It was a terrific blow. And Freddie Firefly soon
found himself lying flat on the ground. He was
so nearly stunned that he scarcely knew what had happened.
“What fun!” the fat lady gurgled right
in his ear, with a horrible laugh. “Come!
Let’s do it again!”
“Do it again!” Freddie Firefly repeated
after her, as a sudden fear gripped him. “Do
you mean to tell me that you ran into me on purpose?”
“Why, certainly!” she replied. “Running
into a light is more than half the fun of flying.”
Her terrible secret was out at last. If Freddie
Firefly had been older and wiser he would have known,
in the beginning, that his first collision with the
fat lady was no accident. The whole Junebug family
were alike in one respect: preferring to fly at
night, whenever they saw a light anywhere they made
straight for it as fast as they could fly. Sometimes
they landed with a crash against one of the farmhouse
windows. Sometimes they struck the lantern, if
Farmer Green happened to be carrying it across the
farmyard. It really made little difference to
a Junebug what he—or she—hit,
so long as it gleamed brightly out of the night.
Well, Freddie Firefly saw at last that he was in a
terrible fix. He knew now why Jennie Junebug
had asked him to fly with her. It was on account
of his flashing light! And the dreadful creature
actually expected him to fly for her so that she might
have the pleasure of bowling him over every time he
rose into the air.
Such a practice was disagreeable, to say the least.
Indeed, Freddie Firefly thought it was positively
dangerous, for him.
“Come! Come!” Jennie Junebug urged
him playfully, even while he lay on the ground trying
to get his breath. “If you don’t hurry
and fly some more I shall knock you over right where
you are!”
Freddie Firefly answered her with a faint moan.
He couldn’t run away from her. So he thought
of hiding. But he had promised to fly with her.
And she was a lady.
What could he do?
FREDDIE’S ESCAPE
There was really nothing Freddie Firefly could do
except struggle to his feet and try to think at the
same time. Flashing his light upon Jennie Junebug
he saw that she was looking at him fondly. And
that made him detest her more than ever.
“You seem to be enjoying yourself,” he
said spitefully.
“Yes, indeed!” the fat lady exclaimed.
“I haven’t had such sport for a whole
week. One of your cousins flew with me one night.
And we had a fine time. No doubt we’d be
enjoying each other’s company yet, if I hadn’t
had a bit of bad luck.”
“What was that?” Freddie Firefly asked
her quickly. He thought that if he could only
keep his dreadful companion talking, perhaps she
would forget about flying—and knocking
him down. “What was your bad luck?”
he repeated impatiently.
