Part 8 (1/2)
”It's bad enough to look somewhat like Leaper the Locust, without being tagged with the name of Gra.s.shopper, along with him,” Kiddie Katydid spluttered.
”Honestly, I'm tempted to move away from this neighborhood,” Leaper the Locust began to tell everyone he met. ”If that chap would only trim his horns to the proper length I wouldn't mind it so much. But he's actually proud of them. He's always waving them over his head, so people will notice them.”
They both declared--Kiddie Katydid and Leaper the Locust--that they couldn't abide the name ”Gra.s.shopper.” And they took pains to warn people in the neighborhood that they wouldn't answer to that name, no matter how loudly anyone might shout it at them.
After that a few of their neighbors took great delight in crying ”Gra.s.shopper! Gra.s.shopper!” whenever one of the two happened to be within hearing. But no matter which of them it might be--whether Leaper the Locust or Kiddie Katydid--he pretended not to hear, and went right on eating.
But at last something happened that made both those jumpy gentlemen change their minds. From not wanting to be called Gra.s.shoppers, they decided suddenly that they liked the name. And each claimed that the other had no right to it.
This odd state of affairs arose when they learned that a stranger had come into the valley bearing a message marked ”For Mr. Gra.s.shopper.”
”That's for me!” Kiddie Katydid cried, as soon as he heard the news.
”You're mistaken!” Leaper the Locust snapped. ”The message is clearly intended for me. And I shan't let anybody else open it.”
XIX
A QUARREL
Kiddie Katydid and Leaper the Locust quarreled so loudly that they soon drew a crowd around them.
”That message for 'Mr. Gra.s.shopper' is certainly meant for me,” Kiddie insisted. ”You know yourself how you have objected to being called by the name of 'Gra.s.shopper.' Why, only last night you refused to stop when Freddie Firefly shouted it after you.”
”And you--” cried Leaper the Locust--”you paid no attention when Chirpy Cricket went up to you just as the moon rose this evening and said, 'How-dy do, Mr. Gra.s.shopper!' right in your ear. You have no right to open the message. And I promise you that I shall make trouble for you if you don't mind your own affairs.”
”Well, well--what's all this row about, anyhow?” asked a strange voice.
It was a newcomer in Pleasant Valley who had just spoken. He elbowed his way briskly through the throng until he reached the center of it, where Kiddie and Leaper the Locust faced each other angrily. People noticed that the stranger looked as if he had travelled a long distance. And he had a mail-pouch slung over his back. Furthermore, he was enough like Kiddie and Leaper to be a cousin of either one of them.
A person couldn't see his horns, on account of the hat that he wore.
When this traveller asked about the dispute, everybody hastened to explain the quarrel to him.
He listened carefully, and when he had heard the whole story he said:
”This message--do you know where it is? Do you know who has it now?”
”No!” Leaper the Locust cried, while Kiddie Katydid echoed the word.
”Ah! I thought not!” said the stranger, ”I thought not, because I have it in this mail-bag. And now I must confess that I'm puzzled myself; for I don't know which one it's intended for.” And he pulled off his hat and began fanning himself with it.
It was perfectly plain to everyone that he was sadly perplexed.
Then Leaper the Locust gave a great shout.
”You're a Short-horn!” he exclaimed. ”It can't be that you would have a message for a person with horns like _his_!” He pointed a scornful finger at poor Kiddie Katydid.
One glance at the stranger's head--now that he had removed his hat--told everybody that Leaper the Locust was not mistaken.