XIV
BUMPS
Some busybody went straight to Jennie Junebug and told her what Mrs. Ladybug had said.
"Mrs. Ladybug is going to have a talk with you," this meddling person told the fat and frolicsome Jennie. "She wants you to stop eating leaves. She says you are doing your best—or your worst—to hurt the trees that she is trying to save. She claims that you are no friend of Farmer Green's. She—"
Jennie Junebug broke in upon her companion with a loud laugh.
"I'd like to have Mrs. Ladybug try to speak to me," she chuckled. "If she does, I'll have fun with her. I'll knock her over. I'll send her spinning."
Jennie's friend seemed somewhat alarmed at that.
"Now, be careful!" she begged the fat lady. "Don't forget that Mrs. Ladybug is a little creature! You'll injure her if you're too rough with her."
"Ho! ho!" laughed Jennie Junebug, and also, "Ha! ha!" She had to stop and hold her sides, while she rocked back and forth. "This is a great joke!" Jennie cried. "Imagine Mrs. Ladybug trying to talk with me! Why, she'll be lucky if she can get her breath after I've flown into her once."
"Dear me!" said the tale-bearer. "I wish I hadn't mentioned this matter to you. Of course, everybody knows that Mrs. Ladybug talks too much. And I thought maybe you'd enjoy meeting her and making her keep still. But I had no idea you would do her any harm."
"Bless you!" cried Jennie Junebug. "I wouldn't harm a hair of her head!" And she roared with laughter, for she had made a joke. You see, Mrs. Ladybug had no hair. She was quite bald.