the
+rest of the night."
+
+Peppery Polly hadn't thought of that. And she was inclined to believe
+that there might be some such danger.
+
+"You may go for help," she said at last. "But please remember that
+there's no time to lose. The Queen won't like it at all when she hears
+about this accident, for she expected me to fetch home a good deal of
+nectar before midnight."
+
+"I'll hurry. And I'll be back as soon as I can bring one of your fellow-
+workers with me," Freddie Firefly promised.
+
+Since he was a person of his word, he went straight back to the home of
+the Bumblebee family in the meadow. Being used to finding his way about
+after dark, Freddie had no trouble reaching the Bumblebees' home. But
+rousing the household was an entirely different matter. Though he
+pounded his hardest at their door, none of the Bumblebee family heard
+him. Having always slept from sunset till dawn without once waking, they
+were wrapped in such heavy slumber that not one of them knew what was
+going on.
+
+To be sure, the family trumpeter--who awakened the household each
+morning and was a somewhat lighter sleeper than the others--the
+trumpeter claimed afterward that she DREAMED that she heard somebody at
+the door that night. But that was all the good that came of Freddie
+Firefly's efforts.
+
+After trying his best to rouse Peppery Polly's people, Freddie Firefly
+at last grew discouraged. He saw that the Bumblebee family was bound to
+sleep until dawn came, no matter what happened.
+
+He reflected, then, that there were two things he could do. He could go
+back alone to the clover field and try to set that ill-tempered worker
+free--and no doubt get stung by her for his pains. Or he could go to the
+dance of the Fireflies over near the swamp, and have a delightful time.
+
+"Let me see!" Freddie mused aloud. "I promised Peppery Polly that I'd
+come back with one of her own people--IF _I_ COULD. And since I can't do
+that, I ought not to go back to the clover-patch at all. For if I did,
+it would be about the same as breaking a promise. ... No! I'll go to the
+dance instead!" And away he flew.
+
+Luckily the dance was not half finished when he reached it. And he had
+such a pleasant time that he forgot all about that Bumblebee worker,
+stuck fast to the thistle blossom.
+
+But you may be sure that Peppery Polly did not forget him. After her
+friends set her free the following morning she spent the whole day
+looking for Freddie Firefly.
+
+But he lay very low. And all the rest of the summer he shunned the
+clover field--and the flower garden, too.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+JENNIE JUNEBUG
+
+
+On the day--or rather, on the night--when he first met Jennie Junebug,
+Freddie Firefly was ill at ease. In fact it might be truthfully said
+that he was quite upset.
+
+One beautiful, warm, dark night early in the summer Freddie was hurrying
+to join a big family party which was already gathering in the hollow
+beyond the hill.
+
+He was scooting along through the damp air, flashing his light at the
+rate of about thirty-six times a minute, when a heavy body bumped into
+him and knocked him head over heels upon the grass-carpeted ground.
+
+It was no wonder that he felt upset. And he felt quite peevish, too, as
+he picked himself up and looked about him to see what had happened.
+
+The next moment he was flashing his light into the blinking eyes of an
+enormous fat person, who seemed to be dazed, either by the shock of the
+collision or by the light--Freddie Firefly couldn't tell which.
+
+"Why don't you look where you're going?" Freddie cried impatiently. "You
+knocked the breath out of me. And you almost broke one of my legs." The
+next instant he was heartily ashamed of himself; for he saw, to his
+surprise, that he was talking to a lady. "Oh! I beg your pardon!" he
+cried. "Ex--excuse me! I hope you're not seriously injured?"
+
+"Oh, no!" wheezed the fat lady. "I'm all right. It's no matter, I assure
+you. I'm quite used to running into things after dark."
+
+Freddie Firefly didn't quite like being referred to as a THING. But he
+was too polite to say so.
+
+"You ought to be careful," he told the strange fat lady. "It's dangerous
+for one of your weight--"
+
+"Oh, don't!" she exclaimed quickly. "PLEASE don't tell me I'm fat! I've
+tried every remedy I know and I can't lose a single pound!"
+
+"Don't you think that flying makes you thinner?" Freddie Firefly asked
+her.
