able to think of nothing but him.
Perhaps if she hadn't happened to notice his carpetbag, with the words,
"P. Bug, Colorado," upon its side, she might not have been so stirred
up.

Anyhow, Mrs. Ladybug kept wondering what business had brought the
stranger to Pleasant Valley. She wished she could find out what he was
going to do in the potato patch. She wanted to ask him why he chose to
have black stripes on his yellow coat, instead of spots. How long had
he been traveling? When did he expect to leave the farm? There was no
end to the questions that Mrs. Ladybug burned to put to him.

Meanwhile she told the news to everybody she saw. For Mrs. Ladybug
dearly loved to spread choice morsels of gossip. It pleased her mightily
to tell her neighbors something they didn't know.

People listened to her story with great interest. They were eager to
learn all about the stranger, whom Mrs. Ladybug declared to be very
handsome.

Mrs. Ladybug made her news last as long as possible in the telling. She
made her neighbors wait a bit for every fact, so they would enjoy it to
the full. And whenever she stopped anyone and told him about the
newcomer, Mrs. Ladybug kept the best part until the last. She always
ended her remarks by saying, with a most important air, "His name is
Mr. P. Bug. And he comes from Colorado."

That never failed to impress her listeners--which was exactly what Mrs.
Ladybug wanted.

Since nobody asked her how she knew the traveler's name, and where he
came from, Mrs. Ladybug did not trouble herself to explain that she had
read both name and place upon his old-fashioned carpetbag.

There was one thing that puzzled her slightly, when she paused to think
about it. How did it happen that the elegant stranger carried a most
unfashionable bag?

Mrs. Ladybug soon settled that question to her own satisfaction.

"He's like me!" she decided. "Mr. P. Bug is a hard worker and he doesn't
care for show. He's a plain person. No doubt he put on that yellow coat
to travel in, because it's his best. But he'll wear overalls, perhaps,
if he starts to work in the potato patch--as I suspect he will."

At last, however, Mrs. Ladybug met with a rude shock. She was telling
her news to Peppery Polly Bumblebee, one of the workers in the hive
ruled by Buster Bumblebee's mother, the well-known Queen. And to Mrs.
Ladybug's amazement, when she related the name of the stranger, and the
place he came from, Peppery Polly laughed in her fac