. Ladybug appeared to want to keep the site
of her house a secret from all her friends. When they asked her,
point-blank, where her house was, she always pretended not to hear the
question and left them. Or she would begin to ask questions of her own
choosing, without answering theirs.

"Humph!" said some people. "Mrs. Ladybug likes to pry into our affairs.
She wants to know all about our business. And when she learns anything
about anybody else she can't rest until she has told it to the whole
neighborhood."

The more Mrs. Ladybug's friends thought about her house, the harder they
tried to discover its whereabouts. Sometimes they even mentioned _fire_
to her and then tried to follow her when she hurried off. But she always
managed to give them the slip before she had gone far.

Now and then somebody or other thought he had found Mrs. Ladybug's
house. But in the end somebody else was sure to prove that he was
mistaken.

Once Freddie Firefly announced with great pride that at last he knew
where Mrs. Ladybug was rearing her family.

"Her house," he explained, "is in a hole in the ground, in the meadow."

And that night he led Miss Mehitable Moth to the spot, lighting the way
with his flickering gleams.

She soon pointed out his mistake. He had led her to the doorway of the
Bumblebee family, who were all sound asleep inside their crowded house.

After that Freddie Firefly had to listen to a good many titters from his
friends.

"The idea!" they would say. "Mrs. Ladybug must have a much bigger house
than the Bumblebee family's. She couldn't squeeze her children into such
small quarters as theirs. Why, she has more children than she can
count."

XIX

THE DINNER BELL

THERE was great excitement in Farmer Green's orchard. The neighbors came
a-flying and a-running and a-crawling from all directions. And little
Mrs. Ladybug was the cause of the hurly-burly. She had appeared with a
strange, flaring object hanging by a cord from her waist--if she could
be said to have a waist. The queer, dangling thing had a handle at its
upper end. And when Mrs. Ladybug moved a jingling, jangling sound might
have been heard.

In no time at all a crowd had gathered around her. And some of the more
curious and ill-bred pointed at whatever it was that puzzled them.

"What's that?" they asked Mrs. Ladybug.

Strange to say, she seemed pleased with the stir that she had made.

"It's a dinner bell," she explained.

They gaz