When Freddie Firefly reported to Mrs. Ladybug and her neighbors that Betsy Butterfly had taken neither butter nor eggs from Farmer Green during the night the field people were much puzzled.
"She's certainly a sly one!" Mrs. Ladybug exclaimed. "What do you think we ought to do now?" she asked Daddy Longlegs, who was supposed to be very old, and therefore very wise.
"I think you ought to warn her," he replied, after some thought. "You ought to tell Betsy Butterfly that she must stop ."
"No doubt your advice is good," Mrs. Ladybug observed. "And I'll speak to Betsy this very morning.... You must come with me," she told Daddy. "I naturally want to have a witness."
"Oh, I'll come!" he cried in his thin, quavering voice, though what she meant by a "witness" was more than he knew.
So Mrs. Ladybug and Daddy Longlegs set to find Betsy Butterfly. And behind them followed a crowd of their neighbors. Even lazy Buster Bumblebee joined the procession. Though he was a drone, and never worked, he was always ready to exert himself for the sake of any new excitement.
The strange company wandered back and forth across the meadow for some time without finding Betsy Butterfly. But at last Mrs. Ladybug spied her. And soon Betsy found herself surrounded by the mob.
"Goodness!" she cried, looking about her in surprise. "How nice of you all to call on me! I'm so glad to see you!"
Betsy Butterfly was so cordial that Mrs. Ladybug couldn't help looking somewhat uncomfortable. She couldn't avoid a strange feeling of . And yet she told herself that Betsy Butterfly was really the guilty one.
"She's a bold piece!" Mrs. Ladybug ............