e in a pumpkin!" cried Buster Bumblebee.

And all the neighbors--even Mrs. Ladybug--laughed when they heard that.

Buster knew of an old tune called "The Bumblebee in the Pumpkin," and he
cried with some heat that he could think of no reason why there
shouldn't be "A Ladybug in a Pumpkin."

"I told you my house was big--the biggest one on the farm," Mrs. Ladybug
reminded him.

"Ah!" Chirpy Cricket exclaimed. "Now I know! You're going to live in the
haystack. A haystack is cozy and warm; it's wind-proof; it sheds water;
and there's nothing bigger anywhere."

It really seemed as if Chirpy Cricket had solved the great mystery.

"He's guessed the riddle!" people said. "You might as well admit now,
Mrs. Ladybug, that you're going to spend the winter in Farmer Green's
haystack."

But Mrs. Ladybug dashed their hopes.

"You're wrong," she told her friends. "And if to-night's as nippy as
last night was, perhaps you'll find out to-morrow where I'm going. For I
don't care to freeze my toes here in the orchard."

That night it was colder than ever. And the next day Mrs. Ladybug went
all around the orchard and the garden bidding people good-by.

Still she wouldn't tell where she was going. And if Daddy Longlegs
hadn't happened to stroll around the cherry tree outside Farmer Green's
chamber window that afternoon, nobody would have known where Mrs.
Ladybug went. But Daddy Longlegs saw her. And he hastened to spread the
news.

"Mrs. Ladybug has gone to spend the winter in the farmhouse!"

XXIII

BACK AGAIN

SOMEHOW Mrs. Ladybug's friends missed her. The orchard seemed quite a
different place after she vanished inside the farmhouse to stay there
all winter long. In spite of her sharp tongue and her prying ways people
discovered--now that she was gone--that they had liked Mrs. Ladybug more
than they knew.

While she was with them in the orchard they had often wished she
wouldn't ask so many questions. But now the days seemed very long
without Mrs. Ladybug to inquire _how_ and _why_ and _when_ and _where_.

And then--then a rumor flashed from lip to lip all the way across the
garden and the orchard and the meadow: "Mrs. Ladybug is back again! She
didn't stay in the farmhouse a week."

And sure enough! the rumor proved to be true. Mrs. Ladybug, looking
rather foolish, appeared in her old haunts among the apple trees. She
acted as if something had occurred to upset her. And though she seemed
glad to be greeted