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Tale of Kiddie Katydid

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<h3>KIDDIE KATYDID IS SHY</h3> "Now—" said Mr. Frog, when he had returned from the watering-trough—"now tell me, how do you like the overcoat I made for you?" And Kiddie Katydid, safe in his tree once more, and snugly buttoned in Mr. Frog's gift, replied that it was the finest garment he had ever owned in all his life. "Good!" said Mr. Frog. "And I dare say you've had many overcoats in your time, too." Kiddie Katydid did not correct Mr. Frog's mistake. To tell the truth, he had never before had an overcoat on his back. "I've come here to-night to deliver an[61] important message to you," Mr. Frog went on. "And thinking the weather might be cooler than you liked, I made you that fine coat so you could stay out here in your tree and listen to what I have to tell you. . . . I hear—" he said—"I hear that you're a musician." "Yes!" said Kiddie Katydid—for he knew well enough that Freddie Firefly could not have kept the secret. "I hear that you're a fiddler," Mr. Frog added. "Why, no! I've never played the fiddle!" Kiddie Katydid exclaimed. "I don't know how to do that." "Well, how do you know that you can't, if you've never tried?" Mr. Frog retorted. "If you can play Katy did, Katy did; she did, she did, by rubbing your wing covers together, there's no knowing what you could do with a real fiddle and bow."[62] "That's true," Kiddie admitted. "I never thought of that." "Well," said Mr. Frog, who appeared greatly pleased with himself, "anyhow, I want you to join our singing society. Perhaps you've heard me and my friends over in the swamp. Almost every night we have a singing party there. And if you'll only agree to fiddle for us, while we sing, I venture to say that we'll have Farmer Green getting up out of his bed to listen to us." Naturally, the invitation pleased Kiddie Katydid. But for all that, he shook his head slowly. "I'm afraid I'm too shy," he told Mr. Frog. "I like to stay hidden among the leaves, where people can't see me." "That'll be all right!" Mr. Frog assured him. "You can hide in some bush near-by, where we can't look at you."[63] But still Kiddie Katydid wouldn't accept the invitation. Although Mr. Frog teased and teased, all he would say was that he would think the matter over. "Promise me this, at least—" Mr. Frog finally said—"promise me that you won't agree to make music for anybody else! Now that people know you're musical, they'll be asking you to play in an orchestra, or a band, or a fife-and-drum corps, or something. But I've invited you first, and if you oblige anybody it ought to be me—especially after I've given you that beautiful warm overcoat." The tailor looked upwards into the tree so beseechingly that Kiddie Katydid hadn't the heart to refuse his request. "I'll promise that," he said. "Hurrah!" cried Mr. Frog, opening his mouth so widely that Kiddie Katydid couldn't help shuddering at the sight.[64] And then Mr. Frog leaped into the air three times. And each time that he leaped, he struck his heels together three times, just to show how happy he was. Then, with a hearty "Good night!" he turned away and went skipping off. And Kiddie Katydid, making his curious music in the top of the maple tree, kept thinking that the tailor was one of the oddest chaps he had ever seen. He did wish, too, that Mr. Frog had a smaller mouth.[65] <hr style="width: 65%;" /> <h2>XIV</h2> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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