The Tale of Freddie Firefly
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Arthur Scott Bailey >> The Tale of Freddie Firefly
XVII
BAD BENJAMIN BAT
For a long time Benjamin Bat had had his eye on Freddie Firefly. And
every time the two met, Benjamin stopped to tell Freddie how plump he
was growing.
"You're just about ready to--AHEM!" Benjamin remarked when he came upon
Freddie in Farmer Green's dooryard one fine evening.
"What did you say?" Freddie inquired.
"Never mind!" Benjamin Bat answered. "I was only talking to myself. It's
a habit I have."
"You're a queer one!" Freddie Firefly exclaimed. "But it's no wonder.
People say that you've hung upside down so much that the inside of your
head is all topsy-turvy."
"When he heard that remark Benjamin Bat promptly flew into a rage.
"You'd better be careful!" he warned Freddie. "I don't allow anybody to
talk to me like that."
"Oh! You mustn't mind what I just said," Freddie Firefly replied. "I was
only talking to myself--AHEM AHEM!"
But strange to say, Freddie's answer failed to please Benjamin.
"Your remark was very disagreeable, anyhow," he declared.
"Well--so was yours," Freddie retorted stoutly.
"How can you say that?" Benjamin Bat inquired with a sly look. "I didn't
finish it, did I?"
"No!" replied Freddie. "But you can't fool me. I know what you meant, as
well as you do."
And straightway Benjamin Bat looked most uncomfortable, because he had
been thinking that Freddie Firefly HAD BECOME PLUMP ENOUGH TO EAT.
Indeed, there was only one thing that kept Benjamin from devouring
Freddie Firefly right then and there. And that was Freddie's flashing
light. Yes! Benjamin Bat was afraid that if he touched Freddie Firefly
he would get burned.
Once a forest fire broke out while Benjamin was asleep in the woods. And
he didn't wake up until the tree in which he was hanging by his heels
had begun to blaze. Luckily he escaped with his life. But the flames
singed the tips of his wings and gave him such a fright that ever
afterward he feared a fire or a light of any kind. And now he did wish
that Freddie Firefly would put out his light, just for a short time. So
he said, after a few moments:
"Don't you think you ought to stop flashing your light?"
"Do you mean--" asked Freddie--"do you mean that I ought to keep it
glaring steadily all the time?"
"Oh, no!" Benjamin Bat replied hurriedly. "I mean that you ought to put
it out for a while."
"Why should I do that?" Freddie Firefly wanted to know.
"To please Farmer Green, of course," Benjamin replied glibly. "Don't you
know that a light always draws mosquitoes? And it can't be very pleasant
for Farmer Green to have half the mosquitoes in the neighborhood
crowding into his dooryard."
"What would be the use of my putting out my light, when all my relations
are flashing theirs?" Freddie asked.
"Well, maybe they'd follow your example," Benjamin Bat suggested. "And
just think what a good turn you'd be doing Farmer Green!"
XVIII
PLEASING FARMER GREEN
Now, when Benjamin Bat spoke of his doing Farmer Green a good turn,
Freddie Firefly looked puzzled.
"What has Farmer Green ever done for me?" he inquired.
"What has he done?" Benjamin cried. "Hasn't he furnished you a fine
meadow in which to dance at night? And doesn't he let you come here in
his dooryard whenever you please? I should think THAT was something to
be thankful for!"
"Now that you speak of it, I don't know but that you're right," Freddie
Firefly admitted, "though I never thought of such a thing before." And
not wishing to be ungrateful to Farmer Green, he promptly put out his
light.
Of course, that was just what Benjamin was waiting for. And since he
could see perfectly in the dark, without a moment's warning he rushed
straight at Freddie Firefly, with his mouth wide open.
If Freddie hadn't happened to flash his light just at that moment he
would never have flashed it again.
As soon as Benjamin Bat saw the greenish-white gleam he was so afraid of
getting burned--not knowing that Freddie's light could not harm him--he
was so afraid that he swerved sharply to one side and zigzagged about
the yard for a few seconds.
