“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.”
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.
