“They’ll do just as much damage as if they had bayonets,” remarked Farmer Landsdowne.
“Do be cautious in approaching such deadly foes,” said Sahwah in a tone of mock anxiety, as Migwan came along with the sprayer, “take careful aim, and don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.”
“I’ll spray you in a minute if you don’t keep still,” said Migwan.
“What must it feel like to be a weevil,” said Gladys, musingly, “and be hunted down remorselessly wherever you went?”
“Gladys has gone over to the side of the enemy,” said Sahwah, teasingly. “There is the subject for your next book, Migwan, ‘Won by a Weevil’, by the author of ‘Enthralled by a Thrip’! It must have been weevils Tennyson meant when he wrote ‘The Lotus Eaters.’”
“Battle over?” asked Hinpoha, as Migwan laid down the sprayer. “Then let’s celebrate the victory. Cheer the bean crop.” To the tune of “We will, We will Cheer,” they sang,
“Weevil, weevil, weevil, weevil,
Weevil cheer our bean crop,
Weevil, weevil, weevil, weevil,
Weevil cheer our bean crop,
Weevil cheer our bean crop,
Weevil cheer our bean crop,
Weevil cheer our bean crop, O!”
“Don’t crow too soon,” said Farmer Landsdowne, picking up his sprayer preparatory to taking his departure, “there may be twice as many on to-morrow.”
“I flatly refuse to worry about to-morrow,” said Nyoda, “‘sufficient unto the day is the weevil thereof!’”
Calvin Smalley, working in the vegetable patch in front of the Red House, heard that cheer and paused in his work to look over at the other garden. He was wondering what was so funny about gardening. “I wish,” he sighed, as he turned back to his endless task, “that those girls were my sisters!”