But he soon returned to speak to Freddie Firefly once more.
"You made a good beginning," he told Freddie. "But you turned your light
on again too quickly. Just keep dark until I tell you to shine, and with
a little practice you'll be able to do the trick very well. And Farmer
Green will certainly be pleased. Now, just try it again!"
But Freddie Firefly could not forget how terrible Benjamin had looked a
few moments before. And he began to suspect that Benjamin Bat was
playing a trick of his own.
"It seems to me," said Freddie, "that you are a little too anxious about
Farmer Green."
"Oh! no, indeed!" Benjamin Bat declared. "Farmer Green is a fine man.
He's a great friend of mine. He furnishes me a whole tree near the
swamp, in which I sleep every day. If you passed that way any time
between dawn and sunset you could see me hanging by my heels from one of
the branches."
"Just where is your tree?" Freddie Firefly inquired.
Having no idea that Freddie could do him the slightest harm, Benjamin
Bat explained that his special, favorite tree was a great cedar, which
stood close to the old bridge that crossed Black Creek, at the lower end
of the swamp.
"I know where that is; and I'll go over there to-morrow and take a look
at you," Freddie Firefly remarked.
"Do!" said Benjamin Bat.
"And I'll bring Solomon Owl with me," Freddie added. "For I know he'd
like to see you, too."
"Don't!" cried Benjamin Bat. "Oh, don't do that!"
"What's the matter?" Freddie Firefly asked Benjamin Bat. "Why don't you
want me to fetch Solomon Owl to your tree, to see you hanging by your
heels when you're fast asleep?"
"Solomon Owl is no friend of mine," Benjamin Bat explained with a
shudder. "He'd eat me in a minute, if he could catch me."
XIX
BENJAMIN FEELS GUILTY
Freddie Firefly and Benjamin Bat faced each other in Farmer Green's dark
dooryard.
"Yes!" Benjamin Bat's thin voice quavered. "Don't EVER bring Solomon Owl
to my tree in the daytime. Although he doesn't see so well when it's
light as he does at night, he could catch me without much trouble when I
was asleep. And he would eat me in a minute--or only half a minute,
maybe."
"Well, wouldn't you like that?" Freddie Firefly inquired, as if he were
greatly surprised.
"Certainly not!" said Benjamin Bat. "You talk like a--AHEM!"
"Perhaps I do," Freddie Firefly retorted. "But I should think it would
be just as jolly for you to be eaten by Solomon Owl as it would be for
me to be eaten by you."
Benjamin started violently.
"What in the world ever put such a strange idea into your head?"
Benjamin Bat cried. He was greatly astonished, for he had not supposed
that Freddie Firefly suspected exactly what was in his mind.
"You put that idea into my head yourself," Freddie Firefly said very
sternly.
And the moment Benjamin Bat heard that, he felt very sheepish. But
unlike most people who feel ashamed, he did not hang his head. Strangely
enough, Benjamin Bat was never so proud as when his head hung lower than
his heels. And he had a habit, when he felt guilty or uncomfortable, of
RAISING his head, instead of dropping it. So now he lifted his head very
high.
And by that tell-tale sign Freddie Firefly knew at once that Benjamin
Bat would have flushed with dismay, had he only known how.
"You're a rascal!" Freddie cried fiercely, flashing his light again and
again in Benjamin Bat's eyes, until that gentleman blinked so fast that
it seemed as if his eyes must be in danger of turning inside out.
"You'd better be off!" Freddie Firefly shouted. "And if you ever come to
me again, coaxing me to put out my light--so you can eat me--I'll
certainly bring Solomon Owl to your tree when you're asleep there."
Still Benjamin Bat made no move. Yet he wanted to go away because he was
in terror of being burned by Freddie Firefly's light. But he did not
dare turn his back upon Freddie Firefly and his light and fly away. And
he began to be sorry that he had never learned to fly backwards.