+
+But the stout person shook her head dolefully.
+
+"It only seems to make me bigger," she groaned.
+
+"Then why do you do it?"
+
+"Oh, I just adore flying!" she cried. "Don't you?"
+
+Freddie Firefly admitted that he did like to fly. And he was sorry, the
+next moment, that he had made such a statement. For the fat lady blinked
+happily at him. And clasping her hands together, she said:
+
+"Oh, do let's fly together, then!"
+
+Freddie Firefly was so taken aback that at first he couldn't think what
+to say. But at last he managed to stammer a reply.
+
+"Why--why--I--I'll be glad to, but I don't even know your name!" he told
+her.
+
+"It's Jennie Junebug," she explained, as she fanned herself with a fan
+made from a white clover leaf.
+
+"You're a newcomer in these parts, aren't you?" Freddie Firefly
+inquired.
+
+"I just arrived here this month," she informed him. "This is the month
+of June, you know. And I'm one of the well-known Junebug family. ... I
+already know who you are," she continued. "You've been pointed out to
+me. You are Freddie Firefly; and you can't deny it."
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+THE FAT LADY'S SECRET
+
+
+Somehow, the longer Freddie Firefly talked with Jennie Junebug, the more
+he wished that he might fly off and leave her there in the meadow. But
+he had just the same as told her that he would be glad to fly with her.
+And he really didn't see how he could escape that unpleasant duty.
+
+"Well, we may as well move on," he said at last. "Where were you going
+when we ran into each other?"
+
+"Oh, nowhere in particular!" she answered. "Where were YOU going?"
+
+Freddie Firefly had to bite his lip to keep from telling her that he had
+been on his way to a family party in the hollow beyond the hill. He
+certainly didn't want to go there in the company of that strange fat
+lady.
+
+"I WAS going over the hill," he faltered at last. "But I'd rather stay
+here in the meadow with you."
+
+"How nice of you to say that!" Jennie Junebug murmured. "And now let's
+begin flying at once!" she said.
+
+So they rose into the air. But they hadn't flown more than a few feet
+when Jennie once more banged squarely into her companion.
+
+It was a terrific blow. And Freddie Firefly soon found himself lying
+flat on the ground. He was so nearly stunned that he scarcely knew what
+had happened.
+
+"What fun!" the fat lady gurgled right in his ear, with a horrible
+laugh. "Come! Let's do it again!"
+
+"Do it again!" Freddie Firefly repeated after her, as a sudden fear
+gripped him. "Do you mean to tell me that you ran into me ON PURPOSE?"
+"Why, certainly!" she replied. "Running into a light is more than half
+the fun of flying."
+
+Her terrible secret was out at last. If Freddie Firefly had been older
+and wiser he would have known, in the beginning, that his first
+collision with the fat lady was no accident. The whole Junebug family
+were alike in one respect: preferring to fly at night, whenever they saw
+a light anywhere they made straight for it as fast as they could fly.
+Sometimes they landed with a crash against one of the farmhouse windows.
+Sometimes they struck the lantern, if Farmer Green happened to be
+carrying it across the farmyard. It really made little difference to a
+Junebug what he--or she--hit, so long as it gleamed brightly out of the
+night.
+
+Well, Freddie Firefly saw at last that he was in a terrible fix. He knew
+now why Jennie Junebug had asked him to fly with her. It was on account
+of his flashing light! And the dreadful creature actually expected him
+to fly for her so that she might have the pleasure of bowling him over
+every time he rose into the air.
+
+Such a practice was disagreeable, to say the least. Indeed, Freddie
+Firefly thought it was positively dangerous, for him.
+
+"Come! Come!" Jennie Junebug urged him playfully, even while he lay on
+the ground trying to get his breath. "If you don't hurry and fly some
+more I shall knock you over right where you are!"
+
+Freddie Firefly answered her with a faint moan. He couldn't run away
+from her. So he thought of hiding. But he had promised to fly with her.
+And she was a lady.
+
+What could he do?
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+FREDDIE'S ESCAPE
+
+
+There was really nothing Freddie Firefly could do except struggle to his
+feet and try to think at the same time. Flashing his light upon Jennie
+Junebug he saw that she was looking at him fondly. And that made him
+detest her more than ever.
