Mrs. Ladybug soon spied Daddy, coming from the orchard near-by. And since she saw him before he saw her, he had no chance to hide. He was sorry; for he just knew—from the look in her eye— [p. 29] that she was going to ask him a question. And sure enough, she did!
"You're a harvestman," she began, quite out of breath from hurrying. "Why don't you go to work?"
"What can I do?" Daddy inquired with a blank look.
"Do!" she exclaimed. "I should think Farmer Green would be glad to have your help in harvesting his crops. He's mowing his oats now. And there's no one to help him except the hired man—unless you count Johnnie, and he spends most of his time at the swimming-hole."
Daddy Longlegs thanked Mrs. Ladybug politely for her suggestion. But he said that he was not acquainted with Farmer Green. And he disliked working for strangers. And he thought he would spend the rest of the summer making friends with his neighbors.
[p. 30]"Next year," he told her, "I may make some arrangement with Farmer Green to work for him regularly."
But that answer did not satisfy little Mrs. Ladybug in the least.
"You'd be far better off with something steady to do," she insisted. And she said so much that just to get rid of her Daddy Longlegs promised to see Farmer Green at once and offer his services.
He was sorry, as soon as she had gone, that he had agreed to do that. But being a person of his word he never once thought of not keeping his promise, though he wished he had simply put his hand behind his ear and not answered Mrs. Ladybug's question at all.
But it was too late, then, to do that.