The noisiest of all the gathering was Mr. Frog, the tailor, who lived over by the creek.
He had a great deal to say about everything; and it soon became plain to everyone that he was trying to manage the whole affair.
Mr. Frog objected to every arrangement that Benjamin Bat had made. When he learned that he was expected to enter a jumping contest with Kiddie Katydid he exclaimed that he and Kiddie were such good friends that he hated the thought of trying to beat Kiddie at jumping.
"Kiddie might feel bad," said Mr. Frog. "People might laugh at him because I won."
"Don"t you worry about me!" Kiddie Katydid called out.
"Where are you?" asked Mr. Frog, looking all around. "I can hear you, but I can"t see you."
But Kiddie Katydid refused to show himself.
He preferred, for the time being, to remain safely hidden among the leaves, where he could listen to what people said--and talk to them when he wanted to.
"Wouldn"t you prefer some other sort of contest?" Mr. Frog then asked him. "Now, there"s swimming! We could swim in the watering-trough, or the duck pond. And if I beat you, you could stick your head under water, so you wouldn"t hear what people said. Don"t you think that"s a good idea?"
"Goodness, no!" cried Kiddie. "I"d drown myself in no time."
"Dear me!" said Mr. Frog. "I never thought of that."
And then everybody laughed so loudly at him that he hurried off to the watering-trough to dive under water, and stay there until he was sure that his remarks had been forgotten.
Meanwhile Benjamin Bat was worrying. He couldn"t find anybody who was willing to try the sport of hanging head downward by his heels. He asked Kiddie Katydid; and Kiddie declined flatly to do any such thing.
Now, since Benjamin had not yet dined, he was very short-tempered. And he grew angry at once.
"What"s the matter?" he sneered. "Don"t you know how to do an easy trick like that? If I could see you--" he declared, peering among the maple leaves--"if I could see you I"d show you how it feels to hang beneath a limb."
Kiddie Katydid said no word in reply. He knew well enough what Benjamin Bat meant. Benjamin wanted to eat him! And he wished that Benjamin would go away and get a good meal somewhere before he came back again.
XVII
KITTY DID!
As the hours sped by and the moon at last crossed the sky and dropped out of sight, Kiddie Katydid saw that there was going to be trouble.
He was worried about Benjamin Bat. Early in the evening Benjamin had begun to abuse Mr. Frog. And he was so busy doing that that he wouldn"t take the time to go away and s.n.a.t.c.h even a bite to eat.
Naturally, Benjamin"s temper grew worse as the night lengthened. And Kiddie Katydid had to admit to himself that he would be most unwise if he did any jumping or flying just then. For Benjamin Bat was in so fierce a humor that he was ready to snap at anybody who was smaller than he was. All the tiny flying folk gave him a wide berth. And it began to look as if he were going to spoil the night"s fun.
But all the while Mr. Frog never once lost his temper. Even when Benjamin Bat called him a long-legged, flat-headed, paddle-footed meddler, Mr. Frog only smiled and turned a few somersaults backward.
"What"s the matter with you?" Benjamin Bat asked him at last. "Can"t you speak?"
"Certainly! Certainly!" Mr. Frog said then. "I"ve been trying to think of some way to prevent so much quarreling. It hardly seems fair to Kiddie Katydid--this uproar right in his dooryard. And since you are the one that"s making the greatest disturbance, I"d suggest that you go away and leave us to enjoy the rest of the night in peace."
"I"ll do nothing of the kind!" Benjamin Bat screamed. "This is _my_ party. I thought of it in the first place. And I"m going to stay here until dawn."
"Very well! Then the rest of us will leave at once," Mr. Frog told him.
And calling good-by to all his friends, Mr. Frog flopped himself briskly away.
The smaller folk, too, vanished as if by magic. Though Benjamin Bat watched sharply, he didn"t even see Freddie Firefly when he slipped away.
"That"s strange!" thought Benjamin. "He must have put out his light, to fool me. But I don"t care, because Kiddie Katydid is hidden somewhere in this tree. And I"m going to find him--for I"m terribly hungry."
So Benjamin began flying in and out among the maple branches. n.o.body but he could have twisted and turned in such a helter-skelter fashion. It made Kiddie Katydid almost dizzy just to watch him. But Kiddie didn"t take his eyes off Benjamin, because he intended to jump--and jump fast and far--in case Benjamin should spy him.
Now, although the Bat family was able to see in the dark as well as Farmer Green"s cat could, Benjamin failed to find Kiddie Katydid anywhere. Crouching motionless upon a leaf, and dressed all in green, Kiddie Katydid was almost invisible. But if he had moved the least bit, Benjamin Bat would have found him out.
Looking only for a tiny green figure among the green leaves, Benjamin Bat paid no attention to the grayish branches of the tree. He was really strangely careless. Quite unsuspected by him, while he was wrangling with Mr. Frog, the cat had crept out of the woodshed and stolen softly into that very tree, where she lay motionless along a limb. She had come out upon an early morning hunt for birds.
She was a fierce old cat. There was nothing, almost, that she wasn"t ready and willing to fight. Even old dog Spot had learned to shun her.
And now she waited patiently until Benjamin Bat should come within reach of her quick paws.
That stupid, blundering fellow b.u.mped squarely into her at last. And how he escaped is still a mystery. The old cat always claimed that when she found Benjamin wasn"t a bird she was so surprised that she let him go.
And as for Benjamin himself, he never would discuss his adventure with anybody. Kiddie Katydid was the only other one who saw what happened.
But he was so frightened at the time that he only knew that Benjamin Bat tore away toward the swamp as if a thousand cats were following him. And people do say that for some time afterward, Kiddie Katydid shrilled a slightly different ditty. It was _Kitty did, Kitty did; she did, she did_!
But when Mr. Frog mentioned that news, with a laugh, to Benjamin Bat, over in the swamp, Benjamin only said, "Stuff and nonsense!"
Yet he looked most uncomfortable.
XVIII
THE TWO GRa.s.sHOPPERS
Kiddie Katydid had a neighbor who was a good deal like him. Indeed, a careless person had to look sharply to discover much difference between them. But there was a difference. There was, especially, a certain way in which one could always tell them apart. One had only to take the trouble to look at their horns--or feelers. For Kiddie Katydid had horns as long--or longer--than he was. But his neighbor, who was known as Leaper the Locust, wore his horns quite short.
Although they saw each other often, Kiddie and this neighbor of his were not on the best of terms. The trouble was simply this: they couldn"t agree on the question of horns. Whenever they met they were sure to have a most unpleasant dispute before they parted.
Really, their quarrels were as bad as those that Jimmy Rabbit and Frisky Squirrel once had over the matter of tails. And many of the field folk said it was a shame that the Gra.s.shoppers" trouble couldn"t be settled somehow.
Strange as it may seem, that remark always made Leaper the Locust terribly angry. And it enraged Kiddie Katydid as did nothing else.
The difficulty was that the field people--as well as Farmer Green"s whole family--had fallen into the lazy habit of calling those two by the same name. They spoke of Kiddie Katydid as "the Long-horned Gra.s.shopper," while they termed his neighbor "the Short-horned Gra.s.shopper."
[Ill.u.s.tration: Kiddie Faced Leaper the Locust
(_Page 90_)]