+
+"You seem to be enjoying yourself," he said spitefully.
+
+"Yes, indeed!" the fat lady exclaimed. "I haven't had such sport for a
+whole week. One of your cousins flew with me one night. And we had a
+fine time. No doubt we'd be enjoying each other's company yet, if I
+hadn't had a bit of bad luck."
+
+"What was that?" Freddie Firefly asked her quickly. He thought that if
+he could only keep his dreadful companion TALKING, perhaps she would
+forget about FLYING--and knocking him down. "What was your bad luck?" he
+repeated impatiently.
+
+Jennie Junebug paused and wiped her eyes.
+
+"It was dreadful!" she said at last, as soon as she could control her
+shaking voice. "It was the worst accident that ever happened to me. ...
+Your cousin broke his neck!"
+
+Although Freddie Firefly sank back with a groan, she did not seem to
+notice him.
+
+"Your cousin--" she continued--"your cousin was the easiest thing to
+knock down that I ever saw. Why, once I knocked him over thirty-three
+times in one minute--or in other words, as fast as he flashed his light.
+. . . I had struck him so many times that he was growing weaker. Earlier
+in the evening, when he flashed thirty-six times to the minute, he was a
+little too quick for me."
+
+"Don't stop! Tell me more!" Freddie Firefly begged her, as the fat lady
+ceased talking and fanned herself rapidly. And then, while she continued
+to tell him about his unfortunate cousin, Freddie set his wits to work
+upon a plan to escape from the dreadful creature. He hardly knew what
+she was saying. But every time she paused he urged her on again with a
+"Yes, yes!" or a "Go on! Go on!"
+
+At first a wild hope came to him that he might be able to keep her
+talking all night. Then, of course, he would be safe; because when
+daylight came she would no longer be able to see his light.
+
+But he soon had to give up that plan, for he saw plainly enough that the
+fat lady was growing restless. And at last she told him flatly that she
+had talked all she cared to.
+
+"I'm ready to fly now," she announced with an awful eagerness.
+
+"One moment!" he said hastily. "Your fan--I see you've torn it! And if
+you'll let me take it I'll try to find you another just like it."
+
+"Will you?" Jennie Junebug asked him gratefully. "And will you promise
+to come back just as soon as you've found me a PERFECT match for my
+fan?"
+
+"I promise!" said Freddie Firefly, snatching the fan out of her hands in
+his haste. "Wait right here!" he cautioned her. And then he leaped into
+the air and started away.
+
+BANG! He hadn't flown longer than forty-six seconds when Jennie Junebug
+floored him again.
+
+"I simply couldn't resist hitting you once more!" she said sweetly. "And
+now, hurry! Or I shall never be able to let you leave me."
+
+Freddie Firefly needed no more urging. Though he was sore in every limb
+(and he had a great many!) he made his escape quickly.
+
+All the rest of the night he worked hard, trying to find a white clover
+leaf that exactly matched the one that Jennie Junebug had carried for a
+fan. But every single clover leaf was different from Jennie's in one way
+or another. Freddie Firefly had hoped that it would be so. For if he had
+found one precisely like Jennie Junebug's, he would have had to take it
+to her, as he had promised.
+
+How long the fat lady waited for him in the meadow, Freddie Firefly
+never knew. And to tell the truth, he didn't care. He was too happy
+because he had escaped the fate of his cousin, to bother his head over
+Jennie Junebug.
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+BAD BENJAMIN BAT
+
+
+For a long time Benjamin Bat had had his eye on Freddie Firefly. And
+every time the two met, Benjamin stopped to tell Freddie how plump he
+was growing.
+
+"You're just about ready to--AHEM!" Benjamin remarked when he came upon
+Freddie in Farmer Green's dooryard one fine evening.
+
+"What did you say?" Freddie inquired.
+
+"Never mind!" Benjamin Bat answered. "I was only talking to myself. It's
+a habit I have."
+
+"You're a queer one!" Freddie Firefly exclaimed. "But it's no wonder.
