by all her old companions, she didn't want them to
ask her a single question as to why she hadn't spent the whole winter,
instead of only a few days of early fall, in Farmer Green's house.

If she thought her neighbors weren't going to question her she was sadly
mistaken.

Only a little while before they had asked her a thousand and one
questions about _where_ she was going to live during the winter. And
now they were all just as curious to know why she had returned. But this
time they asked her a thousand and two questions.

You couldn't say that her answers weren't satisfying, because she didn't
make any answers at all.

Of course, things couldn't go on like that forever. People _had_ to know
what had changed Mrs. Ladybug's plans. And in order to persuade the
stubborn lady to explain matters, a few of her friends hinted that they
expected they would have to go to Farmer Green himself and learn the
truth.

"You may ask him if you wish," Mrs. Ladybug told them. "But it won't do
you any good. He can't tell you what happened because he doesn't know
himself."

"Maybe the farmhouse was cold," Chirpy Cricket suggested.

Mrs. Ladybug made no comment on that remark.

"Perhaps the roof leaked," said Daddy Longlegs.

Still no sign from Mrs. Ladybug.

"She found that the farmhouse wasn't wind-proof," said Daddy Longlegs'
wife.

And Mrs. Ladybug didn't deny it; nor did she say that that was so.

Then Buster Bumblebee made one of his blundering speeches.

"It was a short winter, anyhow," he said.

Mrs. Ladybug's neighbors couldn't help tittering. And somehow their
amusement stung her into telling the truth about the whole affair, right
then and there.

"Mrs. Green and I didn't get on well together," she confessed.

XXIV

MRS. GREEN'S MISTAKE

MRS. LADYBUG spoke at last. Her listeners crowded close about her,
jostling one another in their eagerness to hear every word she said. For
Mrs. Ladybug was recounting her adventures at the farmhouse.

"I flew in through an open window," Mrs. Ladybug began. And she heaved a
deep sigh, as if the telling of the tale was costing her much pain.

"I said nothing to anybody," she explained, "because I didn't wish to
trouble the family. I knew I could find my way about the house after a
little. And it wasn't long before I had discovered the stairway.

"I didn't walk on the stairs for fear there might be mud on my feet,"
said Mrs. Ladybug. "I didn't walk, but flew up