ed the end
of the cord to his bedpost, and left it with a word of advice to do
what it could in his absence.

"Well, it did! For a mere bit of string, all by itself, it didn't do
badly. First the old brown rat, with his fierce little eyes and
pointed, whiskered nose, came out from under the toolhouse and began
exploring the strawberry patch. He didn't think much of strawberries
in themselves, but he was apt to find fat grubs and beetles and sleepy
June bugs under the clustering leaves. He came upon the string,
stretched taut. He was just about to bite it through and try to carry
it off to his nest when it occurred to him it might be a trap. He
turned away discreetly, and snapped up a plump June bug.

"Then the imps came sailing along. The He imp, with a loud _ca-ah_,
perched in the top of a locust and reconnoitred the situation. The She
imp alighted on the head of the scarecrow, cocked her head to one side,
and peered down upon the rat with a wicked and insulting eye.
'_Cr-r-r-r_,' she said sarcastically. But, as the rat paid no
attention to her, she hopped up and down on her toes, half-lifting her
wings in the effort to attract his eye. She hated to be ignored. But
still the rat ignored her, though he saw her perfectly well and would
have loved to eat her. At last, in her excitement, she caught sight of
the cord running over the edge of the scarecrow's hat. Snatching it up
in her beak, she gave it an energetic and inquiring tug. She learned
something interesting about it at once. It grabbed her by one leg.

"Startled into a panic, as all wild things are at the least suggestion
of restraint, she squawked and flapped into the air. The noose
tightened rebukingly and pulled her up short.

"For one astounded moment she settled back onto the scarecrow's head,
frightened into stillness. Then she tweaked savagely at the cord on
her leg, but, of course, could do nothing with it. As far as knots
were concerned, her education had been utterly neglected. At last she
sprang once more into the air, determined to have nothing more to do
with the treacherous scarecrow who had stuck that thing on her leg.

"Of course, she didn't fly far--just about six feet--and she was again
brought up with a jerk. And now she went quite wild. Squawking and
flapping and whirling round and round, she made an amazing exhibition
of herself. Her brother, in the top of the locust, stared down upon
her in astonished disapproval.