+People say that you've hung upside down so much that the inside of your
+head is all topsy-turvy."
+
+"When he heard that remark Benjamin Bat promptly flew into a rage.
+
+"You'd better be careful!" he warned Freddie. "I don't allow anybody to
+talk to me like that."
+
+"Oh! You mustn't mind what I just said," Freddie Firefly replied. "I was
+only talking to myself--AHEM AHEM!"
+
+But strange to say, Freddie's answer failed to please Benjamin.
+
+"Your remark was very disagreeable, anyhow," he declared.
+
+"Well--so was yours," Freddie retorted stoutly.
+
+"How can you say that?" Benjamin Bat inquired with a sly look. "I didn't
+finish it, did I?"
+
+"No!" replied Freddie. "But you can't fool me. I know what you meant, as
+well as you do."
+
+And straightway Benjamin Bat looked most uncomfortable, because he had
+been thinking that Freddie Firefly HAD BECOME PLUMP ENOUGH TO EAT.
+
+Indeed, there was only one thing that kept Benjamin from devouring
+Freddie Firefly right then and there. And that was Freddie's flashing
+light. Yes! Benjamin Bat was afraid that if he touched Freddie Firefly
+he would get burned.
+
+Once a forest fire broke out while Benjamin was asleep in the woods. And
+he didn't wake up until the tree in which he was hanging by his heels
+had begun to blaze. Luckily he escaped with his life. But the flames
+singed the tips of his wings and gave him such a fright that ever
+afterward he feared a fire or a light of any kind. And now he did wish
+that Freddie Firefly would put out his light, just for a short time. So
+he said, after a few moments:
+
+"Don't you think you ought to stop flashing your light?"
+
+"Do you mean--" asked Freddie--"do you mean that I ought to keep it
+glaring steadily all the time?"
+
+"Oh, no!" Benjamin Bat replied hurriedly. "I mean that you ought to put
+it out for a while."
+
+"Why should I do that?" Freddie Firefly wanted to know.
+
+"To please Farmer Green, of course," Benjamin replied glibly. "Don't you
+know that a light always draws mosquitoes? And it can't be very pleasant
+for Farmer Green to have half the mosquitoes in the neighborhood
+crowding into his dooryard."
+
+"What would be the use of my putting out my light, when all my relations
+are flashing theirs?" Freddie asked.
+
+"Well, maybe they'd follow your example," Benjamin Bat suggested. "And
+just think what a good turn you'd be doing Farmer Green!"
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+PLEASING FARMER GREEN
+
+
+Now, when Benjamin Bat spoke of his doing Farmer Green a good turn,
+Freddie Firefly looked puzzled.
+
+"What has Farmer Green ever done for me?" he inquired.
+
+"What has he done?" Benjamin cried. "Hasn't he furnished you a fine
+meadow in which to dance at night? And doesn't he let you come here in
+his dooryard whenever you please? I should think THAT was something to
+be thankful for!"
+
+"Now that you speak of it, I don't know but that you're right," Freddie
+Firefly admitted, "though I never thought of such a thing before." And
+not wishing to be ungrateful to Farmer Green, he promptly put out his
+light.
+
+Of course, that was just what Benjamin was waiting for. And since he
+could see perfectly in the dark, without a moment's warning he rushed
+straight at Freddie Firefly, with his mouth wide open.
+
+If Freddie hadn't happened to flash his light just at that moment he
+would never have flashed it again.
+
+As soon as Benjamin Bat saw the greenish-white gleam he was so afraid of
+getting burned--not knowing that Freddie's light could not harm him--he
+was so afraid that he swerved sharply to one side and zigzagged about
+the yard for a few seconds.
+
+But he soon returned to speak to Freddie Firefly once more.
+
+"You made a good beginning," he told Freddie. "But you turned your light
+on again too quickly. Just keep dark until I tell you to shine, and with
+a little practice you'll be able to do the trick very well. And Farmer
+Green will certainly be pleased. Now, just try it again!"
+
+But Freddie Firefly could not forget how terrible Benjamin had looked a
+few moments before. And he began to suspect that Benjamin Bat was
+playing a trick of his own.
