a spider's web which he found in
the pasture.

Then he looked at himself in a pool.

"I'm a Long-horn now!" he exclaimed. And he was greatly pleased at the
sight of himself--he who had once scoffed at Kiddie Katydid's horns and
advised him to have them trimmed.

Meanwhile the strange messenger had disappeared. It was said that he had
gone to meet the other travellers and guide them to their cousin, Leaper
the Locust.

And there was great excitement throughout Pleasant Valley. A good many
of the field people stopped at Farmer Green's dooryard and told Kiddie
Katydid that they thought he had made a mistake.

"You might have had the honor of receiving the guests," they said.

"No, thank you!" he replied to all such remarks. "I'm willing enough to
let Leaper the Locust do the honors. And unless I'm much mistaken, he's
trembling in his shoes this very moment."

Then the field people would shake their heads and say that they didn't
understand. Wasn't everybody _glad_ to have company once in a while? And
wouldn't it be a _pleasure_ to talk with strangers who came from some
far-off place, and ask them how the crops were where they lived, and
what the weather was?

But Kiddie Katydid only said mysteriously, "Wait a bit! And if you want
_strangers_ to talk to, there'll soon be plenty of them in this
neighborhood, if I'm not mistaken."

Well, Kiddie's neighbors couldn't imagine what he meant. They made a
good many guesses. But there was always somebody to point out some flaw
and upset every calculation. So at last everybody stopped guessing and
admitted that he had no idea as to what Kiddie Katydid had in mind. It
was just another one of his secrets. And people might as well wait
patiently to see what happened. Even Solomon Owl agreed to that. "Time
will tell!" he said with a wise nod of his head.

XXII

THE SHORT-HORNS ARRIVE

In at least one respect, the short-horned messenger had told the truth.
Before twenty-four hours had gone by, the fellow returned to Farmer
Green's dooryard; and with him came a great, fat person who belonged
without question to the Locust family.

Nobody could call his horns long. Nor could anyone call them medium.
They were short; and no one in his right mind would deny it.

"Where's that fellow you call Leaper?" the messenger asked Chirpy
Cricket. "Here's his cousin! And the rest of the family will be
dropping down here in just a few minutes."

Chirpy Cricket replied that he h