"You must have seen a good many others on your journey from Colorado," Mrs. Ladybug ventured. "It's a long way from there to here, I suppose."
"I suppose it is," Mr. P. Bug murmured. He seemed to be a bit impatient, as if he were in haste to return to his work and didn't care to talk any longer.
"I suppose you were weeks on the road," Mrs. Ladybug went on. "Are you going back to Colorado after you've finished helping Farmer Green with the potato crop?"
"Colorado!" he blurted. "I don't know where that place is. I've never been there in all my life."
IX
THAT CARPETBAG
Mr. P. Bug's statement amazed Mrs. Ladybug. He said he had never been in Colorado. More than that, he declared he didn't even know where the place was.
Now, Peppery Polly Bumblebee had told Mrs. Ladybug that Mr. P. Bug was no stranger in Pleasant Valley. But Mrs. Ladybug had not believed what she said. Even hearing Mr. Bug's own words, Mrs. Ladybug couldn't help doubting them.
"Can it be true—" she asked him—"can it be true that you've never been off this farm?"
Mr. Bug quite plainly wished that she would go away and stop bothering him.