"Please--" Benjamin Bat stammered at last--"please do me a favor. I'm
not feeling very well. I'm afraid I'm going to be ill. Maybe you'll be
good enough to go and ask my friend Farmer Green to step outside his
house a moment. Just tell him I'm in trouble," he whined.
"Trouble!" Freddie Firefly sneered, for he knew well enough--by this
time--that Benjamin Bat was scared, though he couldn't quite guess the
reason for Benjamin's fright. "You'll be in worse trouble if I show
Solomon Owl where you sleep in the daytime."
"Stand back!" Benjamin Bat shrieked suddenly. "You'll singe my wings if
you're not careful!"
Then Freddie Firefly knew exactly what Benjamin feared. And he was so
amused that he couldn't help taking a turn around the dooryard, to dance
and laugh and shout.
And when he came back to the place where he had left Benjamin Bat, that
odd gentleman had vanished.
The terrified Benjamin had floundered away toward the swamp. And never,
afterward, did he have a word to say to Freddie Firefly.
But whenever Freddie Firefly caught sight of Benjamin Bat's dark shape,
flitting in a zigzag path across the moon, he always cried out in a loud
voice:
"Look out, Benjamin Bat! Mr. Moon will singe your wings if you're not
careful."
XX
MRS. LADYBUG'S ADVICE
Finding himself face to face with Mrs. Ladybug one night in Farmer
Green's meadow, Freddie Firefly noticed, even before she spoke, that the
little lady was not in a cheerful mood. In fact, she frowned at him
darkly and pointed one of her knitting needles straight at him as she
began to speak.
"You're terribly careless with that light of yours," she said. "People
are always warning me that my house is on fire and telling me that I'd
better hurry home. Now--" she added--"now I think I've discovered the
reason why my friends are forever worrying about fire. No doubt when
they give me such advice they have seen you prowling around my house
with that light of yours; and they think that if you haven't already set
my house on fire, you're just a-going to."
When Freddie Firefly saw that Mrs. Ladybug was making Benjamin Bat's
mistake of thinking that his light could start a blaze, he had to smile.
"Nonsense!" he cried. "I'm always very careful, Mrs. Ladybug, when I'm
near your house. You know that I wouldn't want your charming children to
burn up."
And now Mrs. Ladybug pointed her other knitting needle at Freddie.
"Well, if you're not careless, you're silly, anyhow," she snapped. "I
wouldn't object so much to your light if only you'd put it to some good
use. But as long as I've known you--and that's several weeks--I've never
seen you do anything but caper about the meadow and dance." And then
Mrs. Ladybug began to knit furiously, as if to show Freddie Firefly that
she was never idle, even if she did spend a good deal of time away from
home. "Do you intend always to fritter your nights away as you do now?"
she inquired.
"What else could I do? I should like to know--" Freddie began.
"Why not use your light in some kind of work?" Mrs. Ladybug asked him.
"What work, I should like to know--" Freddie said. And since Mrs.
Ladybug did not at once answer him, he added: "I don't believe you can
suggest anything--can you?"
"Oh, yes, I can!" she declared quickly. "I was thinking. That's why I
didn't reply sooner. Probably you don't know that I have helped many
youngsters to begin to work. For instance, it was I that told Daddy
Longlegs to help Farmer Green with his harvesting." Little Mrs. Ladybug
felt so proud of herself that she dropped a stitch without noticing it.
"Daddy Longlegs! HE'S not young!" Freddie Firefly exclaimed.
"Oh! yes, he is! He's not so old as you think," Mrs. Ladybug replied.
"He's just about your age. And if he can work, you certainly can."
"But I didn't know that Daddy Longlegs was working for Farmer Green,"
Freddie Firefly said.
"He tried to, one day. But the wind blew too hard. ... It wasn't really
Daddy's fault," Mrs. Ladybug explained. "And you ought not to attempt to
work on windy nights, either," she went on. "For your light might go
out, and then there'd be a terrible accident."
