"Why, I don't know what that's all about!" Freddie exclaimed
impatiently. "Let me see the third one!" So he looked next at the banner
of Mehitable Moth, which seemed to please him better, as he read it
aloud:

DON'T WORRY, MRS. GREEN! I'LL CALL AT THE FARMHOUSE BEFORE FALL.

"That's better!" cried Freddie Firefly. "I'll carry this banner with a
great deal of pleasure. And I can call at the farmhouse to-night--if
Farmer Green's family doesn't go to bed too early."

But there was one difficulty about Freddie's plan. Mehitable Moth did
not like to have her banner, which she had made with great pains, taken
away from her like that. And she drew Chirpy Cricket to one side and
began talking to him in an undertone.

Soon he turned again to Freddie Firefly, saying, "She thinks that if
you're going to carry her banner in the procession you ought to let her
take your light."

"Oh, I can't do that!" Freddie exclaimed quickly. "I wouldn't THINK of
doing that!"

"It would be only fair, it seems to me," Chirpy Cricket observed.

"Well, I won't do it, anyhow," Freddie declared. "I'd stay out of the
procession first. And so would all my relations, too."

Chirpy Cricket began to look worried. And it was no wonder. For he knew
he could have no torchlight procession without the Firefly family. But