too. Perhaps he should have told his little friends that his pet was not
a bumblebee at all--but a carpenter bee--and that carpenter bees never
sting people.
But Johnnie Green did not always do just exactly as he ought to have
done.
XVI
THE TWINS IN THE CLOVER PATCH
The twins--Johnnie Green's guests--each with a honey box in his hand,
began at once to hunt for bumblebees. And if Buster Bumblebee had been
wiser he would have flown away at once.
But he had no idea that he would have any trouble dodging a
boy--especially a city boy. So he lingered on the porch to see what
happened. As soon as Johnnie Green should put the Carpenter back in his
prison Buster intended to urge him once more to cut his way through the
wood--and to freedom.
Soon Buster had his chance. Again he crowded close to the glass door of
the Carpenter's cage. And then Johnnie Green's sharp eyes spied him.
"There's one!" said Johnnie Green to one of the twins. And at that the
eager youngster pounced quickly on Buster, picked him up gingerly, and
popped him quickly into a prison exactly like the one that held the
Carpenter.
"He didn't sting me!" cried Buster's captor proudly, while Johnnie Green
stared at him in astonishment and--it must be confessed--with some
disappointment, too.
Now, Johnnie knew a good many things about the field and forest folk in
Pleasant Valley. He knew that the Carpenter (or Whiteface, as Johnnie
called him) couldn't sting anybody. But he had always supposed that all
bumblebees stung fiercely. And that was where he was mistaken. It was
true that Buster's mother, the Queen, could sting when she wanted to. And
all those hot-tempered workers who lived with her had stings just as hot
as their tempers. But Buster and his brothers (for he had brothers) were
not armed with such weapons.
Naturally, the other twin was now more eager than ever to capture a
bumblebee of his own. And since Johnnie did not want to disappoint a
guest he soon suggested that they go over to the clover patch.
"There's a lot of bumblebees over there, always," said Johnnie Green
hopefully.
So Buster had a free ride to the clover field; for his twin insisted on
taking his new pet right along with him.
"Besides, I may want to catch some more like him," he explained.
Looking out through the glass sides of his prison, which his captor held
tightly in one hand, Buster Bumblebee saw many of his mother's workers
hovering about the clover-tops, gathering nectar for the honeycomb at
home.
The twins saw the workers, too. They were delighted. And so was Johnnie
Green.
"Take all the bumblebees you want!" said Johnnie. "My father won't care."
Both twins grabbed at the same time. They both shrieked at the same time,
too--for each of them felt a sharp pain, as if a red-hot needle had been
run into his finger. And Buster Bumblebee felt himself falling. Then
followed a crash of splintering glass. And in another moment Buster was
hurrying away across the clover field.
When he was stung by the worker he had seized, Buster's twin had dropped
the honey box. And it had fallen squarely upon a rock and broken.
If Buster had not been in such haste to escape he would have heard still
another shout. For the news spread like wildfire among the workers--the
news that an army of boys had attacked them. And a terrible-tempered
relation of Buster's known as Peppery Polly darted at Johnnie Green and
buried her sting deep in the back of that young gentleman's sun-browned
neck.
As for the Carpenter, everybody quite forgot about him. Johnnie and the
twins were too busy putting mud poultices on their wounds, to ease their
aches and pains, to think of the prisoner they had left on the farmhouse
porch. It was not until the next day that Johnnie Green remembered his
new pet. And when he went to see him then the honey box was empty. The
Carpenter had cut a tunnel through the wall of his prison.
Later the Carpenter sent a message to Buster, by little Mrs. Ladybug.
"The Carpenter has lost so much time," she told Buster, "that he thinks
he will never be able to finish the addition to his house. So he says
you'll have to get somebody else to build your new home for you."
At first Buster was disappointed. But he soon recovered his good spirits.
"After all, it's just as well," he remarked cheerfully. "I know where
there's a fine new house right in the clover patch. And I'll move into it
at once."
Of course he meant the honey box which the boy had dropped upon the rock
and forgotten. So Buster had his new home without the help of the
Carpenter. And all his friends agreed that the house-warming he gave was
the most successful that ever was known in those parts. It took place on
the hottest day of the summer. And Buster's house was so warm that three
of his guests almost had sunstrokes--and had to be helped home.
XVII
BUSTER LEARNS OF THE RAISING BEE
"Yes!" said Jimmy Rabbit. "I hear that there's going to be a raising bee
at Farmer Green's place to-morrow. And if I were you I should certainly
want to be there."
