The Tale of Daddy Longlegs Part 3

VII

TRYING TO HELP

IT was true that Farmer Green had almost more work than he could do just then, even with the aid of the hired man and Johnnie. And he often wished that he might find somebody else to help him.

"I'd hire anybody I could find that had two legs," he remarked to his wife as he started away from the house after finis.h.i.+ng his dinner. "I want to get the oats harvested before there's a rain. And I don't like the looks of the sky to-day."

Now, Daddy Longlegs reached the farmhouse just in time to hear what Farmer Green said. And he spoke up at once--as loudly as he could.

"I'd be willing to work for you," he said. "I'm a harvestman. And you ought to be glad to hire me, for I have eight legs instead of only two."

Perhaps Daddy's voice was too thin and high for Farmer Green to hear.

Anyhow, he paid not the slightest heed to Daddy's offer, but strode off across the farmyard while his caller cried "Stop! Please stop!" at the top of his lungs.

Then Daddy heard a noise, which he was sure was thunder--though it was only Farmer Green calling to the hired man to hurry.

"Well, I've tried to go to work, anyhow," Daddy Longlegs a.s.sured himself. "And if the oats get wet Farmer Green can't blame me."

He went back to the stone wall then. And seeing Mr. Chippy perched on the wild grapevine, Daddy told him what had happened. "Farmer Green must be deaf at times, the same as you are," little Mr. Chippy observed. "If I were you I'd write him a letter."

Daddy Longlegs pretended not to hear Mr. Chippy's suggestion. The truth was, being only a few months old Daddy did not know how to write. But of course he did not care to have Mr. Chippy know that.

Well, while he pondered upon the situation Daddy Longlegs changed his mind about working for Farmer Green. In the beginning he had not wanted to help with the harvesting. He had taken up Mrs. Ladybug's suggestion only to keep her quiet. But now, having found that going to work for Farmer Green was no easy matter to arrange, Daddy Longlegs began to long to do the very thing he had wished to avoid.

At last he decided that he would go over to the oat field at once and do what he could to help with the harvesting--without saying anything more to anybody.

"Farmer Green can't help but be pleased," he thought, as he started off across the farmyard in the same direction in which Johnnie Green's father had gone when he called to the hired man to hurry.

Daddy had not gone far before he met Buster b.u.mblebee. "How far is it to the oat field?" Daddy asked him.

"Oh! It's not ten minutes' journey," said Buster. "I've just come from the clover-patch myself; and that's twice as far."

Daddy Longlegs thanked him. And then he turned and tottered on again.

For a long time he walked as fast as he could. It seemed to him that he must have been travelling at least half an hour. But he saw not the slightest sign of the oat field, though he climbed a fence and peered across the rolling meadow.

Then he happened to catch sight of Chirpy Cricket hopping through the gra.s.s. And Daddy called to him and asked him how far it was to the oat field.

"It's a good half-day's journey from here," said Chirpy Cricket cheerfully. But Daddy Longlegs did not feel the least bit cheerful when he heard that.

"For the land's sake!" he exclaimed. "Are you sure you're not mistaken?

Buster b.u.mblebee told me a long time ago that it was only a ten-minute trip."

"Ah! So it is--for him!" said Chirpy Cricket. "You must remember that he flies very fast. But I have to hop along much more slowly. And as for you, at the pace you were travelling before you stopped to speak to me you wouldn't reach the oat field before to-morrow morning! No--not even if you walked all night!"

VIII

IN NEED OF NEW SHOES

DADDY LONGLEGS couldn't help feeling discouraged when Chirpy Cricket told him that he wouldn't be able to reach the oat field before the next morning.

"I declare," he said, "if I had known it was such a long journey I wouldn't have tried to go there to help Farmer Green with his harvesting. I've already walked so far that my shoes are all worn out.

And I can neither go on nor go back until I get some new ones." He looked very doleful--for he didn't know what to do. But Chirpy Cricket laughed merrily--as was his custom.

"Cheer up!" he cried. "You're in luck! Jimmy Rabbit has a shoe shop in this very meadow. Just follow me and I'll show you where it is!"

So off they went. And soon they arrived at the shoe shop, in front of which they found Jimmy Rabbit all smiles and bows.

"Here's a friend of mine who needs some new shoes," Chirpy Cricket announced.

"Come right in!" cried Jimmy Rabbit. "Any friend of Chirpy Cricket's is a friend of mine too. And if I can't fit your feet with shoes it won't be my fault. Only yesterday I sold a pair of shoes to old Mr. Crow. And his feet are enormous, as every one knows."

"Well, I want more than just _one_ pair," Daddy Longlegs piped up. "I want four--making eight shoes in all. And I flatter myself that my feet are very small," he added.

Jimmy Rabbit looked a bit surprised at that remark. He was not accustomed to seeing eight-legged people in his shop. But he made no comment, though he couldn't help staring at his new customer.

Meanwhile Chirpy Cricket had hopped away, after telling Daddy that he was leaving him in good hands. And then Jimmy Rabbit went to work briskly. He began setting shoes of all sorts and sizes before Daddy Longlegs. And soon he was not only placing them in front of Daddy, but on both sides of him--and behind him as well.

Jimmy Rabbit was so spry, and most of the shoes were so big, that in no time at all Daddy Longlegs was completely surrounded by a wall of shoes, which rapidly grew higher and higher.

"Stop! stop!" cried Daddy Longlegs. But Jimmy Rabbit was so busy that he didn't hear him. And he kept piling more and more shoes around his tiny visitor, until Daddy Longlegs was lost in a small mountain of big, little, and medium-sized shoes of many different colors.

Not till then did Jimmy Rabbit pause for breath. And when he saw that his customer had disappeared he was more than surprised.

"Where can he have gone?" Jimmy exclaimed. "I didn't see him go out. He was sitting right here only a moment ago. And now he's certainly not in my shop."

Even at that very moment Daddy Longlegs was frantically crying "Help!

help!" But his thin, weak voice was quite m.u.f.fled by the great heap of shoes that buried him.

After waiting for a few minutes Jimmy Rabbit closed--and locked--his door, and went skipping off to Farmer Green's garden, where the cabbages grew.

IX

LOCKED IN!

POOR Daddy Longlegs! Buried as he was under dozens of shoes--all of them many times bigger than he was--he couldn't help being alarmed when he heard Jimmy Rabbit walk out of the shoe shop and lock the door behind him.

Daddy wished that he had told Mrs. Ladybug in the beginning that he wouldn't help Farmer Green with his harvesting. Then he would never have started on his long journey to the oat field and worn out his shoes. And if he hadn't worn out his shoes, of course he would never have visited Jimmy Rabbit's shoe shop and got himself into such terrible trouble.