couldn't
agree on the question of horns. Whenever they met they were sure to
have a most unpleasant dispute before they parted.

Really, their quarrels were as bad as those that Jimmy Rabbit and Frisky
Squirrel once had over the matter of tails. And many of the field folk
said it was a shame that the Grasshoppers' trouble couldn't be settled
somehow.

Strange as it may seem, that remark always made Leaper the Locust
terribly angry. And it enraged Kiddie Katydid as did nothing else.

The difficulty was that the field people--as well as Farmer Green's
whole family--had fallen into the lazy habit of calling those two by the
same name. They spoke of Kiddie Katydid as "the Long-horned
Grasshopper," while they termed his neighbor "the Short-horned
Grasshopper."

[Illustration: Kiddie Faced Leaper the Locust

(_Page 90_)]

"It's bad enough to look somewhat like Leaper the Locust, without
being tagged with the name of Grasshopper, along with him," Kiddie
Katydid spluttered.

"Honestly, I'm tempted to move away from this neighborhood," Leaper the
Locust began to tell everyone he met. "If that chap would only trim his
horns to the proper length I wouldn't mind it so much. But he's actually
proud of them. He's always waving them over his head, so people will
notice them."

They both declared--Kiddie Katydid and Leaper the Locust--that they
couldn't abide the name "Grasshopper." And they took pains to warn
people in the neighborhood that they wouldn't answer to that name, no
matter how loudly anyone might shout it at them.

After that a few of their neighbors took great delight in crying
"Grasshopper! Grasshopper!" whenever one of the two happened to be
within hearing. But no matter which of them it might be--whether Leaper
the Locust or Kiddie Katydid--he pretended not to hear, and went right
on eating.

But at last something happened that made both those jumpy gentlemen
change their minds. From not wanting to be called Grasshoppers, they
decided suddenly that they liked the name. And each claimed that the
other had no right to it.

This odd state of affairs arose when they learned that a stranger had
come into the valley bearing a message marked "For Mr. Grasshopper."

"That's for me!" Kiddie Katydid cried, as soon as he heard the news.

"You're mistaken!" Leaper the Locust snapped. "The message is clearly
intended for me. And I shan't let anybody else open it."

XIX

A QUARREL

Kiddie Katydid and L