"It"s bad enough to look somewhat like Leaper the Locust, without being tagged with the name of Gra.s.shopper, along with him," Kiddie Katydid spluttered.
"Honestly, I"m tempted to move away from this neighborhood," Leaper the Locust began to tell everyone he met. "If that chap would only trim his horns to the proper length I wouldn"t mind it so much. But he"s actually proud of them. He"s always waving them over his head, so people will notice them."
They both declared--Kiddie Katydid and Leaper the Locust--that they couldn"t abide the name "Gra.s.shopper." And they took pains to warn people in the neighborhood that they wouldn"t answer to that name, no matter how loudly anyone might shout it at them.
After that a few of their neighbors took great delight in crying "Gra.s.shopper! Gra.s.shopper!" whenever one of the two happened to be within hearing. But no matter which of them it might be--whether Leaper the Locust or Kiddie Katydid--he pretended not to hear, and went right on eating.
But at last something happened that made both those jumpy gentlemen change their minds. From not wanting to be called Gra.s.shoppers, they decided suddenly that they liked the name. And each claimed that the other had no right to it.
This odd state of affairs arose when they learned that a stranger had come into the valley bearing a message marked "For Mr. Gra.s.shopper."
"That"s for me!" Kiddie Katydid cried, as soon as he heard the news.
"You"re mistaken!" Leaper the Locust snapped. "The message is clearly intended for me. And I shan"t let anybody else open it."
XIX
A QUARREL
Kiddie Katydid and Leaper the Locust quarreled so loudly that they soon drew a crowd around them.
"That message for "Mr. Gra.s.shopper" is certainly meant for me," Kiddie insisted. "You know yourself how you have objected to being called by the name of "Gra.s.shopper." Why, only last night you refused to stop when Freddie Firefly shouted it after you."
"And you--" cried Leaper the Locust--"you paid no attention when Chirpy Cricket went up to you just as the moon rose this evening and said, "How-dy do, Mr. Gra.s.shopper!" right in your ear. You have no right to open the message. And I promise you that I shall make trouble for you if you don"t mind your own affairs."
"Well, well--what"s all this row about, anyhow?" asked a strange voice.
It was a newcomer in Pleasant Valley who had just spoken. He elbowed his way briskly through the throng until he reached the center of it, where Kiddie and Leaper the Locust faced each other angrily. People noticed that the stranger looked as if he had travelled a long distance. And he had a mail-pouch slung over his back. Furthermore, he was enough like Kiddie and Leaper to be a cousin of either one of them.
A person couldn"t see his horns, on account of the hat that he wore.
When this traveller asked about the dispute, everybody hastened to explain the quarrel to him.
He listened carefully, and when he had heard the whole story he said:
"This message--do you know where it is? Do you know who has it now?"
"No!" Leaper the Locust cried, while Kiddie Katydid echoed the word.
"Ah! I thought not!" said the stranger, "I thought not, because I have it in this mail-bag. And now I must confess that I"m puzzled myself; for I don"t know which one it"s intended for." And he pulled off his hat and began fanning himself with it.
It was perfectly plain to everyone that he was sadly perplexed.
Then Leaper the Locust gave a great shout.
"You"re a Short-horn!" he exclaimed. "It can"t be that you would have a message for a person with horns like _his_!" He pointed a scornful finger at poor Kiddie Katydid.
One glance at the stranger"s head--now that he had removed his hat--told everybody that Leaper the Locust was not mistaken.
The stranger"s horns _were_ short. There was no denying that fact.
"I believe you must be the Mr. Gra.s.shopper I"m looking for," said the stranger.
Then he put his hand inside his mail-pouch and pulled out a letter.
Leaper the Locust made a sudden jump for the message. But he was so eager that he sprang too far. He sailed far over the stranger"s head and landed some distance away.
"Hullo! He doesn"t want it!" said the stranger. "It must be for _you_!"
And he shoved the message into Kiddie Katydid"s willing hands.
Almost immediately Leaper the Locust jumped back again.
But of course he was too late.
XX
THE STRANGER"S MESSAGE
Leaper the Locust was a rude fellow. He actually tried to s.n.a.t.c.h the message out of Kiddie Katydid"s hands. But the stranger promptly bowled him over and told him sternly to be off.
Leaper did not dare disobey. So he hurried away. But after a few moments he came sailing back again and hung on the outskirts of the crowd, to see what was going on.
He soon discovered that there was some difficulty. Kiddie Katydid had torn open the message; and now he turned it over and over, wondering what it said--for to tell the truth, he couldn"t read a single word.
"Ah!" the stranger remarked presently. "I see what your trouble is. You haven"t your spectacles on!"
He was a polite person--that stranger. He knew better than to suggest that a body didn"t know his letters!
"Let me help you!" he continued. And taking the message from Kiddie Katydid, he held it upside down and began reciting in a sing-song voice:
Dear Mr. Gra.s.shopper, in Pleasant Valley----
Though you do not know me, I am a distant cousin of yours; and I am now on my way to your neighborhood, with my family. Not being acquainted in your part of the country, I am sending you this message with the hope that you will be ready to welcome us when we arrive.
_Please see that there"s a plenty to eat!_
"That"s odd!" Kiddie Katydid exclaimed, after the stranger had finished.
"Won"t you please read that once more? I want to be sure that I understand it."
Thereupon the travel-worn messenger repeated the contents of the letter.
And this time he held it with the back towards him, so that he couldn"t see the writing at all. Like Kiddie Katydid, he didn"t know how to read a word. But luckily he had learned the message by heart before starting on his journey.