Being very good-natured, Jimmy Rabbit was always ready to talk to anybody
he happened to meet, no matter how small the other person might be. And
now, while he was nibbling at Farmer Green's lettuce, he had chanced to
glance up and spy Buster Bumblebee, who was buzzing about the tall
hollyhocks, which made a sort of hedge where the flower and the vegetable
garden met.
"A raising bee!" Buster Bumblebee exclaimed, when he heard Jimmy Rabbit's
bit of news. "I've never in my life seen that kind of bee--nor heard of
it, either.... It must be a great curiosity."
"Yes!" said Jimmy Rabbit. "And you ought not to miss seeing this one. I'd
like to go over to the farmhouse to-morrow myself--if I had the time."
"Well, I'm going, anyhow," Buster declared. "And when next I see you I'll
tell you all about this strange bee. For all we know now it may be
nothing but a honey bee that has changed his name."
Jimmy Rabbit only smiled at his small friend. He said nothing at
all--though he looked uncommonly wise.
"What time to-morrow can I get a peep at this 'raising bee,' as he calls
himself?" Buster Bumblebee inquired.
"You had better plan to reach the farmyard at nine o'clock sharp," Jimmy
Rabbit advised him.
"How shall I know where to look?" Buster asked him.
"Oh! you'll have no trouble finding the raising bee," Jimmy replied.
"Just follow the crowd! All of Farmer Green's friends for miles around
will be there."
"Is that so?" said Buster. "What are they coming for?"
"Why, they've heard about the raising bee, too," Jimmy told him. "Farmer
Green has invited everybody to come to his house. And there'll be plenty
to eat for everyone. No doubt they'll have a dance, too, in the
afternoon--just before milking time. Of course they'll all have to go
home in time to milk the cows," Jimmy explained.
"I suppose so," Buster remarked. "And I must say I'm glad that I have no
cows, for it has always seemed to me that they are only a nuisance."
Jimmy Rabbit agreed heartily in that opinion.
"Yes!" Buster Bumblebee continued. "Farmer Green has many strange ways.
Now, what's the sense of having a vegetable garden? And yet I understand
that he always plants one over there where you're sitting."
Jimmy Rabbit shook his head.
"I can't quite agree with you," he said quickly, "though I've always
claimed that a flower garden is just a waste of time."
"What a strange notion!" cried Buster Bumblebee. "To my way of thinking,
this flower garden is the best thing Farmer Green has--unless it's the
clover patch."
Now, some people would have flown into a temper at once on being disputed
like that. But Jimmy Rabbit was never known to be angry.
"Billy Woodchuck would agree with you about the clover," he said with a
chuckle. "You know he's very fond of clover-tops."
"He's a sensible chap," Buster Bumblebee declared. "And speaking of
clover makes me so hungry for some that I'm going to the clover patch
this very minute."
So Buster darted away, calling out as he went that he would meet Jimmy at
the hollyhock hedge on the next morning but one.
"I'll tell you all about the raising bee," he promised once more.
And Jimmy Rabbit laughed so heartily that he almost choked over a choice
lettuce leaf.
XVIII
FOLLOWING THE CROWD
Well, the next day Buster Bumblebee arrived at Farmer Green's place just
as the cuckoo clock in the kitchen was striking nine. And he knew at once
that Jimmy Rabbit must have told him the truth about the raising bee, for
the farmyard was crowded with wagons and carryalls and buggies and gigs.
There were people everywhere--so many that Buster thought all the world
must be there. And he began to look about him carefully.
But nowhere could he find what he had come to see. So he asked a
ruffianly looking wasp where the raising bee was. But the wasp, who was
hurrying by, merely glanced at Buster and said, with a frown:
"Follow the crowd!"
Buster remembered then that that was exactly what Jimmy Rabbit had told
him to do. And now, as he looked all around, he noticed that Farmer Green
was already leading the way to a pile of lumber near the old cow-barn.
Everybody was following him. And a good many small boys began to shout to
nobody in particular, "Hurrah! hurrah! She's going up!"
Buster Bumblebee hastened to overtake the crowd.
"They must mean the raising bee," he said to himself. "And from what
those boys are saying I gather that it's a _lady_ raising bee and she's
going to fly for the company."
In his eagerness to see everything that was happening, Buster buzzed very
close to a good many people. And though most of them paid little heed to
him, there was one boy who slapped at him with his hat--and all but hit
him, too.
