in the telling. She made her neighbors wait a bit for every fact, so they would enjoy it to the full. And whenever she stopped anyone and told him about the newcomer, Mrs. Ladybug kept the best part until the last. She always ended her remarks by saying, with a most important air, "His name is Mr. P. Bug. And he comes from Colorado."

That never failed to impress her listeners—which was exactly what Mrs. Ladybug wanted.

Since nobody asked her how she knew the traveler's name, and where he came from, Mrs. Ladybug did not trouble herself to explain that she had read both name and place upon his old-fashioned carpetbag.

There was one thing that puzzled her slightly, when she paused to think about it. How did it happen that the elegant stranger carried a most unfashionable bag?

Mrs. Ladybug soon settled that question to her own satisfaction.

"He's like me!" she decided. "Mr. P. Bug is a hard worker and he doesn't care for show. He's a plain person. No doubt he put on that yellow coat to travel in, because it's his best. But he'll wear overalls, perhaps, if he starts to work in the potato patch—as I suspect he will."

At last, however, Mrs. Ladybug met with a rude shock. She was telling her news to Peppery Polly Bumblebee, one of the workers in the hive ruled by Buster Bumblebee's mother, the well-known Queen. And to Mrs. Ladybug's amazement, when she related the name of the stranger, and the place he came from, Peppery Polly laughed in her face.

"Mr. P. Bug is not from Colorado," said Peppery Polly Bumblebee. "He has never been off this farm."

Well, Mrs. Ladybug was staggered. She gasped. She clung to a leaf to keep from failing.

"I don't believe that!" she cried, as soon as she could speak. "I'll find Mr. Bug himself and learn the truth from him."

VIII
SEEKING THE TRUTH

Mrs. Ladybug was determined to know the truth about Mr. P. Bug, the newcomer. And as soon as she had fully recovered from the rude blow that Peppery Polly Bumblebee dealt her, she set out for Farmer Green's garden and the potato patch.

For some time Mrs. Ladybug flew back and forth above the potato vines. It was not an easy matter to find so small a person as Mr. Bug in so big a field. But she discovered him at last. And she was somewhat surprised to see him still in his elegant yellow coat, with the black stripes. For Mrs. Ladybug had expected him to be hard at work, in overalls.

To be sure, Mr. P. Bug did appear to be busy about something or other. He was so busy that he scarcely so much as glanced at Mrs. Ladybug when she spoke to him, mumbling "Good morning!" in answer to her greeting, but not taking the trouble to doff his cap.

"He's at work anyhow," thought Mrs. Ladybug. "He's helping Farmer Green." Then she alighted on the potato vine where Mr. Bug was clinging.

"Don't you remember me?" she asked.

He shook his head. His mouth seemed to be full of something—Mrs. Ladybug wasn't sure what.

"Don't you recall speaking to me one time?" she persisted.

After swallowing, he answered.

"I can't say I do!"

"I'm the person that told you how to get to this potato patch," Mrs. Ladybug explained. "When you met me in the orchard, on your way from Colorado, you stopped and asked me to direct you to Farmer Green's potato patch."

For a moment or two Mr. Bug seemed puzzled—especially when Mrs. Ladybug mentioned Colorado. But by the time Mrs. Ladybug had finished speaking, he nodded.

"So I did!" he exclaimed. "I had forgotten all about that. Though now that you speak of it, I do remember meeting a very talkative dame dressed in a polka dot. Possibly I spoke to you about my settling in the potato patch for the summer?"

"No!" said Mrs. Ladybug. "But I thought I'd find you here. You seemed in a great hurry to reach this place."

"So I was!" said Mr. P. Bug. "And I'm glad I came. This is the finest potato patch in the whole valley—so I have been told."

"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.

"It can be—it is true," he replied carelessly.

At last Mrs. Ladybug had to believe what she heard.

"Then you're a fraud!" she cried. '"You're a cheat! For I read on your carpetbag, when we met in the orchard, 'P. Bug. Colorado.'"

"Oh!" said Mr. Bug with a smile. "Oh! So that's where you got your odd notion. I wondered how you happened to make such a mistake."

"A perfectly natural mistake, I'm sure!" Mrs. Ladybug exclaimed indignantly.

"Well, I dare say it is," he admitted. "But you see, that's not my carpetbag. At least, I didn't get it new. It belonged to my great-great-great-grandfather. Indeed, I'm not sure he wasn't even still greater than I've said. He lived in Colorado once—so I've been told. But I was born and raised on this farm."

"If all this is true," said Mrs. Ladybug, "what were you doing with that carpetbag? And why did you ask me the way to this potato patch?"

"I'm in a hurry to get to work," Mr. Bug remarked. "I'll answer just this once. When we met in the orchard I had been away on a little vacation. And Farmer Green's potato patch—so I learned—had been moved since last year."

"Dear me!" Mrs. Ladybug wailed. "People will laugh at me for having made such a serious mistake."

But Mr. P. Bug didn't say anything about that.

"Good-by!" he grunted. And he crawled under a leaf, out of sight.

For once in her life Mrs. Ladybug wasn't eager to talk to her neighbors. On the contrary, she seemed to avoid them. But Peppery Polly Bumblebee called on her and asked her if she had seen the handsome stranger, Mr. P. Bug.

"Yes!" said Mrs. Ladybug. "I've talked with him. And it's true that he has always lived here. There was a slight mistake about his carpetbag. It belonged to one of his ancestors. And since it bears his ancestor's name and address, naturally I thought they both belonged to this Mr. Bug."

Peppery Polly laughed.

"If you don't believe what I tell you, you can ask him yourself!" Mrs. Ladybug snapped. "He's at work over in the potato patch, helping