all day!" said Thumbkins. "And I can
not find her anywhere!"

"HUMMMM!" replied Billy Bumblebee. "Let me think! HUMMMM!" This was his
way of thinking very hard.

"Perhaps she has gone over to see Granpa Tobackyworm, Mr Thumbkins!"

"No!" replied Thumbkins, "I went there, and also over to the Katydid
store, but she was not there!"

"Suppose you climb upon my back, Thumbkins, and let me help you find
her!" said Billy Bumblebee, as he buzzed his wings, making the flower
sway up and down. So Thumbkins climbed up the flower stalk and took a
seat upon Billy Bumblebee's back.

"Let us fly way up in the air so that we may look down over all the
country!" said Billy Bumblebee, as he made his wings whirr and climbed
high in the air.

Billy Bumblebee and Thumbkins looked over the country carefully, but
they could not see Mrs. Thumbkins anywhere.

Finally Billy's sharp eyes discovered something shiny down by the side
of the pond, so they flew down towards it. It was a new tin can house.
The door was closed.

Thumbkins alighted from Billy Bumblebee's back and knocked at the door.

TINKY-TINKY-TINK!

"GRUMP! GRUMP!" said a deep voice from inside the tin can house. Billy
Bumblebee peeped through a chink in a window, and saw a hoppy-toad with
his mouth full of pancakes.

So Thumbkins picked up a pebble and knocked louder. TONKY-TONKY-TONK!

Old Man Hoppy-toad came to the door with a pancake in each hand and
another large one in his mouth. "GRUMP! GRUMP!" he said.

"Where is Mrs. Thumbkins?" Billy Bumblebee demanded, as he buzzed around
Old Man Hoppy-toad's head.

"I don't know!" said Old Man Hoppy-toad when he had swallowed the
pancake.

"Yes, you do!" Thumbkins cried as he caught Old Man Hoppy-toad's hand.
"Who made those pancakes for you?"

Billy Bumblebee buzzed closer to Old Man Hoppy-toad's head and Old Man
Hoppy-toad blinked his big round eyes and finally said, "She is locked
up in the kitchen!"

[Illustration]

So Thumbkins ran to the kitchen and came out with Mrs.
Thumbkins. Old Man Hoppy-toad had locked her in the kitchen so she would
have to bake lots and lots of pancakes for him.

Thumbkins was so glad to see Mrs. Thumbkins he came very near crying.
And Billy Bumblebee said to Old Man Hoppy-toad, "Now you must leave our
neighborhood, for we do not permit anyone to bother anyone else in the
Town of Tinythings."

So Old Man Hoppy-toad had to pack up all his things in a red
handkerchief and hustle ou