After that Buster was more careful. He flew higher. And at last he found
a fine seat on a tall sunflower, from which he could view every move that
was made.
Farmer Green's guests--that is, the _men_, for the women had not left the
house--the guests all took off their coats and began to arrange
themselves around some huge timbers that lay upon the ground. And a great
shouting arose. Everybody seemed to be talking at once. And the small
boys were everywhere, chasing one another about and getting in everyone's
way.
Then all was quiet for a few minutes while Farmer Green said something to
the men. And as soon as he had stopped talking some of the men began to
lift a sort of framework of wood into the air. When they had raised it
exactly as Farmer Green wanted it other men began to pound about the foot
of it with hammers. But Buster Bumblebee--though he watched everything
very closely--hadn't the slightest idea what they were doing.
"Hi, there!" he called to old dog Spot. "Where's the raising bee?"
Old Spot promptly looked bewildered.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he replied. "I don't know
anything about any bee. And I wish you wouldn't trouble me with your
silly questions. These men are helping us to build our new barn; and I'm
too busy to talk to anyone."
Buster Bumblebee was certainly disappointed. And he soon decided that
Jimmy Rabbit must have been mistaken. It wasn't the raising bee, after
all, that had brought all the neighbors together there. They had come to
help Farmer Green with his new barn! Old dog Spot had said so. And he
ought to know, if anyone did.
XIX
THE FEAST AT FARMER GREEN'S
In spite of his disappointment at not seeing the raising bee (that new
kind of bee that Jimmy Rabbit had told him about) Buster Bumblebee
decided that he would stay at Farmer Green's place and watch the men put
up the frame of the new barn. He remembered that Jimmy had said there
would be things to eat afterwards--and maybe a dance, besides.
Although the barn was a big one there were so many people to help that it
was hardly later than midday when the great timbers were all in place.
And then the men caught up their coats and strolled back to the dooryard.
The small boys had all hurried ahead of them as soon as they noticed that
the women and girls were already setting generous dishes of goodies upon
long tables beneath the shade of the maple trees in front of the
farmhouse.
And when he saw what was going on Buster Bumblebee hastened to the maple
grove too. He intended to taste of every kind of food that was there, in
the hope of finding some dainty that he would like.
So for some time he busied himself buzzing up and down the long table,
alighting on heaps of doughnuts and cookies, pies, cakes, bread and
butter, baked beans and ever so many other good things.
But Buster Bumblebee did not find anything that really pleased him until
he paused at a fat sugar-bowl. Since the sugar was sweet he couldn't help
liking that, though it did seem somewhat tasteless to him after his
feasts among the clover-tops.
"This is the only food here that's worth eating," he remarked to himself,
"though perhaps the cake would not be bad, once a person learned to like
it."
Luckily Buster had time to make a hearty meal off the sugar before a
red-cheeked girl shooed him away. And then Farmer Green and all his
friends sat down at the long tables.
How they did eat! They began with pie. And Buster Bumblebee, flying
lazily above their heads, noticed with amazement the enormous pieces that
disappeared into the mouths of men, women and children. One mouthful such
as they took would have fed him at least a month. And there was one boy
called Bill who stowed away enough each time his fork traveled to his
mouth to nourish Buster Bumblebee a whole summer.
"That boy is making a pig of himself!" Buster Bumblebee exclaimed, right
out loud. But since nobody understood what he said, no one paid any
attention to his remark. "You'll be ill, if you're not careful," Buster
buzzed right in the greedy boy's ear.
But the youngster known as Bill only moved his head slightly. And to
Buster's alarm he continued to bolt huge mouthfuls of everything within
his reach.
It was really a terrible sight. Buster Bumblebee was so fascinated by it
that he sat right down on a low-hanging maple bough and kept his eyes
fixed on that marvellous boy.
Before the feast came to an end the boy Bill's face underwent an odd
change. In the beginning it had worn a wide smile. But at last Buster saw
a look of pain steal over Bill's somewhat besmeared features. And beneath
his coating of tan he seemed to have grown pale.
Before long Buster was sure he heard a groan, though no one of the
merrymakers paid the slightest heed to it. Everyone was too busy eating
and talking with his neighbors to notice Bill's distress.
Then came another groan--and another--and another--and another, until
finally greedy Bill clapped both his hands across the front of his jacket
and let out a terrific roar.
"Ah!" said Buster Bumblebee. "You have a stomachache, young man. And it's
no wonder."
