"I must go home now, thank you!" said Mehitable. And she hurried away without another word.

But Jennie Junebug spoke up at once and said she would be delighted to accompany Mrs. Ladybug.

[p. 21]"Really," Jennie confided to her companion, "it's a good thing to have backs as hard and slippery as yours and mine. For the dust can't stick to us as it does to some."

"There's no excuse for not keeping oneself neat," Mrs. Ladybug said severely. "And I shall give Betsy Butterfly a piece of my mind."

[p. 22]

V

NO JOKER

Much to Mrs. Ladybug's surprise, she did not find Betsy Butterfly in the flower garden.

"It's too bad she's not here," Mrs. Ladybug remarked to her friend Jennie Junebug, who accompanied her. "We'll have to look in the meadow. And it may take a long time to find Betsy there."