The Tale of Betsy Butterfly | Page 7

of butter; but I don't know where to
find any."
"Butter? They make it at the farmhouse," Betsy informed her.
"Then perhaps Farmer Green's wife will let me have a little," Mrs.
Ladybug said hopefully. "I'll go over to the farmhouse at once.... It's too
bad you don't like butter, too," she added.
But secretly she was delighted that Betsy Butterfly had looked into a
buttercup in vain.

IX
UNEXPECTED NEWS
LITTLE Mrs. Ladybug had a disappointment when she reached the
farmhouse. She found, to her dismay, that she couldn't get inside it; for
wire screens blocked her way through both doors and windows. And
nobody paid the slightest attention to her when she stopped at the
buttery window and asked if she couldn't please have a bit of butter.
There was plenty of golden butter right there in plain sight, since it
happened to be churning day. And Farmer Green's wife, with her
sleeves rolled above her elbows, was working busily on the other side
of the window screen.
"I should think she might easily spare me a small sample!" Mrs.
Ladybug cried at last. "I'm afraid Farmer Green's wife is stingy."
Mrs. Ladybug hoped that Johnnie Green's mother would hear her
remark. But she didn't. And in the end Mrs. Ladybug had to fly away
with her longing for butter still unsatisfied.
Meanwhile Betsy Butterfly had been amusing herself in the meadow to
her heart's content. To tell the truth, it was rather a relief to be rid of

Mrs. Ladybug's society for so long a time. And Betsy hoped that Mrs.
Ladybug's errand to the farmhouse would keep that busybody engaged
for the rest of the day.
Now, after she left the farmhouse Mrs. Ladybug set out to find Betsy
Butterfly again. But meeting Daddy Longlegs near the stone wall, she
stopped to gossip with him, telling him how she had learned that she
liked butter, and explaining that she had not yet tasted any.
"So you looked into a buttercup to find out, eh?" said Daddy Longlegs.
"I'll have to do that, myself. Maybe I've always liked butter, too,
without knowing that I do."
"You can't tell till you try," Mrs. Ladybug remarked. "But you mustn't
be too sure. You may be disappointed. There's Betsy Butterfly! She
doesn't care for butter at all."
"Are you sure about that?" Daddy Longlegs inquired. "Really, I think
you must be mistaken, for I saw her with her face just buried in butter
this very day."
At first Mrs. Ladybug looked at him in amazement. And then she grew
very angry.
"Betsy Butterfly deceived me!" she cried in a shrill voice. "She was
afraid that if I knew she ate butter she would have to share it with me....
I'd like to know where she gets her butter," Mrs. Ladybug mused.
"She was standing on some of Farmer Green's, when I saw her," Daddy
Longlegs explained.
"Did she ask him for it?" Mrs. Ladybug demanded.
"I don't believe she did," he admitted. "I think she just took it."
A wicked gleam came into Mrs. Ladybug's eyes when she learned that.
And she threw up her hands, exclaiming, "She steals! Betsy Butterfly
steals butter! When the field people hear the news they won't think

she's so fine." And then Mrs. Ladybug turned to Daddy Longlegs once
more and demanded whether he knew of anything else that Betsy
Butterfly was in the habit of taking from Farmer Green.
"Eggs!" he replied promptly.
"Eggs!" Mrs. Ladybug repeated after him. "Betsy Butterfly steals butter
and eggs!"
And before Daddy Longlegs could stop her she had hurried away to
spread the news far and wide.

X
THE NIGHT WATCH
LITTLE Mrs. Ladybug stopped everybody she met in the meadow and
related how Betsy Butterfly was taking Farmer Green's butter--and his
eggs, too--without asking his permission.
"She's going to get some of us into trouble," Mrs. Ladybug informed
her neighbors. "Just as likely as not Farmer Green and his wife will
think others are stealing from them. Why, I went to the farmhouse
to-day and asked for a bit of butter. And what do you think? Mrs.
Green pretended not to hear me! I thought it was queer, at the time. But
now I know that she's angry with me. She must have missed some of
her butter; and she thinks I'm the guilty party." Mrs. Ladybug shook her
finger at her neighbors. "We'll have to do something to put a stop to
Betsy Butterfly's thieving," she declared.
Jealous Mrs. Ladybug's story amazed all the field people. They could
scarcely believe that anyone so beautiful and dainty as Betsy Butterfly
would bemean herself by robbing Farmer Green--or anybody else. But
Mrs. Ladybug said that Daddy Longlegs had seen Betsy with her face
buried in Farmer Green's