Rusty Wren is another little neighbor in Pleasant
Valley. His particular home there is Farmer Green’s
yard where he lives in a bright shiny home which is
really a tin can with a hole in it! And dear me!
I forgot all about Rusty Wren’s family—his
wife and six baby children who had to be given Wren
food by Rusty and little Chippy, Jr. You will
laugh heartily when you read about Chippy growing
so big and fat that he gets stuck in Rusty’s
tiny doorway and can’t get pulled out. My,
what an exciting time it was! And you will laugh
again when you watch Rusty Wren go ’way over
to the bank of Black Creek all ready for a party when
there really is no party. Yes, you will agree
with Farmer Green’s boy and the rest of our
friends in Pleasant Valley that Rusty certainly is
a very interesting little neighbor.
Daddy is a person of such unusual appearance with
his eight scrawny legs in contrast to ordinary people’s
two, and everything about his private life is such
a mystery to his neighbors that his acquaintances give
him credit for having a marvelous ability to look
into the future. In fact, there are many two-legged
humans, even to-day, who think he is a sort of soothsayer
and mystery man. Perhaps, if you are one of these,
you will be inclined to change your mind after reading
about his contest with Old Mr. Crow to see which is
really the wiser of the two. And would you not
naturally suppose that anybody with so many legs to
carry him would be the champion walker of the world?
Maybe Daddy finds that it takes time to decide which
of his feet he should put forward in taking the next
step, or may be each separate foot has a notion of
its own as to the direction Daddy should choose; at
any rate, he proves to be the slowest traveler imaginable.
But he is so popular among his neighbors and you will
like him too—he has so many quaint ideas.
Kiddy Katydid and his relatives were in possession
of a secret that none of the Pleasant Valley folk
can solve, though they waste much time and energy
trying to guess it. Even to this day it is doubtful
if anyone other than Kiddie himself really knows what
Katy did! But his friends are a curious lot and
they work their brains over-time to think of some
scheme to make Kiddie tell. If you want to know
what they do accidentally discover about Kiddie himself
and how excited every body becomes as the rare news
spreads from mouth to mouth, you will find that and
many other remarkable things about him in this interesting
story of his life in the Maple tree that grows in Farmer
Green’s yard. You will like Kiddie.
He is very modest and retiring—behaving
very much as any well raised youngster should, and
when you understand just how it happens that he keeps
repeating that funny remark about Katy, you can join
him in the hearty laugh he has on his friends.