XX
BUSTER AND THE FIDDLERS
There was a great rattling of knives and forks dropped suddenly upon
plates and a clatter of cups set hastily upon saucers. For when the boy
with the stomachache screamed aloud in his agony all of Farmer Green's
guests turned towards him to see what was the matter.
Buster Bumblebee saw a large woman dressed in bright red rush up to the
boy Bill and lead him away towards the farmhouse, quite doubled up with
pain.
"That's his mother!" Buster decided. "And it's lucky for him that she's
here."
Everybody else seemed to think likewise. And no one appeared much
worried. At least, all the company fell upon the feast once more. And in
a surprisingly short time everything but the dishes had vanished.
Still the people lingered there and talked--or the grown-ups did, anyhow
(of course the boys and girls didn't want to sit at a table after the
good things had all been eaten off it). And Buster Bumblebee had just
made up his mind that the whole affair was very dull! Yes! he had begun
to wish he had not wasted his time at Farmer Green's party, when suddenly
he heard something that sent a tingle all through him.
It was a most delightful sound. And noticing that the people were leaving
the scene of the banquet, Buster again recalled Jimmy Rabbit's advice to
"follow the crowd." So he found himself shortly in the carriage-house,
from which everything on wheels had been run outside into the farmyard.
At one side of the great square room sat three men, each holding a queer
wooden object, upon which he sawed busily without appearing to cut
anything. And Buster soon learned that the bewitching sound came from the
sawing.
"How do you like the music?" said a voice in Buster's ear. He turned
quickly. And he saw then that old dog Spot had followed the crowd too and
was sitting in the doorway, where everyone had to walk around him. He
seemed to be enjoying himself. And he kept thumping the floor with his
tail as if he were trying to keep time with the tune.
"The music is beautiful," Buster Bumblebee said in reply to Spot's
question. "But there's something I don't quite understand. I've seen men
sawing wood before, but they made no such sound as this."
Old dog Spot couldn't help smiling the least bit.
"Why, those men aren't sawing wood. They're _fiddling_," he explained;
"three fiddlers fiddling upon fiddles.... There's going to be a dance,
you know," old dog Spot continued. "And of course nobody cares to dance
without music."
"Oh, certainly not!" Buster Bumblebee agreed. And he began to be glad he
had come to the farmyard, after all. You see, he was fond of music and
dancing. And he thought the music played by the three fiddlers was too
wonderful for words.
Soon the floor was crowded with merry people who bowed and scraped to one
another and danced breakdowns and cut pigeon-wings and other capers,
while Buster Bumblebee flitted gaily about just above their bobbing
heads, trying his best to keep time to the music and wishing that he had
brought some of his friends along with him to Farmer Green's party.
As for the raising bee, Buster had completely forgotten it. He was having
so much fun at the dance that the real reason for his coming to Farmer
Green's place had quite slipped out of his mind.
XXI
THE BUMBLEBEE IN THE PUMPKIN
Of course the dancers at Farmer Green's party had to stop now and then to
get their breath. And the fiddlers, too, had to pause in order to rest.
That is, two of them found it necessary to lay their fiddles aside once
in a while. And it was no wonder; for they had each eaten a whole custard
pie.
But the third fiddler was different. He was a man after Buster
Bumblebee's own heart. He seemed to love to make music and never tired of
coaxing the jolliest tunes out of his old fiddle that anybody could hope
to hear. _He_ only laughed when his fellow fiddlers lay back in their
chairs and mopped their red faces. And just to keep the company in good
spirits--and because he couldn't help it--this frolicsome fiddler would
start right ahead and play something that was sure to set a body's feet
a-going and make him feel so happy that he would want to shout right
out--good and loud.
Whenever this merry musician played all alone like that Buster Bumblebee
stayed close by him in order to hear better. And so it was that Buster at
last met with a surprise. He was bobbing about with a great deal of
pleasure to the strains of a lively tune when he heard something that
made him settle quickly upon a beam above the jolly fiddler's head.
He wanted to sit still and listen. (Somehow he always had to buzz more or
less when he was flying.) Yes! he wanted to listen closely because he was
almost certain that he heard the buzzing of a strange bee. And the sound
seemed to come right out of the fiddle!
From his seat on the beam Buster Bumblebee looked down at the fiddle,
upon which the fiddler was scraping away at a great rate; and he noticed
then that there were two openings in it through which a bee might crawl
with the greatest ease.
