ermined to get the
news of the discovered secret to Mr. Crow at the earliest possible
moment.

How he was going to do that he didn't quite know.

There was little chance of his seeing Mr. Crow, for the old gentleman
only waked up at the time Freddie Firefly was ready to go to bed--about
dawn.

He was pondering over his difficulty, which bothered him not a little,
when a terrific croaking from the direction of the swamp reached his
ears. It was the final chorus of the Frog family's nightly singing
party. And it promptly put an idea into Freddie Firefly's head.

"I'll hurry right over there and speak to Mr. Frog, the well-known
tailor," he said to himself. "He knows old Mr. Crow. He sees him almost
every day. And he'll be glad to give the old gentleman a message."

VIII

SPREADING THE NEWS

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 brass buttons," 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 buttons 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