And then she fixed Miss Junebug with her eye and spoke to her severely.
"Don"t you think you ought--" she began.
And then Jennie Junebug b.u.mped into her, sending Mrs. Ladybug sprawling.
"Don"t I think I ought to frolic with you?" Jennie cried. "Certainly I do."
Mrs. Ladybug managed to rise off the ground.
"Won"t you please--" she started to say.
"Won"t I please knock you down? Of course I will!" Jennie Junebug exclaimed. And thereupon she struck Mrs. Ladybug again.
Poor Mrs. Ladybug was much shaken. In her fall she had dropped her umbrella, and her handkerchief too. But she didn"t stop to pick them up.
She scrambled to her feet and rose into the air again, angrier than she had ever been before in all her life.
"I"ll thank you--" she spluttered.
"You"ll thank me if I"ll do that again, eh?" said Jennie Junebug, interrupting her rudely. "Very well! Here goes!" This time she gave Mrs.
Ladybug a terrific blow. She dropped upon the gra.s.s, where she clung to a blade and swayed up and down for a few moments, dizzy and trembling.
And she was gasping so hard, in order to get her breath, that she couldn"t speak.
Watching her, Jennie Junebug shrieked with laughter. Then, seeing Freddie Firefly"s light flashing in the meadow, Miss Junebug hurried away.
XV
ENOUGH!
"SUCH impudence!" Mrs. Ladybug gasped, as soon as she could speak. "That terrible Jennie Junebug didn"t care whether I ever got my breath or not."
After bowling Mrs. Ladybug over three times, Miss Junebug had flown away, leaving poor little Mrs. Ladybug clinging to a blade of gra.s.s and wondering if she would be able to move again.
Mrs. Ladybug had attempted to take Jennie Junebug to task. She had intended to berate Jennie for devouring the leaves of Farmer Green"s trees and to order her to stop such damage at once. But Jennie Junebug hadn"t allowed her to say much. In her playful way she had knocked the breath out of Mrs. Ladybug.
"I must try some other plan," thought Mrs. Ladybug. "And I"ll have to have help." So she sent Miss Moth over to the meadow, to find Freddie Firefly and ask him if he wouldn"t come to the orchard because Mrs.
Ladybug wanted to talk with him.
He came. He came at once; for he saw Jennie Junebug looking for him. And he was only too glad to escape her attentions. He found her too rough to suit him.
Mrs. Ladybug quickly explained her difficulty.
"What shall I do?" she asked him.
"I don"t know," he answered. "I can"t do a thing with Jennie Junebug.
She knocks me down whenever I meet her. She annoys me."
"It"s not so much myself I"m thinking of," said Mrs. Ladybug. "It"s Farmer Green"s fruit trees that I"m disturbed about. Jennie Junebug eats the leaves. I must put an end to that."
"I have it!" Freddie Firefly exclaimed suddenly. "I"ll ask her why she doesn"t b.u.mp into Solomon Owl!"
Mrs. Ladybug didn"t seem to care for his suggestion. "What good would that do?" she inquired.
"Ah!" he said. "Solomon Owl wouldn"t let her browbeat him. He"d soon cure her of her rude pranks."
"Then please speak to her, and to Solomon Owl at once--that is, if you dare to," said Mrs. Ladybug.
"I"m not afraid of him," Freddie Firefly boasted. "He won"t touch me.
He"s a-scared of my light." And then Freddie Firefly flitted away.
He found Solomon Owl easily enough. He had heard Solomon"s _Wha-wha_, _whoo-ah_! booming from the edge of the woods. And he soon persuaded Solomon to fly down into the meadow.
Solomon Owl sailed above the waving gra.s.s, while Freddie Firefly spoke to Jennie Junebug.
She liked his scheme. She thought it would be a great joke to b.u.mp into solemn Solomon Owl. And for once she forgot to fling herself against Freddie Firefly.
Only a little while later she struck Solomon Owl with an awful thud. To her huge surprise she fell headlong, while he merely paused in his low flight.
"Who struck me?" he bawled.
"Jennie Junebug!" said Freddie Firefly.
"Where is she now?" Solomon hooted. "If I find her I"ll fix her."
Jennie Junebug heard everything he said. She was lying hidden in the gra.s.s near-by. And she wouldn"t have come out for anything.
"I"ll keep an eye out for her," Solomon Owl announced. "I come to the meadow often, a-mousing."
Jennie Junebug kept still as a mouse, herself, until Solomon had gone back to the woods. Then she stole forth from her hiding place, showing a battered face to her friends.
"Good-by, everybody!" she called. "I"m going to move. I"m going "way down to the end of the valley to live.... I"m off already," she added, as she spread her wings.
n.o.body ever saw Jennie Junebug on Farmer Green"s place again.
And Mrs. Ladybug was more than satisfied.
XVI
PLAYING DEAD
FARMER GREEN"S apple trees looked green and flourishing. Thanks to Mrs.
Ladybug--and some of her relations--there was scarcely an insect left on the leaves. And since there was no more work to be done in the orchard just then, and nothing for her to eat, Mrs. Ladybug settled among the raspberry bushes near the duck pond. She said that they needed her attention.