"I'd have to see them before I made a choice," Freddie Firefly told him
in a more hopeful tone.

So Chirpy ordered Kiddie Katydid and Moses and Mehitable to produce
their banners, which they had left leaning against the wall.

They brought them forth fearfully, each hoping that his--or hers--wasn't
going to be taken away and handed over to Freddie Firefly to carry in
the procession.

"Here are the banners!" Chirpy Cricket said to Freddie. "Which one do
you like best?"

Freddie looked at the banners and read them slowly, for he was not a
good reader.

The first that he examined was the one Moses Mosquito had brought. And
this is what it said:

WHY FUSS ABOUT A BITE, IF IT MAKES SOMEBODY ELSE HAPPY?

"I don't care for that one at all," Freddie Firefly announced. And he
turned then to Kiddie Katydid's banner, which he spelled out with a good
deal of trouble, because it was not so well printed.

This banner made the following announcement:

HONEST TO GOODNESS, I DIDN'T DO IT!