Part 7 (1/2)
And then she fixed Miss Junebug with her eye and spoke to her severely.
”Don't you think you ought--” she began.
And then Jennie Junebug b.u.mped into her, sending Mrs. Ladybug sprawling.
”Don't I think I ought to frolic with you?” Jennie cried. ”Certainly I do.”
Mrs. Ladybug managed to rise off the ground.
”Won't you please--” she started to say.
”Won't I please knock you down? Of course I will!” Jennie Junebug exclaimed. And thereupon she struck Mrs. Ladybug again.
Poor Mrs. Ladybug was much shaken. In her fall she had dropped her umbrella, and her handkerchief too. But she didn't stop to pick them up.
She scrambled to her feet and rose into the air again, angrier than she had ever been before in all her life.
”I'll thank you--” she spluttered.
”You'll thank me if I'll do that again, eh?” said Jennie Junebug, interrupting her rudely. ”Very well! Here goes!” This time she gave Mrs.
Ladybug a terrific blow. She dropped upon the gra.s.s, where she clung to a blade and swayed up and down for a few moments, dizzy and trembling.
And she was gasping so hard, in order to get her breath, that she couldn't speak.
Watching her, Jennie Junebug shrieked with laughter. Then, seeing Freddie Firefly's light flas.h.i.+ng in the meadow, Miss Junebug hurried away.
XV
ENOUGH!
”SUCH impudence!” Mrs. Ladybug gasped, as soon as she could speak. ”That terrible Jennie Junebug didn't care whether I ever got my breath or not.”
After bowling Mrs. Ladybug over three times, Miss Junebug had flown away, leaving poor little Mrs. Ladybug clinging to a blade of gra.s.s and wondering if she would be able to move again.
Mrs. Ladybug had attempted to take Jennie Junebug to task. She had intended to berate Jennie for devouring the leaves of Farmer Green's trees and to order her to stop such damage at once. But Jennie Junebug hadn't allowed her to say much. In her playful way she had knocked the breath out of Mrs. Ladybug.
”I must try some other plan,” thought Mrs. Ladybug. ”And I'll have to have help.” So she sent Miss Moth over to the meadow, to find Freddie Firefly and ask him if he wouldn't come to the orchard because Mrs.
Ladybug wanted to talk with him.
He came. He came at once; for he saw Jennie Junebug looking for him. And he was only too glad to escape her attentions. He found her too rough to suit him.
Mrs. Ladybug quickly explained her difficulty.
”What shall I do?” she asked him.
”I don't know,” he answered. ”I can't do a thing with Jennie Junebug.
She knocks me down whenever I meet her. She annoys me.”