When Freddie Firefly reached the swamp he found that the singing party had already broken up. But luckily, Mr. Frog the tailor was the last one to leave. He was still poised on the bank of the sluggish stream, ready to plunge into the water and swim away, when Freddie Firefly dropped down upon a cat-tail and called him by name, flashing his light frantically so that Mr. Frog would be sure to notice him.
"Wait a moment!" cried Freddie. "I"ve something to say to you!"
"Out with it, then!" said Mr. Frog. "My time is valuable, you know. I ought to be back in my shop this moment; for I promised Paddy Muskrat I"d make him a policeman"s uniform by to-morrow morning. And I haven"t begun it yet."
"Why not?" asked Freddie, forgetting--for the moment--his own errand.
"He wants bra.s.s b.u.t.tons," explained the tailor. "And I couldn"t get any until to-night."
"But couldn"t you go ahead without them?" Freddie Firefly inquired.
"Certainly not!" replied Mr. Frog. "I see you don"t know much about making a policeman"s suit. You start by laying the b.u.t.tons in a row on the ground; and then you sew the cloth onto them.... That"s my own invention--that method," he added with an air of pride. "And now, what was it you wanted to say to me?"
"I don"t believe there"s any use of my telling you, after all," Freddie Firefly replied. "You"re going to be so busy that you won"t have time to do an errand for me. I wanted you to give Mr. Crow a message."
"Yes--I"ll be altogether too rushed to bother with it," said Mr. Frog.
"I expect to be on the jump all night--and most of to-morrow, too."
"This message," Freddie Firefly went on, "was something about Kiddie Katydid. I found out his secret to-night. And I thought Mr. Crow ought to know about it."
Now, Mr. Frog was all ready to leap into the water. But when Freddie said that, the tailor promptly changed his mind.
"Kiddie Katydid"s secret!" he repeated in a tone of amazement. "You don"t mean to say you"ve discovered what it was that Katy did?"
"Never mind!" said Freddie. "I don"t want to trouble you, Mr. Frog. I know you"re too busy to bother your head with such things."
"Tut, tut, young man!" Mr. Frog cried. "I see you have something important to tell me. And since that is the case, I"ll manage somehow to deliver your message to Mr. Crow, even if I have to disappoint a customer. _Always oblige a friend!_ That"s my motto!" said Mr. Frog.
"Very well, then!" Freddie Firefly replied. "I"ll say what I was going to; but it doesn"t concern that Katy person you just mentioned."
"Oh, it doesn"t," the tailor echoed. "Then I don"t know that I care to listen to you, after all. I thought you were going to explain about that mysterious lady that Kiddie"s always singing about." He was sadly disappointed. And once more he turned toward the creek.
IX
MR. FROG IS PLEASED
"Kiddie Katydid doesn"t sing!" Freddie Firefly told Mr. Frog hurriedly.
And Mr. Frog was so surprised that he almost sat right down in the mud.
"What do you mean?" he cried. "You must be crazy! For there isn"t a single person in all Pleasant Valley that hasn"t heard Kiddie Katydid singing his tiresome song on a fine midsummer night."
"That--" replied Freddie Firefly--"that is just where you"re mistaken, Mr. Frog. And that"s where everybody else is mistaken, too. To-night I was lucky enough to learn that Kiddie Katydid has been fooling us all this time."
"You don"t say so!" said Mr. Frog. "Then who is it that sings that everlasting chorus?"
"n.o.body!"
"Nonsense!" Mr. Frog scoffed. "I can be fooled once, maybe. But I"m not to be fooled twice. And you needn"t think for a moment that you can make me believe any such thing."
"I don"t care whether you believe it or not," Freddie Firefly declared.
"All I ask you to do is to tell the story to Mr. Crow."
"He won"t believe it, either," the tailor retorted.
"Perhaps he will when he hears the rest of the message," Freddie answered. "I was just going to explain that Kiddie Katydid has a trick of rubbing his wing covers together to make that _Katy did_ sound."
"For the land"s sake!" cried Mr. Frog, as he leaped into the water, convinced at last of the truth of Freddie Firefly"s claim. "I must hurry home at once, for dawn"s already breaking. And Mr. Crow may come sailing over my place at any moment." He landed with a splash in the creek and started to swim rapidly away. But after a few strokes he paused and turned around. "You might almost say that Kiddie Katydid is a fiddler, mightn"t you?" he called.
"Something like that!" Freddie Firefly agreed a bit doubtfully.
"I"ll tell Mr. Crow that, anyhow," said the tailor. "It will make the story more interesting, at least. And so far as I can see, it can"t do any harm."
And then he hastened away, leaving Freddie Firefly to get home as best he could in the gray of the early morning.
"You may as well put out your light!" Mr. Frog shouted back, as he disappeared among the reeds. But he didn"t wait to see whether Freddie took his advice. He was too much excited over the strange news. And as he swam easily along with practiced strokes he kept talking to himself.
"I"m a pretty clever chap, I am!" he chuckled. "I"ve discovered a great secret this night. And old Mr. Crow will be glad to hear all about it.
Perhaps he"ll want me to help him with his newspaper after this.
"And for all I know I"ll have so much to do that I won"t be able to make any more clothes for my customers."
He hadn"t swum far before he had entirely forgotten that it was really Freddie Firefly who had discovered the secret and told it to him.
No doubt if anybody had reminded Mr. Frog of that fact he would have been very indignant.
X
A PAIR OF RASCALS
Mr. Frog reached home just as the sun peeped over the hills. He slipped hastily out of the water, sprang up the bank of the creek, and in three jumps landed on the roof of his tailor"s shop. There he squatted, while his queer, bulging eyes scanned the sky in every direction. He was watching for Mr. Crow, and all but bursting with the news that he had for the old gentleman.
Mr. Frog had not sat there long before he heard a hoa.r.s.e _Caw, caw!_ in the distance.
"There he is!" cried the tailor aloud. "There"s the old boy! He"ll be in sight in a moment."
And sure enough! soon Mr. Crow flapped out of the woods and came sailing over the meadows.
Thereupon Mr. Frog set up a great croaking. And to his delight his elderly friend heard him calling and dropped down at once.