ost it
somewhere?

Luckily, General Antenna soon saw what was the matter, and said:

"Here--take my cap!" And the General promptly clapped a gold-braided cap
upon the Captain's head.

Then Captain Kidd was able to salute. And after that--and not
before--the brave officer was ready to answer the General's inquiry.

Yes! Captain Kidd was all ready to reply. But by that time the Captain
had quite forgotten what the question was.

Fortunately, General Antenna remembered--and repeated--it.

"What's the trouble?"

"Oh, yes!" said the Captain. "The trouble is this: Our soldiers can't
reach the enemy. Daddy Longlegs is so tall that they can't touch
anything except his feet!"

Taking a careful look at the battle-field, the General saw that it was
so. But still the commander of the army was not dismayed.

"Can't you tip him over?"

"We've tried to already," replied Captain Kidd. "But he has too many
legs for us."

"Can't your soldiers stand on one another's shoulders?"

"It's no use," the Captain answered. "We've tried that too."

General Antenna began to look somewhat worried, knowing that if the army
couldn't win the battle before Rusty Wren came home, all would be lost.
For no army of ants could stand and fight such a monster as he.

"I have it!" the General cried at last. "I've thought of the very
thing.... Bring some stepladders!"

XIX

DADDY ESCAPES

THAT was a fine idea of General Antenna's--that plan of bringing
stepladders, so that the ant army might climb up on them and reach Daddy
Longlegs, whom they were attacking.

And Captain Kidd told the General on the spot that it was a most happy
thought.

"Then do as I tell you, at once!" the General ordered pompously.

"I can't!" said Captain Kidd, who was terribly frightened, because the
General was sure to be angry.

"_Can't!_" cried General Antenna fiercely. "_Can't!_ What do you mean,
madam?" (Perhaps you did not know that Captain Kidd was a lady, as were
also the General and the whole army, too!)

Captain Kidd's voice broke as she stammered an answer to General
Antenna's rude demand.

"I know of only one stepladder in Pleasant Valley," she explained. "It
belongs to Farmer Green. And it's so heavy that the whole army couldn't
move it."

At that a shudder passed over General Antenna's fat body.

"Then we're as good as lost!" she shrieked. "Daddy Longlegs will defeat
us. And I'll never hear the last of it."

And right there on the