Chapter 19

DADDY ESCAPES



THAT was a fine idea of General Antenna's--that plan of bringing stepladders, so that the ant army might climb up on them and reach Daddy Longlegs, whom they were attacking.

And Captain Kidd told the General on the spot that it was a most happy thought.

"Then do as I tell you, at once!" the General ordered pompously.

"I can't!" said Captain Kidd, who was terribly frightened, because the General was sure to be angry.

"Can't!" cried General Antenna fiercely. "Can't! What do you mean, madam?" (Perhaps you did not know that Captain Kidd was a lady, as were also the General and the whole army, too!)

Captain Kidd's voice broke as she stammered an answer to General Antenna's rude demand.

"I know of only one stepladder in Pleasant Valley," she explained. "It belongs to Farmer Green. And it's so heavy that the whole army couldn't move it."

At that a shudder passed over General Antenna's fat body.

"Then we're as good as lost!" she shrieked. "Daddy Longlegs will defeat us. And I'll never hear the last of it."

And right there on the edge of the battle-field General Antenna shed so many bitter tears that Captain Kidd had to move aside slightly, to keep her feet from getting wet.

"Don't weep!" cried the Captain in a husky voice. "It's not your fault--really!"

"Whose is it, then?" asked the General brokenly.

"Why, Farmer Green is to blame, of course!" Captain Kidd replied. "If he hadn't made his stepladder so big we might have used it and won the battle just as easily as not."

"That's so!" the General agreed, drying her tears on a lace handkerchief. "And from this time forth, Farmer Green and I are deadly enemies!"

Meanwhile the battle still raged furiously. But Daddy Longlegs had not received a single wound. And perceiving, at last, that he was quite unharmed, he took heart again.

Finally it occurred to him that the ant army was totally unable to reach him, borne high in the air as he was by his long legs. And as his fear left him, he could think of no reason why he should stay where he was any longer.

Accordingly he pulled himself together and began to walk away. He moved right through the ant army; and the soldiers were powerless to stop him.

Just then General Antenna happened to glance over the battle-field. And her sad look at once gave way to one of great joy. She even gave Captain Kidd a hearty slap on the back--much to that lady's distress (because it knocked her cap awry).

"Look!" cried the General. "We've won the battle after all; for the enemy is retreating! Daddy Longlegs is running away!"

Hurrying off then, General Antenna joined