FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   >>  
eaper the Locust quarreled so loudly that they soon drew a crowd around them. "That message for 'Mr. Grasshopper' is certainly meant for me," Kiddie insisted. "You know yourself how you have objected to being called by the name of 'Grasshopper.' 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. Grasshopper!' 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. Grasshopper 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
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   >>  



Top keywords:

Locust

 
Leaper
 

message

 
Kiddie
 

stranger

 

Grasshopper

 
person
 

Katydid

 

thought

 

pulled


echoed

 
denying
 

carefully

 

listened

 

sudden

 

traveller

 

letter

 
account
 

inside

 

quarrel


explain

 

hastened

 

dispute

 

exclaimed

 

perfectly

 
fanning
 
couldn
 

perplexed

 
pointed
 

removed


mistaken
 

glance

 

intended

 

finger

 
scornful
 

confess

 

puzzled

 

reached

 
Firefly
 

shouted


Freddie

 
refused
 

attention

 

Chirpy

 

evening

 
Cricket
 

loudly

 
quarreled
 

objected

 

called