+
+"It seems to me," said Freddie, "that you are a little too anxious about
+Farmer Green."
+
+"Oh! no, indeed!" Benjamin Bat declared. "Farmer Green is a fine man.
+He's a great friend of mine. He furnishes me a whole tree near the
+swamp, in which I sleep every day. If you passed that way any time
+between dawn and sunset you could see me hanging by my heels from one of
+the branches."
+
+"Just where is your tree?" Freddie Firefly inquired.
+
+Having no idea that Freddie could do him the slightest harm, Benjamin
+Bat explained that his special, favorite tree was a great cedar, which
+stood close to the old bridge that crossed Black Creek, at the lower end
+of the swamp.
+
+"I know where that is; and I'll go over there to-morrow and take a look
+at you," Freddie Firefly remarked.
+
+"Do!" said Benjamin Bat.
+
+"And I'll bring Solomon Owl with me," Freddie added. "For I know he'd
+like to see you, too."
+
+"Don't!" cried Benjamin Bat. "Oh, don't do that!"
+
+"What's the matter?" Freddie Firefly asked Benjamin Bat. "Why don't you
+want me to fetch Solomon Owl to your tree, to see you hanging by your
+heels when you're fast asleep?"
+
+"Solomon Owl is no friend of mine," Benjamin Bat explained with a
+shudder. "He'd eat me in a minute, if he could catch me."
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+BENJAMIN FEELS GUILTY
+
+
+Freddie Firefly and Benjamin Bat faced each other in Farmer Green's dark
+dooryard.
+
+"Yes!" Benjamin Bat's thin voice quavered. "Don't EVER bring Solomon Owl
+to my tree in the daytime. Although he doesn't see so well when it's
+light as he does at night, he could catch me without much trouble when I
+was asleep. And he would eat me in a minute--or only half a minute,
+maybe."
+
+"Well, wouldn't you like that?" Freddie Firefly inquired, as if he were
+greatly surprised.
+
+"Certainly not!" said Benjamin Bat. "You talk like a--AHEM!"
+
+"Perhaps I do," Freddie Firefly retorted. "But I should think it would
+be just as jolly for you to be eaten by Solomon Owl as it would be for
+me to be eaten by you."
+
+Benjamin started violently.
+
+"What in the world ever put such a strange idea into your head?"
+Benjamin Bat cried. He was greatly astonished, for he had not supposed
+that Freddie Firefly suspected exactly what was in his mind.
+
+"You put that idea into my head yourself," Freddie Firefly said very
+sternly.
+
+And the moment Benjamin Bat heard that, he felt very sheepish. But
+unlike most people who feel ashamed, he did not hang his head. Strangely
+enough, Benjamin Bat was never so proud as when his head hung lower than
+his heels. And he had a habit, when he felt guilty or uncomfortable, of
+RAISING his head, instead of dropping it. So now he lifted his head very
+high.
+
+And by that tell-tale sign Freddie Firefly knew at once that Benjamin
+Bat would have flushed with dismay, had he only known how.
+
+"You're a rascal!" Freddie cried fiercely, flashing his light again and
+again in Benjamin Bat's eyes, until that gentleman blinked so fast that
+it seemed as if his eyes must be in danger of turning inside out.
+
+"You'd better be off!" Freddie Firefly shouted. "And if you ever come to
+me again, coaxing me to put out my light--so you can eat me--I'll
+certainly bring Solomon Owl to your tree when you're asleep there."
+
+Still Benjamin Bat made no move. Yet he wanted to go away because he was
+in terror of being burned by Freddie Firefly's light. But he did not
+dare turn his back upon Freddie Firefly and his light and fly away. And
+he began to be sorry that he had never learned to fly backwards.
+
+"Please--" Benjamin Bat stammered at last--"please do me a favor. I'm
+not feeling very well. I'm afraid I'm going to be ill. Maybe you'll be
+good enough to go and ask my friend Farmer Green to step outside his
+house a moment. Just tell him I'm in trouble," he whined.
+
+"Trouble!" Freddie Firefly sneered, for he knew well enough--by this
+time--that Benjamin Bat was scared, though he couldn't quite guess the
+reason for Benjamin's fright. "You'll be in worse trouble if I show
+Solomon Owl where you sleep in the daytime."
