"I promise!" said Freddie Firefly, snatching the fan out of her hands in his haste. "Wait right here!" he cautioned her. And then he leaped into the air and started away.
BANG! He hadn't flown longer than forty-six seconds when Jennie Junebug floored him again.
"I simply couldn't resist hitting you once more!" she said sweetly. "And now, hurry! Or I shall never be able to let you leave me."
Freddie Firefly needed no more urging. Though he was sore in every limb (and he had a great many!) he made his escape quickly.
All the rest of the night he worked hard, trying to find a white clover leaf that exactly matched the one that Jennie Junebug had carried for a fan. But every single clover leaf was different from Jennie's in one way or another. Freddie Firefly had hoped that it would be so. For if he had found one precisely like Jennie Junebug's, he would have had to take it to her, as he had promised.
How long the fat lady waited for him in the meadow, Freddie Firefly never knew. And to tell the truth, he didn't care. He was too happy because he had escaped the fate of his cousin, to bother his head over Jennie Junebug.
XVII
BAD BENJAMIN BAT
For a long time Benjamin Bat had had his eye on Freddie Firefly. And every time the two met, Benjamin stopped to tell Freddie how plump he was growing.
"You're just about ready to—AHEM!" Benjamin remarked when he came upon
Freddie in Farmer Green's dooryard one fine evening.