XXI
ALL ABOUT TRAINS
"What do you mean?" Freddie Firefly asked little Mrs. Ladybug. "What
accident could happen if the wind blew out my light?" And he laughed
very hard, because he knew that no gale was strong enough even to dim
his greenish-white gleams.
"Why," replied Mrs. Ladybug, "the train would strike you and be wrecked.
You see," she continued, "I have everything planned for you. You're
going to spend your nights on the railroad tracks, signalling the
trains."
Well, Freddie Firefly rather liked Mrs. Ladybug's idea. And though he
knew that she was mistaken about some things, he began to think that
perhaps she was quite wise, after all.
"Aren't you afraid I might set fire to the trains?" he inquired slyly.
"No, indeed!" she answered. "You'd stop them, you know, before they ran
over you."
"But I don't know how to make a train stop," he objected. "I've never
worked on a railroad in all my life."
"Why, it's simple enough," said little Mrs. Ladybug. "When a train came
along you would stand on the track right in front of it and wave your
light." And while she smiled at Freddie Firefly as if to say, "You see
how easy it is," she dropped six more stitches out of her knitting--and
never found them, either.
Freddie Firefly, however, did not smile at all. On the contrary, he
looked somewhat worried.
"Are you sure it's safe?" he asked her. "If the train failed to stop,
with me on the track in front of it--"
"Don't worry about that!" cried little Mrs. Ladybug. "You'll never
amount to anything if you worry. And if you don't wish to fritter away
your time dancing in this meadow, you'll take my advice and begin to
work at once."
"I'll think about the matter," said Freddie Firefly. And then he added
somewhat doubtfully: "It's a long way to the railroad."
"Pooh!" Mrs. Ladybug exclaimed. "Old Mr. Crow often visits it. And if he
can fly that far, at his age, a youngster like you ought not to mind the
trip."
"Perhaps you know best," Freddie Firefly told Mrs. Ladybug at last.
"I'll take your advice just this once, and I'll see how I like the work.
But there's another question I'd like to ask you: What will the trains
do after they stop?"
While laughing over Freddie's question Mrs. Ladybug shook so hard that
she unravelled sixteen rows of her knitting before she could stop.
"Bless you!" she cried, as soon as she could speak. "I don't know what
the trains will do. That's their affair--not yours nor mine. Everybody's
aware that trains are made for two purposes--to start and to stop. But I
never should think of being so rude as to ask them WHY, or WHAT, or
WHEN, or WHERE."
So Freddie Firefly thanked Mrs. Ladybug most politely. He was sure, now,
that she was one of the wisest persons in the whole valley. No doubt, he
thought, she knew almost as much as old Mr. Crow, or even Solomon Owl.
And he wished he knew half what she did.
"I'll start for the railroad track at once," Freddie told Mrs. Ladybug.
And waving his cap at her, while she waved her knitting at him, he set
forth towards the village, the lights of which twinkled dimly in the
distance.
XXII
WORK ON THE RAILROAD
Freddie Firefly did not intend to go into the village itself. He
expected to travel only as far as the railroad tracks, where they curved
around a bend in the river before stretching straight away towards the
town.
Though he spent a much longer time in making the journey than old Mr.
Crow ever took, Freddie at last reached the railroad, where he promptly
sat himself down between the rails to wait for a train. And there
Freddie Firefly stayed all alone, in the dark, with nothing to keep from
feeling forlorn except the croaking of a band of noisy frogs in a pool
near-by.
After a while Freddie began to grow so weary of his new task that he
wished he had never taken Mrs. Ladybug's advice.
"I don't believe I like working," he said with a sigh, as he thought of
the good time his family was having at that very moment, dancing in
Farmer Green's meadow.
And then all at once he heard a faint whistle, far off down the valley.
And a little later a low rumble caught his ear--a rumble which grew
louder and louder until at last it turned into a roar, just as a stream
of light shot around the curve in the track ahead of him, which followed
the bend of the river.
