work at once."

"I'll think about the matter," said Freddie Firefly. And then he added
somewhat doubtfully: "It's a long way to the railroad."

"Pooh!" Mrs. Ladybug exclaimed. "Old Mr. Crow often visits it. And if he
can fly that far, at his age, a youngster like you ought not to mind the
trip."

"Perhaps you know best," Freddie Firefly told Mrs. Ladybug at last.
"I'll take your advice just this once, and I'll see how I like the work.
But there's another question I'd like to ask you: What will the trains
do after they stop?"

While laughing over Freddie's question Mrs. Ladybug shook so hard that
she unravelled sixteen rows of her knitting before she could stop.

"Bless you!" she cried, as soon as she could speak. "I don't know what
the trains will do. That's their affair--not yours nor mine. Everybody's
aware that trains are made for two purposes--to start and to stop. But I
never should think of being so rude as to ask them WHY, or WHAT, or
WHEN, or WHERE."

So Freddie Firefly thanked Mrs. Ladybug most politely. He was sure, now,
that she was one of the wisest persons in the whole valley. No doubt, he
thought, she knew almost as much as old Mr. Crow, or even Solomon Owl.
And he wished he knew half what she did.

"I'll start for the railroad track at once," Freddie told Mrs. Ladybug.
And waving his cap at her, while she waved her knitting at him, he set