The Tale of Freddie Firefly | Page 5

WHY FUSS ABOUT A BITE, IF IT MAKES SOMEBODY ELSE
HAPPY?

"I don't care for that one at all," Freddie Firefly announced. And he
turned then to Kiddie Katydid's banner, which he spelled out with a
good deal of trouble, because it was not so well printed.
This banner made the following announcement:
HONEST TO GOODNESS, I DIDN'T DO IT!
"Why, I don't know what that's all about!" Freddie exclaimed
impatiently. "Let me see the third one!" So he looked next at the banner
of Mehitable Moth, which seemed to please him better, as he read it
aloud:
DON'T WORRY, MRS. GREEN! I'LL CALL AT THE FARMHOUSE
BEFORE FALL.
"That's better!" cried Freddie Firefly. "I'll carry this banner with a great
deal of pleasure. And I can call at the farmhouse to-night--if Farmer
Green's family doesn't go to bed too early."
But there was one difficulty about Freddie's plan. Mehitable Moth did
not like to have her banner, which she had made with great pains, taken
away from her like that. And she drew Chirpy Cricket to one side and
began talking to him in an undertone.
Soon he turned again to Freddie Firefly, saying, "She thinks that if
you're going to carry her banner in the procession you ought to let her
take your light."
"Oh, I can't do that!" Freddie exclaimed quickly. "I wouldn't THINK of
doing that!"
"It would be only fair, it seems to me," Chirpy Cricket observed.
"Well, I won't do it, anyhow," Freddie declared. "I'd stay out of the
procession first. And so would all my relations, too."
Chirpy Cricket began to look worried. And it was no wonder. For he
knew he could have no torchlight procession without the Firefly family.
But pretty soon he cheered up noticeably.
"I know what you can do!" he announced. "You can ride on top of
Mehitable Moth's banner and keep flashing your light on it!"

VII
THE TORCHLIGHT PARADE
At last the torchlight procession was about to begin its march. Chirpy
Cricket took his place at its head, as leader. And close behind him came
Mehitable Moth, gaily bearing her banner aloft, with Freddie Firefly

perched on top of it, and flashing his greenish-white light so that its
rays fell full upon the words, which told Farmer Green's wife not to
worry, because Mehitable Moth agreed to pay her a call before cold
weather set in.
It would be hard to say which was the prouder--the person under the
banner or the one on top of it. Anyhow, Chirpy Cricket was prouder
than both of them together, because his torchlight procession promised
to be a great success.
"Are you ready?" he cried, looking back at the marchers, who stretched
behind him in a long line beside the stone wall.
Everybody shouted "Aye, aye, sir!" So Chirpy Cricket pranced away
across the meadow, wearing a broad smile. Probably he had never
before looked quite so cheerful.
But he had not gone far before something happened that drove the
smile from his face, replacing it with a dark frown. He had glanced
behind him, because he wanted--quite naturally--to look at that long
line of lights twinkling through the night. And to his distress he saw
that Freddie Firefly's relations were flying helter-skelter in all
directions. They had bolted out of the line and were dancing off across
the meadow after a fashion that no torchlight procession ought to
follow.
"Stop! Stop!" Chirpy Cricket called.
Even as he spoke, as many as a dozen lights flashed past him and went
flittering on across the fields.
Really, the only ones besides Chirpy that had stayed in the line as they
should were Mehitable Moth, who still carried her banner right behind
him, and Freddie Firefly, who sat on top of the banner.
And even Freddie Firefly was becoming restless. When he saw his
brothers and cousins go dancing off in the dark he couldn't help
wanting to dance too.
"You'd better hurry!" he said to Chirpy Cricket. "Those fellows--" he
pointed to the dozen that had just passed them--"those fellows have got
ahead of you. And it looks to me very much as if you were out of line."
Chirpy Cricket stared at Freddie Firefly in astonishment.
"Do you think so?" he exclaimed. "I don't see how it happened."
"Neither do I!" Freddie Firefly said. "But if I'm to stay in the procession
I certainly can't sit on this banner any longer. And besides, if I'm going

to call on Farmer Green's wife I shall have to travel faster than we're
moving now."
Since they were then standing stock-still in the meadow, there was a
good deal of truth in what Freddie Firefly said.
"But you don't need to call on Mrs. Green!" Chirpy Cricket cried.
"That's not your banner, you know.