+
+"Stand back!" Benjamin Bat shrieked suddenly. "You'll singe my wings if
+you're not careful!"
+
+Then Freddie Firefly knew exactly what Benjamin feared. And he was so
+amused that he couldn't help taking a turn around the dooryard, to dance
+and laugh and shout.
+
+And when he came back to the place where he had left Benjamin Bat, that
+odd gentleman had vanished.
+
+The terrified Benjamin had floundered away toward the swamp. And never,
+afterward, did he have a word to say to Freddie Firefly.
+
+But whenever Freddie Firefly caught sight of Benjamin Bat's dark shape,
+flitting in a zigzag path across the moon, he always cried out in a loud
+voice:
+
+"Look out, Benjamin Bat! Mr. Moon will singe your wings if you're not
+careful."
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+MRS. LADYBUG'S ADVICE
+
+
+Finding himself face to face with Mrs. Ladybug one night in Farmer
+Green's meadow, Freddie Firefly noticed, even before she spoke, that the
+little lady was not in a cheerful mood. In fact, she frowned at him
+darkly and pointed one of her knitting needles straight at him as she
+began to speak.
+
+"You're terribly careless with that light of yours," she said. "People
+are always warning me that my house is on fire and telling me that I'd
+better hurry home. Now--" she added--"now I think I've discovered the
+reason why my friends are forever worrying about fire. No doubt when
+they give me such advice they have seen you prowling around my house
+with that light of yours; and they think that if you haven't already set
+my house on fire, you're just a-going to."
+
+When Freddie Firefly saw that Mrs. Ladybug was making Benjamin Bat's
+mistake of thinking that his light could start a blaze, he had to smile.
+
+"Nonsense!" he cried. "I'm always very careful, Mrs. Ladybug, when I'm
+near your house. You know that I wouldn't want your charming children to
+burn up."
+
+And now Mrs. Ladybug pointed her other knitting needle at Freddie.
+
+"Well, if you're not careless, you're silly, anyhow," she snapped. "I
+wouldn't object so much to your light if only you'd put it to some good
+use. But as long as I've known you--and that's several weeks--I've never
+seen you do anything but caper about the meadow and dance." And then
+Mrs. Ladybug began to knit furiously, as if to show Freddie Firefly that
+she was never idle, even if she did spend a good deal of time away from
+home. "Do you intend always to fritter your nights away as you do now?"
+she inquired.
+
+"What else could I do? I should like to know--" Freddie began.
+
+"Why not use your light in some kind of work?" Mrs. Ladybug asked him.
+
+"What work, I should like to know--" Freddie said. And since Mrs.
+Ladybug did not at once answer him, he added: "I don't believe you can
+suggest anything--can you?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I can!" she declared quickly. "I was thinking. That's why I
+didn't reply sooner. Probably you don't know that I have helped many
+youngsters to begin to work. For instance, it was I that told Daddy
+Longlegs to help Farmer Green with his harvesting." Little Mrs. Ladybug
+felt so proud of herself that she dropped a stitch without noticing it.
+
+"Daddy Longlegs! HE'S not young!" Freddie Firefly exclaimed.
+
+"Oh! yes, he is! He's not so old as you think," Mrs. Ladybug replied.
+"He's just about your age. And if he can work, you certainly can."
+
+"But I didn't know that Daddy Longlegs was working for Farmer Green,"
+Freddie Firefly said.
+
+"He tried to, one day. But the wind blew too hard. ... It wasn't really
+Daddy's fault," Mrs. Ladybug explained. "And you ought not to attempt to
+work on windy nights, either," she went on. "For your light might go
+out, and then there'd be a terrible accident."
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+ALL ABOUT TRAINS
+
+
+"What do you mean?" Freddie Firefly asked little Mrs. Ladybug. "What
+accident could happen if the wind blew out my light?" And he laughed
+very hard, because he knew that no gale was strong enough even to dim
+his greenish-white gleams.
+
+"Why," replied Mrs. Ladybug, "the train would strike you and be wrecked.
