The Tale of Mrs. Ladybug Part 4

IX

THAT CARPETBAG

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For once in her life Mrs. Ladybug wasn't eager to talk to her neighbors.

On the contrary, she seemed to avoid them. But Peppery Polly b.u.mblebee called on her and asked her if she had seen the handsome stranger, Mr.

P. Bug.

"Yes!" said Mrs. Ladybug. "I've talked with him. And it's true that he has always lived here. There was a slight mistake about his carpetbag.

It belonged to one of his ancestors. And since it bears his ancestor's name and address, naturally I thought they both belonged to this Mr.

Bug."

Peppery Polly laughed.

"If you don't believe what I tell you, you can ask him yourself!" Mrs.

Ladybug snapped. "He's at work over in the potato patch, helping Farmer Green."

Peppery Polly laughed again, more unpleasantly than ever.

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

X

A BIT OF NEWS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"I don't remember," he answered.

"What colors did she have on?"

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

Mrs. Ladybug gave him a look of disgust.

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