Part 10 (2/2)

”I quite agree with you,” said the other. ”In fact, I'm ready to agree to almost anything you say.”

”These Short-horns are a terrible lot!” Kiddie Katydid observed.

”They are, indeed!” exclaimed the polite stranger. ”I wish they'd finish their visit here and leave us in peace.”

”I never want to see another Short-horn as long as I live,” Kiddie Katydid declared.

”Nor I!” echoed the strange gentleman.

And Kiddie Katydid couldn't help thinking what a pleasant person the long-horned stranger was and how gentle were his manners.

”I'd like to know your name!” he cried. ”It's a long time since I have met anybody so agreeable as you are.”

The stranger drew nearer and lowered his voice.

”Don't you know me?” he asked.

Kiddie Katydid stared at him for a moment.

”No!” he said at length. ”To be sure, you do have a familiar look, in a way. But I must say I don't recognize you.”

Then the stranger spoke in a whisper:

”They used to call me 'Leaper the Locust'!”

”Go 'way!” cried Kiddie Katydid. ”_He_ was nothing but a Short-horned Gra.s.shopper. And anyone can see with half an eye that your horns are fully as long as my own.”

”They're not real horns,” said the other sadly. ”That is, they're real only a part of the way.”

And looking more closely, Kiddie Katydid saw that what he said was true.

It was, indeed, Leaper the Locust. And he was greatly changed in more ways than one.

He had lost his old, quarrelsome air; and he had become very meek and mild.

”Don't tell my cousins what I've done!” he begged Kiddie Katydid. ”I don't want them to know who I am.”

Kiddie a.s.sured the poor fellow that he would not betray him. He was sorry for Leaper the Locust.

”You'll be glad when your relations move on, won't you?” he said. ”Then you can take those bits of gra.s.s off your horns and be yourself again.”

Leaper's answer almost took Kiddie Katydid's breath away, for it was a most surprising statement.

”I'm never going to be a Short-horn again!” he declared. ”I shall wear my horns long to the end of my days.”

He kept his word, too. And so earnestly did he try to be like Kiddie Katydid in every way that he even attempted Kiddie's well known _Katy did_ melody. But he never really succeeded at that. Anyone with an ear for music could tell the difference at once.

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