With a shout of joy he gripped its horn handle and pulled it out.
"Old Daddy Longlegs knew what he was about after all!" he shouted.
And Johnnie Green never guessed that his finding his jackknife was nothing but an accident. Daddy had never even seen it. And if he had, he wouldn't have known what it was.
But after that Johnnie was more convinced than ever that Daddy Longlegs had a strange power.
XXII
WHY DADDY WAS CHANGED
It was after his adventure with Johnnie Green that Daddy Longlegs' neighbors first noticed something queer about him.
They knew that he was not the same. But strangely enough, no two of them could agree as to what had changed him. Chirpy Cricket said that he thought that Daddy was wearing a new coat, for his coat-tails seemed to flap differently when he walked. Buster Bumblebee claimed that Daddy had bought himself a new hat which tipped at an unusual angle. And little Mrs. Ladybug insisted that Daddy's odd look was due to nothing[p. 106] more or less than some new checked trousers. She remembered (she said) that he had always worn striped ones before.