+You see," she continued, "I have everything planned for you. You're
+going to spend your nights on the railroad tracks, signalling the
+trains."
+
+Well, Freddie Firefly rather liked Mrs. Ladybug's idea. And though he
+knew that she was mistaken about some things, he began to think that
+perhaps she was quite wise, after all.
+
+"Aren't you afraid I might set fire to the trains?" he inquired slyly.
+
+"No, indeed!" she answered. "You'd stop them, you know, before they ran
+over you."
+
+"But I don't know how to make a train stop," he objected. "I've never
+worked on a railroad in all my life."
+
+"Why, it's simple enough," said little Mrs. Ladybug. "When a train came
+along you would stand on the track right in front of it and wave your
+light." And while she smiled at Freddie Firefly as if to say, "You see
+how easy it is," she dropped six more stitches out of her knitting--and
+never found them, either.
+
+Freddie Firefly, however, did not smile at all. On the contrary, he
+looked somewhat worried.
+
+"Are you sure it's safe?" he asked her. "If the train failed to stop,
+with me on the track in front of it--"
+
+"Don't worry about that!" cried little Mrs. Ladybug. "You'll never
+amount to anything if you worry. And if you don't wish to fritter away
+your time dancing in this meadow, you'll take my advice and begin to
+work at once."
+
+"I'll think about the matter," said Freddie Firefly. And then he added
+somewhat doubtfully: "It's a long way to the railroad."
+
+"Pooh!" Mrs. Ladybug exclaimed. "Old Mr. Crow often visits it. And if he
+can fly that far, at his age, a youngster like you ought not to mind the
+trip."
+
+"Perhaps you know best," Freddie Firefly told Mrs. Ladybug at last.
+"I'll take your advice just this once, and I'll see how I like the work.
+But there's another question I'd like to ask you: What will the trains
+do after they stop?"
+
+While laughing over Freddie's question Mrs. Ladybug shook so hard that
+she unravelled sixteen rows of her knitting before she could stop.
+
+"Bless you!" she cried, as soon as she could speak. "I don't know what
+the trains will do. That's their affair--not yours nor mine. Everybody's
+aware that trains are made for two purposes--to start and to stop. But I
+never should think of being so rude as to ask them WHY, or WHAT, or
+WHEN, or WHERE."
+
+So Freddie Firefly thanked Mrs. Ladybug most politely. He was sure, now,
+that she was one of the wisest persons in the whole valley. No doubt, he
+thought, she knew almost as much as old Mr. Crow, or even Solomon Owl.
+And he wished he knew half what she did.
+
+"I'll start for the railroad track at once," Freddie told Mrs. Ladybug.
+And waving his cap at her, while she waved her knitting at him, he set
+forth towards the village, the lights of which twinkled dimly in the
+distance.
+
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+WORK ON THE RAILROAD
+
+
+Freddie Firefly did not intend to go into the village itself. He
+expected to travel only as far as the railroad tracks, where they curved
+around a bend in the river before stretching straight away towards the
+town.
+
+Though he spent a much longer time in making the journey than old Mr.
+Crow ever took, Freddie at last reached the railroad, where he promptly
+sat himself down between the rails to wait for a train. And there
+Freddie Firefly stayed all alone, in the dark, with nothing to keep from
+feeling forlorn except the croaking of a band of noisy frogs in a pool
+near-by.
+
+After a while Freddie began to grow so weary of his new task that he
+wished he had never taken Mrs. Ladybug's advice.
+
+"I don't believe I like working," he said with a sigh, as he thought of
+the good time his family was having at that very moment, dancing in
+Farmer Green's meadow.
+
+And then all at once he heard a faint whistle, far off down the valley.
+And a little later a low rumble caught his ear--a rumble which grew
+louder and louder until at last it turned into a roar, just as a stream
+of light shot around the curve in the track ahead of him, which followed
+the bend of the river.
+
+Freddie Firefly was startled. He couldn't think what made that long lane
+of light. And he was about to jump into the bushes and hide when he saw
+all at once that it was exactly what he had been waiting for.
+
+"It's a train!" he cried aloud. And he began flashing his light bravely
+while he swayed from side to side, for Mrs. Ladybug had told him that he
+must swing his light--if he expected to stop the train.
