The Tale Of Rusty Wren Part 10

XXII

THE FORGOTTEN GUEST

The shadows were lengthening--for the sun was far over in the west--when Rusty Wren reached Mr. Frog's tailor's shop overlooking Black Creek. Rusty pushed open the door and stepped inside, expecting to find Mr. Frog sitting cross-legged upon his table and sewing busily, according to the tailor's custom, until sunset, which marked the close of Mr. Frog's working day.

But Rusty had hardly entered the shop when he b.u.mped into Mr. Frog with a crash; for Mr. Frog had been hurrying toward the door.

The collision bowled them both over upon the floor. But Mr. Frog did not appear annoyed in the least.

"How-dy do!" he said, almost before he had picked himself up. "If you have come to see me on business, I'm sorry to say that I can't do anything for you to-day.... The fact is, I'm going to a singing-party this evening. And I don't want to be late."

"Why--I'm going to a party, too!" Rusty Wren exclaimed.

"You must be mistaken--for there's to be no party here," Mr. Frog told him.

"Oh! The party I'm going to will be held somewhere else," Rusty Wren explained.

"That's interesting," said Mr. Frog, as he settled his hat more firmly upon his queerly shaped head. "Who's having it--if I may ask?"

Rusty Wren looked at the tailor as if he were much surprised.

"Don't you know about it?" he inquired. "Do you mean to say that my cousin, Long Bill Wren, didn't invite you?"

For a moment Mr. Frog appeared somewhat taken aback.

"He must have forgotten me," he murmured. "I haven't heard a word about his party before.... But I know it's a mistake," he added, with a smile.

"No doubt!" said Rusty Wren politely. "I was going to Cousin Bill's home as soon as you had measured me for a new Sunday coat," he explained.

"Then come right along now!" Mr. Frog cried heartily. "We'll go together. For I'm sure that Long Bill didn't mean to forget me. You know we're the best of friends. I make all his clothes for him; and he has never yet paid me a penny."

Rusty Wren hesitated. He was not quite sure that his cousin had intended to invite the nimble tailor to his party.

"But your singing-party!" he reminded Mr. Frog. "You don't want to miss that!" he said.

Mr. Frog caught him by a wing and laughed gaily.

"Oh! That doesn't matter," he remarked with a careless air. "We have a singing-party almost every night. I'd much rather go to your cousin's."

It is not strange that Rusty Wren should feel a little uncomfortable at the prospect of arriving at a party with a person who had received no invitation to it. But he could think of no way of ridding himself of Mr. Frog's company. So the two started off together towards the home of Long Bill Wren.

Rusty decided, however, that he would take his cousin to one side and explain to him in private how the tailor had happened to come with him.

But he soon found that no such explanation was necessary. For a certain reason, Long Bill Wren was in no wise annoyed. On the contrary, he seemed quite pleased.

XXIII

A STRANGE MISTAKE

Not wishing to be late at his cousin's party, which he understood was to begin at five o'clock, Rusty Wren hurried along the bank of Black Creek, while Mr. Frog did his best to keep pace with him.

Somewhat out of breath, the two arrived shortly at the home of Long Bill Wren. And, to their surprise, they saw not the least sign of any other guests.

"It looks as if we were the first to get here," Rusty Wren remarked, as they drew near Long Bill's house in the reeds.

"Well, somebody has to be first, you know," the tailor observed easily. "I always like to be early at a party," he added, "because then I am sure of getting plenty of refreshments."

If there were no other guests to be seen, neither was there any indication of a party about Long Bill's home. There was nothing to eat anywhere in sight; and no flag, nor gay Chinese lantern, nor decoration of any other kind adorned his house.

Rusty Wren had always thought his cousin's house a strange dwelling. Made of coa.r.s.e gra.s.ses and reed stalks, it was round, like a big ball, with a doorway in one side. This queer building was fastened among the reeds a little distance above the ground.

And it seemed to Rusty Wren that it must be a damp and unhealthful place to live.

"It's odd that your cousin's not here to greet us," Mr. Frog croaked.

The words were scarcely out of his large mouth when Long Bill thrust his head and shoulders out of his door--for he had heard the voices in his front yard. He had on a shocking old coat--not at all the sort one would choose to wear when one expected guests.

"Well, well!" he exclaimed. "I'm glad to see you, Cousin Rusty. And I'm certainly surprised, for it's more than a year since you've paid me a visit."

"Aren't you glad to see me, too?" Mr. Frog piped up a bit anxiously.

"Certainly--to be sure!" said Long Bill. "But I'm not so surprised--though I understand that you usually attend a singing-party about this time o' day."

"Yes!" said Mr. Frog. "But I'd much prefer to come to yours."

"My what?" inquired Long Bill Wren, as a puzzled look appeared upon his face.

"Your party, of course!" Mr. Frog replied with a wide smile.

Now, Rusty Wren wished he had not called at Mr. Frog's shop at all.

If he had only come straight to his cousin's house, he thought that he would have spared himself--and his cousin, too--a good deal of trouble. And, since he didn't know what to say, he kept still for a few moments and let the others do all the talking.

Meanwhile, Long Bill hopped briskly outside his house, and joined them on the ground.

"My party!" he cried. "Why, I know of no party here! Somebody has made a mistake. I haven't given a party for a year--just a year ago to-day.... I invited you at that time," he told Rusty Wren, "but you didn't come. And I never received any word from you about the matter."

"That's strange!" said Rusty. "This is the first I ever heard of the affair."

"I engaged Mr. Crow to take your invitation to Jolly Robin in the orchard and ask him to give it to you," Long Bill informed his bewildered cousin.

"That's just the way this invitation reached me yesterday!" Rusty explained.

"Ah! I see it all now," said Long Bill. And he began to laugh merrily. "Mr. Crow's poor memory is to blame for your mistake. He forgot to deliver the message last year. And he happened to remember it only yesterday. So the news reached you just twelve months too late."