The Tale of Daddy Longlegs Part 5

Nevertheless Daddy Longlegs looked upon the fields with a most mournful face.

"I can't travel in this terrible wind!" he muttered. "If I had known there was going to be such a blow I would never have left home."

And now you know what Daddy's trouble was. With his small body raised so high in the air by his long, thin legs he always found it hard to walk when the wind was blowing a gale. The strong gusts buffeted him about so that he pitched and tossed like a chip on the mill pond when its surface was ruffled. And Daddy had learned quite early in his life to seek some sheltered spot on windy days, venturing forth only when the air was calmer.

Of course it was never any too pleasant, to be obliged to lie low like that, when there were a hundred things he wanted to do. But it was much worse to be caught far away from home in a terrible gale. Not only was there no knowing how long he would have to stay hidden in the fallen tree before he dared begin his long homeward journey, but he had no one with whom he could talk. And it had always been Daddy's custom to spend gusty days as agreeably as possible by gossiping with his neighbors.

Besides, there was the party on the bank of Black Creek! Daddy Longlegs knew right away that it was useless for him to try to attend it. And so it was no wonder that he felt unhappy.

XII

GOOD NEWS ON A BAD DAY

FOR a long time Daddy Longlegs lay inside the hollow, fallen tree and looked out upon the wind-swept fields. If the stone wall hadn't been so far away he would certainly have tried to return home. But the weather was altogether too dangerous. He knew it would be risky to attempt so long a journey.

As he sat looking out of the c.h.i.n.k in the old tree, through which he had crept inside it, Daddy suddenly saw a reddish, brownish flash flicker past the opening.

"Goodness!" he exclaimed. "I wonder what that was!" And in another moment the same bright patch of color again whisked across the hole.

Then Daddy Longlegs heard a sound as of some one scratching upon the tree-trunk. And being of a very curious nature, he crawled half through the hole and peered out to see what was happening. Daddy Longlegs was all ready for a fright. He was so upset, on account of being caught away from home on a windy day, that he was unusually jumpy and fidgety.

But--as it often happens at such times--he met with a pleasant surprise.

For there sat Sandy Chipmunk, with his long tail curled over his back, and something very like a smile on his bright face.

Knowing that Sandy Chipmunk never harmed anybody that minded his own affairs, Daddy Longlegs spoke to him at once.

"It's a bad day, isn't it?" he called.

Hearing that tiny voice, which seemed to come from inside the fallen tree, Sandy Chipmunk was so startled that he leaped high into the air; and when he came down again upon all fours he found himself staring straight into Daddy Longlegs' beady eyes.

"Oh! It's you, eh?" cried Sandy Chipmunk. And he looked decidedly foolish, because he knew that he had no reason to fear anybody as mild as Daddy Longlegs.

"It's a bad day, isn't it!" said Daddy Longlegs once more.

"I'm sorry I can't agree with you," Sandy replied. "I think it's the finest weather that ever was."

"You don't mean to say you like this wind?" Daddy Longlegs cried. "Why, I don't see how you dare to be out in it!"

"Oh, it's nothing when you're used to it," Sandy Chipmunk answered lightly.

"I shall never get used to the wind, I'm afraid," Daddy told him sadly.

"It blows me about so terribly." And he went on to explain how he had started on a long journey the day before, and how he didn't dare go on--nor turn around and go home, either.

"Well, well!" Sandy Chipmunk exclaimed. "You seem to be in a fix. But why don't you _ride_ home?"

"Ride?" Daddy Longlegs shrilled. "On what, I should like to know?"

"On Farmer Green's wagon!" Sandy told him promptly. "I happen to know that Johnnie Green and his grandmother drove to the miller's this morning to have a sack of wheat ground into flour. And they'll be coming back home this afternoon."

XIII

A DANGEROUS BUSINESS

SANDY CHIPMUNK did not tell Daddy Longlegs how he had been tied up in the sack of wheat and had had a ride in the wagon himself. He did not like riding in wagons. And he had been so glad to escape from the sack and jump into the bushes by the roadside that he had stopped to dance on Daddy's tree before scampering back home.

His suggestion took Daddy Longlegs by surprise. At first he felt a bit timid about riding in a wagon. But Sandy Chipmunk a.s.sured him it was not half as bad as it was said to be.

"Is it far to the road?" Daddy asked him.

"Not if you hurry," Sandy told him. "If you start now you surely ought to be able to reach the road by the time old Ebenezer pa.s.ses this field."

"Ebenezer! Who's he?" Daddy inquired.

"Oh! He's the horse that draws the wagon you're going to ride in," Sandy Chipmunk explained.

Daddy Longlegs thought deeply for a few minutes--or as deeply as anybody could who had so small a head as he. And then he said:

"I'll try your plan, for I want to go home. But it's very dangerous for me to do so much walking on such a windy day as this."

"Come on!" cried Sandy. "I'll show you the way to the road." And having started Daddy in the right direction, he hastened off to the road himself, to wait for the wagon.

Sandy waited by the roadside for a long, long time. And while he was lingering there, Daddy Longlegs was battling with the wind and having hard work to keep his feet. But by hurrying along fences, and dodging behind bowlders and bushes and every other sort of shelter that he could find, Daddy managed to reach the roadside at last, where he arrived quite out of breath.

"Hurrah!" Sandy Chipmunk shouted, as soon as Daddy joined him. "Here you are--and you're just in time! For there's the wagon rattling down the next hill. And old Ebenezer (that's the horse, please remember!) he'll climb this rise as fast as he can, because he's in a hurry to get home."

"He can't be half as anxious to reach home as I am," Daddy Longlegs remarked. "And if he doesn't go his fastest after I'm aboard the wagon I hope Johnnie Green will whip him hard."

"Johnnie can't do that," said Sandy Chipmunk. "His father won't let him have a whip."

"Well, he could cut a switch, I should think!" Daddy Longlegs exclaimed.

But Sandy shook his head.

"Johnnie's grandmother wouldn't let him do that," he replied. "But you don't need to worry. You'll get home soon enough."

Soon the two watchers saw the old horse Ebenezer come jogging up the road. And then Sandy Chipmunk said something that sent Daddy Longlegs into a flutter of excitement.

"Here they come!" cried Sandy. "You'd better stand right in the middle of the road, so you'll be sure to stop them."

And the mere thought of doing such a dangerous thing as that made Daddy Longlegs turn quite pale.