+
+And all the while the train tore on towards Freddie Firefly. To his
+great surprise it showed not the slightest sign of stopping. And in
+spite of what Mrs. Ladybug had said, Freddie Firefly began to be afraid
+that it wasn't going to pause at all.
+
+He soon saw that if he did not do something quickly the train would run
+over him. But by the time he had made up his mind to jump off the track,
+out of harm's way, it was too late for him to escape in that fashion.
+
+So Freddie Firefly crawled hurriedly into a chink beneath the railroad
+tie on which he had been sitting. And with a horrible scream the train
+thundered over him. To Freddie's dismay it paid no heed to his flashing
+light, though he thought it must surely have seen that signal.
+
+Those were terrible moments for Freddie Firefly, while the train was
+passing above him. The frightful noise, the trembling of the ground, the
+rush of the air--all those things made him wonder whether he could ever
+reach home again, alive and unharmed. He was even more scared than he
+had been when he found himself in the power of that dreadful creature,
+Jennie Junebug.
+
+
+
+
+XXIII
+
+WHY FREDDIE WAS GLAD
+
+
+Even after the train had rushed shrieking into the village two miles
+away, and the echoes had grown still, Freddie Firefly cowered in his
+hiding-place on the railroad track, crouched in the chink beneath one of
+the ties.
+
+At last he crept out, trembling in every limb. But in spite of his
+terror he skipped off the track very spryly.
+
+Safe at one side of the rails, which gleamed in the moonlight, Freddie
+felt himself all over, to make sure that he had broken no bones.
+
+"I seem to be unhurt," he mused. "But never, never again will I listen
+to anything that Mrs. Ladybug says."
+
+And having made himself that solemn promise, he hurried away toward
+Farmer Green's meadow, which he reached just before dawn.
+
+As he crossed the fields he thought that he smelled smoke. But he
+couldn't see a blaze anywhere. And when he came to the meadow he was so
+eager to dance that he forgot to ask anybody if there had been a fire.
+
+Luckily he arrived in time to take part in the last dance of the night.
+And after the dance was over he astonished all his family with the
+strange tale that he told them.
+
+Before going to their homes all Freddie's relations gathered around him
+to listen to his story of the night's adventure. And there were many
+"Ohs" and "Ahs" when he reached the point where the train ran over him.
+
+"You're lucky you didn't have a leg cut off," his favorite cousin
+remarked, "though that wouldn't have been so bad as losing a wing."
+
+Freddie Firefly shuddered.
+
+"Anyway, you're better off than Mrs. Ladybug is," somebody piped up.
+
+"Why, what's happened to her?" Freddie Firefly inquired.
+
+"Haven't you heard?" several of his cousins cried.
+
+"No! no!" he shouted.
+
+"Her house caught fire to-night, while she was away from home," they
+explained.
+
+"I thought I smelled smoke as I was coming back from the railroad,"
+Freddie observed. And then a sad picture came into his mind.
+
+"And Mrs. Lady bug's children--" he began breathlessly.
+
+"Oh! The neighbors saved them," his favorite cousin said. "They're only
+slightly scorched. But their ma's house is ruined."
+
+Then, to everybody's great surprise, Freddie Firefly began to dance up
+and down and sing with joy.
+
+"Oh, I'm so glad! Oh, I'm so glad!" he chanted over and over again.
+
+His relations could scarcely believe that he was quite himself.
+
+"His fright on the railroad must have injured his mind," they said to
+one another. "Or perhaps the train ran over his head when he didn't know
+it." They could think of no other reason for Freddie's queer actions.
+Always before he had seemed too kind-hearted to rejoice over another
+person's ill luck.
+
+"What do you mean?" three hundred voices shouted. "Why are you glad?"
+
+"I'm glad I tried to stop the train," Freddie Firefly answered, "because
+now Mrs. Ladybug can't say that I set her house on fire. She knows that
+I was working on the railroad to-night. And nobody can be in two places
+at the same time."
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Tale of Freddie Firefly, by Arthur Scott Bailey
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF FREDDIE FIREFLY ***
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