IV
TOO MANY QUESTIONS
"THIS is strange!" old Mr. Crow exclaimed, looking very hard at Daddy Longlegs. "You heard the first question easily enough. But now you seem deaf as a post."
And all the time Daddy Longlegs merely smiled at Mr. Crow. He made no comment at all.
"Don"t you know what I"m saying?" Mr. Crow bawled in his loudest tones.
"It _is_ a pleasant day," said Daddy Longlegs. "But I"m afraid there"s going to be a heavy gale to-morrow."
"This is certainly peculiar," Mr. Crow grumbled. And then little Mr.
Chippy hastened to explain that Daddy Longlegs was often like that. He would appear to hear you perfectly one moment. And then--if you happened to ask him his age, or where he came from--you might find him unable to understand a single word that you said.
"It"s most unfortunate," said old Mr. Crow. "I see nothing to do but reply to the question myself. And then my cousin, Jasper Jay, will decide which has given the better answer--Daddy Longlegs or I."
"Ah! But you can"t do that!" cried Daddy Longlegs suddenly. "Jasper Jay said you were not to answer this question until after I had. And you know you mustn"t break the rules of the contest."
Old Mr. Crow"s mouth fell open, he was so astonished.
"Why, he can hear again!" he exclaimed. And after staring at Daddy Longlegs for a while he beckoned to Jasper Jay. And again the two cousins moved a little distance away and began whispering.
When they returned both were smiling broadly. And mounting the stone wall once more, Jasper said that he would put another question to Daddy and Mr. Crow, and that they must both answer it at the same time. Then he cautioned Daddy Longlegs to speak up good and loud, because Mr. Crow had a strong voice.
"I"d suggest----" said Daddy Longlegs----"I"d suggest that Mr. Crow speak as softly as possible, because my voice is weak."
"That"s only fair!" all the company agreed, nodding their heads to one another. But Mr. Crow appeared peevish.
"Everybody"s against me," he grumbled. "I almost believe----" he said, turning to his cousin----"I almost believe they"re all in league with Farmer Green."
"If you are not sure, why don"t you ask Farmer Green himself?" Daddy Longlegs inquired.
"I will!" cried Mr. Crow in a loud voice. "I"ll ask him the next time I see him."
"Then you can ask him now," said Daddy Longlegs, "for here he comes, with a gun on his shoulder."
The words were hardly out of Daddy"s mouth when old Mr. Crow began to beat the air furiously with his broad wings. He rose quickly--but not too high--and made for the woods as fast as he could fly.
"Now, that"s strange!" Daddy Longlegs quavered. "I don"t see how he"s going to talk with Farmer Green when he"s half a mile away from him."
And everybody else said the same thing.
"He"s gone off and left the contest unfinished," little Mr. Chippy observed. "So there"s nothing Jasper Jay can do except to declare that Daddy Longlegs is the winner--and the wisest person in Pleasant Valley."
"I couldn"t very well do that," Jasper objected. "You"re forgetting Solomon Owl."
"Well, Daddy"s wiser than old Mr. Crow, anyhow," Mr. Chippy retorted.
And since almost everybody said that was true, Jasper Jay didn"t quite dare object.
But it was plain that he didn"t agree with the company. And he stamped his feet and clashed his bill together and shook his head as if he were much displeased.
He, too, began to believe--with his cousin, Mr. Crow--that Daddy Longlegs and all the others were on Farmer Green"s side.
VI
MRS. LADYBUG"S PLAN
DADDY LONGLEGS" neighbors took an even greater interest in him, after his contest with Mr. Crow. And much to Daddy"s distress they tried harder than before to pry into his private affairs.
But those curious busybodies learned very little. In fact there was only one of them who really found out anything about Daddy that was worth knowing.
Little Mrs. Ladybug, who was somewhat of a gossip, discovered in some way that Daddy Longlegs was a harvestman. And she lost no time in spreading the news far and wide. She even travelled as far as the big poplar, to tell Whiteface, the Carpenter Bee, what she had heard.
"A harvestman, eh?" said the Carpenter, thrusting his hands into the pockets of his ap.r.o.n. "If that"s so, why doesn"t he go to work?" And without waiting for an answer he dodged quickly inside his house. He was building an addition to his home; and naturally he was quite busy. He knew, too, that Mrs. Ladybug was a terrible talker.
"I declare, I hadn"t thought of that!" Mrs. Ladybug exclaimed. And then she hastened to the stone wall to find Daddy Longlegs and learn the answer to the Carpenter"s question.
Mrs. Ladybug soon spied Daddy, coming from the orchard near-by. And since she saw him before he saw her, he had no chance to hide. He was sorry; for he _just knew_--from the look in her eye--that she was going to ask him a question. And sure enough, she did!
"You"re a harvestman," she began, quite out of breath from hurrying.
"Why don"t you go to work?"
"What can I do?" Daddy inquired with a blank look.
"Do!" she exclaimed. "I should think Farmer Green would be glad to have your help in harvesting his crops. He"s mowing his oats now. And there"s no one to help him except the hired man--unless you count Johnnie, and _he_ spends most of his time at the swimming-hole."
Daddy Longlegs thanked Mrs. Ladybug politely for her suggestion. But he said that he was not acquainted with Farmer Green. And he disliked working for strangers. And he thought he would spend the rest of the summer making friends with his neighbors.
"Next year," he told her, "I may make some arrangement with Farmer Green to work for him regularly."
But that answer did not satisfy little Mrs. Ladybug in the least.
"You"d be far better off with something steady to do," she insisted. And she said so much that just to get rid of her Daddy Longlegs promised to see Farmer Green at once and offer his services.
He was sorry, as soon as she had gone, that he had agreed to do that.
But being a person of his word he never once thought of not keeping his promise, though he wished he had simply put his hand behind his ear and not answered Mrs. Ladybug"s question at all.
But it was too late, then, to do that.