"She's a meddling busybody!" he declared. "And it's my opinion that she ought to be put where she'll have to mind her own business."
"Who—me?" called a wheezing voice right in his ear.
Turning, Butterfly Bill saw that it was Jennie Junebug who had spoken to him. She had noticed the crowd from a distance. And she had just arrived, quite out of breath.
[p. 36]Before Betsy Butterfly's cousin Bill could answer, Jennie Junebug actually threatened him.
"If you were talking about me I shall have to knock you down," she declared.
He had heard that Jennie delighted in flying bang into anybody. But he did not know that she indulged in that unladylike trick only after dark.
"Of course I didn't mean you!" he said hastily.
"And I hope you didn't mean my friend Mrs. Ladybug, either," Jennie Junebug added. "For if you did——"
But Butterfly Bill waited to hear no more. Thoroughly frightened, he sought safety in flight. And as he flew away Mrs. Ladybug couldn't help noticing the dust on his wings.
"They're certainly a peculiar lot—that Butterfly family!" she muttered.