"That's it!" Buster Bumblebee shouted right out loud. "The bee's inside
the fiddle.... I don't believe the fiddler knows it!" he chuckled.
And then another idea came into Buster's head. He wondered if that bee
was not the raising bee, which he had gone to so much trouble to see and
which he had almost given up finding.
Then, happening to glance about him, Buster noticed that many of the
people in the place were smiling at one another and nodding their heads
wisely, as if to say: "There's the bee! Do you hear him buzz?"
And old dog Spot, who still sat in the doorway, seemed to be smiling,
too. Anyhow, his jaws were open so wide that his tongue was hanging out
of his mouth.
Feeling very wise himself, Buster Bumblebee bustled over to the doorway
and said to old Spot:
"Do you hear that bee? He's inside the fiddle!"
Then old Spot actually laughed aloud.
"You're mistaken," he replied. "That's the bumblebee in the pumpkin."
"Bumblebee!" Buster cried. "Pardon me--but you are mistaken yourself.
That's no bumblebee. No member of my family ever buzzed like that.... It
must be a raising bee."
"Perhaps you know best," said old Spot. "But the people here all say it's
a bumblebee--in a pumpkin."
"What pumpkin?" Buster wanted to know.
"Well, that one--I suppose," old dog Spot told him, cocking an eye and an
ear towards a big yellow pumpkin, which someone had set on a wide shelf
on the wall.
Buster Bumblebee looked at the pumpkin. And then he darted straight to
it. If there was a bee of any kind inside it, making that strange
buzzing, he intended to have a good look at him.
XXII
SOMEONE'S MISTAKE
Though he alighted right on top of the pumpkin, which stood on the wide
shelf in Farmer Green's carriage-house, Buster Bumblebee thought that the
strange buzzing sound had grown fainter. He was sure that he had heard it
more plainly when he was nearer the merry fiddler.
There was a gouge in the side of the fat pumpkin, into which he peered
carefully. He even crawled into the small cavity himself. But there was
nothing there. And he decided, after thinking deeply for some time, that
there could not possibly be a bee inside the pumpkin.
As soon as he had made up his mind on that point Buster Bumblebee
blustered back to old dog Spot once more.
"You're certainly wrong!" he exclaimed. "There's no bumblebee--nor any
other sort of bee--anywhere near the pumpkin."
"There was one there only a moment ago," old Spot remarked with a sly
smile.
"I didn't see him," said Buster Bumblebee, looking much puzzled.
"Well, _I_ did," old Spot replied. "And that proves that I'm right."
Buster Bumblebee could think of no good retort to make at that moment.
And since the odd buzzing had stopped, and all three fiddlers were tuning
up for more dance music, in his excitement Buster forgot all about the
raising bee again, the bumblebee in the pumpkin, and even his dispute
with old dog Spot.
So the dance went on. And at last, late in the afternoon, the people
suddenly remembered that they had to go home to milk the cows. Then the
fiddlers put away their fiddles; for the dance had come to an end. And
Buster Bumblebee was extremely sorry that it was so.
Now, Jimmy Rabbit had agreed to meet Buster at the hollyhock hedge
between the flower and the vegetable garden, on the morning following the
great gathering of Farmer Green's friends. At least, that was what Buster
Bumblebee thought.
Unfortunately, however, the matter had slipped entirely from Jimmy
Rabbit's mind. And although Buster went to the meeting-place each
morning, he failed to find his long-eared friend there.
Luckily it was a pleasant spot in which to wait. So each day Buster
breakfasted upon the flowers. And if it hadn't been for just one thing he
wouldn't have cared much whether Jimmy Rabbit ever came back to meet him
or not. But Buster did want to tell Jimmy Rabbit that he had been
mistaken about the raising bee. Jimmy Rabbit knew so much--he was always
explaining things to people with such a knowing air--that Buster
Bumblebee thought it would do Jimmy a world of good to understand that
for once he was wrong.
If Buster had only visited the garden earlier in the morning he would
have found Jimmy Rabbit easily enough. But Buster did not like to go
abroad much until the sun had had a chance to dry the dew, for it was
hard for him to fly when his wings were wet.
On the other hand, Jimmy Rabbit usually went to the garden at dawn,
because he had an idea that lettuce was crisper and tasted better while
the cool dew still clung to it. But at last there came a morning when
Jimmy was so late and Buster was so early in reaching the garden that
their breakfast hours came at the same time.
XXIII
MAKING GAME OF OLD DOG SPOT