XIX
THE DINNER BELL
There was great excitement in Farmer Green's orchard. The neighbors came a-flying and a-running and a-crawling from all directions. And little Mrs. Ladybug was the cause of the hurly-burly. She had appeared with a strange, flaring object hanging by a cord from her waist—if she could be said to have a waist. The queer, dangling thing had a handle at its upper end. And when Mrs. Ladybug moved a jingling, jangling sound might have been heard.
In no time at all a crowd had gathered around her. And some of the more curious and ill-bred pointed at whatever it was that puzzled them.
"What's that?" they asked Mrs. Ladybug.
Strange to say, she seemed pleased with the stir that she had made.
"It's a dinner bell," she explained.
They gazed at it in wonder, until at last somebody spoke up and demanded, "What's it for?"
"To give the alarm with!" she replied.
"What alarm?" chimed a chorus of voices, high and low.