Freddie Firefly was startled. He couldn't think what made that long lane
of light. And he was about to jump into the bushes and hide when he saw
all at once that it was exactly what he had been waiting for.
"It's a train!" he cried aloud. And he began flashing his light bravely
while he swayed from side to side, for Mrs. Ladybug had told him that he
must swing his light--if he expected to stop the train.
And all the while the train tore on towards Freddie Firefly. To his
great surprise it showed not the slightest sign of stopping. And in
spite of what Mrs. Ladybug had said, Freddie Firefly began to be afraid
that it wasn't going to pause at all.
He soon saw that if he did not do something quickly the train would run
over him. But by the time he had made up his mind to jump off the track,
out of harm's way, it was too late for him to escape in that fashion.
So Freddie Firefly crawled hurriedly into a chink beneath the railroad
tie on which he had been sitting. And with a horrible scream the train
thundered over him. To Freddie's dismay it paid no heed to his flashing
light, though he thought it must surely have seen that signal.
Those were terrible moments for Freddie Firefly, while the train was
passing above him. The frightful noise, the trembling of the ground, the
rush of the air--all those things made him wonder whether he could ever
reach home again, alive and unharmed. He was even more scared than he
had been when he found himself in the power of that dreadful creature,
Jennie Junebug.
XXIII
WHY FREDDIE WAS GLAD
Even after the train had rushed shrieking into the village two miles
away, and the echoes had grown still, Freddie Firefly cowered in his
hiding-place on the railroad track, crouched in the chink beneath one of
the ties.
At last he crept out, trembling in every limb. But in spite of his
terror he skipped off the track very spryly.
Safe at one side of the rails, which gleamed in the moonlight, Freddie
felt himself all over, to make sure that he had broken no bones.
"I seem to be unhurt," he mused. "But never, never again will I listen
to anything that Mrs. Ladybug says."
And having made himself that solemn promise, he hurried away toward
Farmer Green's meadow, which he reached just before dawn.
As he crossed the fields he thought that he smelled smoke. But he
couldn't see a blaze anywhere. And when he came to the meadow he was so
eager to dance that he forgot to ask anybody if there had been a fire.
Luckily he arrived in time to take part in the last dance of the night.
And after the dance was over he astonished all his family with the
strange tale that he told them.
Before going to their homes all Freddie's relations gathered around him
to listen to his story of the night's adventure. And there were many
"Ohs" and "Ahs" when he reached the point where the train ran over him.
"You're lucky you didn't have a leg cut off," his favorite cousin
remarked, "though that wouldn't have been so bad as losing a wing."
Freddie Firefly shuddered.
"Anyway, you're better off than Mrs. Ladybug is," somebody piped up.
"Why, what's happened to her?" Freddie Firefly inquired.
"Haven't you heard?" several of his cousins cried.
"No! no!" he shouted.
"Her house caught fire to-night, while she was away from home," they
explained.
"I thought I smelled smoke as I was coming back from the railroad,"
Freddie observed. And then a sad picture came into his mind.
"And Mrs. Lady bug's children--" he began breathlessly.
"Oh! The neighbors saved them," his favorite cousin said. "They're only
slightly scorched. But their ma's house is ruined."
Then, to everybody's great surprise, Freddie Firefly began to dance up
and down and sing with joy.
"Oh, I'm so glad! Oh, I'm so glad!" he chanted over and over again.
His relations could scarcely believe that he was quite himself.
"His fright on the railroad must have injured his mind," they said to
one another. "Or perhaps the train ran over his head when he didn't know
it." They could think of no other reason for Freddie's queer actions.
Always before he had seemed too kind-hearted to rejoice over another
person's ill luck.
"What do you mean?" three hundred voices shouted. "Why are you glad?"
"I'm glad I tried to stop the train," Freddie Firefly answered, "because
now Mrs. Ladybug can't say that I set her house on fire. She knows that
I was working on the railroad to-night. And nobody can be in two places
at the same time."
THE END.