THE HONEY TREE
The six little Bunkers paused a moment before leaving the picnic
grounds, where so sad a happening as losing their lunch had occurred,
and looked toward the peddler boy. He was certainly running as hard as
he could to get away from the stinging insects.
“It serves him right for taking our lunch!” declared Rose, though
perhaps she shouldn’t have said it.
“Do you s’pose the bees knew he took our things? And did they sting him
because they like us and because Farmer Joel has bees like these bees?”
asked Violet, looking at a honey insect perched on a flower. Violet
seemed to think it best to ask as many questions at once as possible.
But no one took the trouble to answer them. Russ and Rose were anxious
to get the smaller children out of the way of the bees.
“Come, children! We’ve got to hurry, just as Russ says,” said Rose.
“Is it goin’ to rain?” asked Mun Bun. Generally when there was a shower
coming up he knew the need of haste.
“No, it isn’t going to rain,” said Russ. “If it did it would send the
bees into shelter and they wouldn’t take after that boy.”
“Do you think they stung him much?” asked Rose.
“From the way he yelled I should say they stung him pretty hard,” Russ
answered. “I’m glad they didn’t come our way.”
By this time they were some distance from their picnic ground, and no
bees were buzzing around them.
“Do you think they were Farmer Joel’s bees?” asked Rose of Russ, as
they walked on toward the house.
“I’m pretty sure of it,” was his reply. “No one else around here keeps
honey bees.”
“Are there any other kinds of bees except honey bees?” Vi wanted to
know.
“Oh, yes,” answered Rose. “Ask mother about them—or daddy.”
“What’s the matter, children, didn’t you have fun at your picnic?”
Norah wanted to know, when the six little Bunkers came straggling back,
some hours before she expected them. Farmer Joel and Mr. and Mrs.
Bunker were still in town.
“Yes, we had some fun,” answered Rose. “But we had to come back to get
more lunch,” for she had decided, as it was not yet late, they could go
back to the woods.
“You want more lunch!” cried the good-natured cook. “Bless and save us,
my dears! But if you ate all that, and want more—oh, I wouldn’t dare
give it to you! Your mother wouldn’t like it. You’d get sick.”
“But we didn’t eat it!” cried Laddie.
“You didn’t? Who did?”
“The peddler boy!”
And then the story was told—about the bees and everything. Norah
laughed when she heard how the bad boy had been sent howling into
the woods by the stings of the honey insects, and she quickly put up
another lunch for the children.
“But if you go back to the same place to eat it,” she said, “that same
peddler boy may take it again.”
“No, he won’t!” cried Russ. “If he does—I’ll take a big club along this
time.”
“And we’ll hide the lunch where he can’t find it,” added Laddie.
“I guess we’ll be so hungry we’ll eat it as soon as we get to the
woods and then there won’t be anything left for him to take,” observed
Violet. And this was voted the best idea of all.
“But maybe the bees might sting you,” said Norah. “Perhaps you had
better stay around here and eat.”
“No, thank you,” answered Russ. “We’ll go just a little way into the
woods—not as far as before, and then the bees won’t come. But did any
swarm get away from here, Norah? It was a swarm of bees we saw in the
woods chasing that peddler boy.”
“No, I didn’t hear of any swarm getting away from here,” said Norah.
“But then I don’t know much about bees. Better ask Adam.”
Before starting off on their second picnic Russ found the hired man and
inquired about the swarm of bees.
“No, they didn’t come from here,” said Adam. “I’ve been around the
orchard all day and I’ve seen no bees starting out to take an excursion
with the queen. They must be from somewhere else, but I don’t know of
any one who has bees around here except Farmer Joel.”
The children gave little more thought to the bees, because they were
hungry and wanted to have fun off in the woods eating the second lunch
that Norah had put up for them.
This time no bad boy took the good things, and the six little Bunkers
had the cakes and sandwiches for themselves. It was while they were
walking along the road on their way home later in the afternoon that
the carriage of Dr. Snow passed them.
The six little Bunkers had met Dr. Snow a few weeks before, when one of
Farmer Joel’s hired men had cut his foot with an axe. The doctor had
called at the farmhouse several times and now knew every one from Mun
Bun to Russ. Seeing the doctor driving past in a hurry and knowing that
by this time Mr. and Mrs. Bunker must be at home, Russ began to wonder
if an accident had happened.
“Is any one sick at Farmer Joel’s?” called Russ, as the doctor’s
carriage drove past.
“No, my little man. No, I’m glad to say,” answered Dr. Snow, pulling
his horses to a stop. “I’m not going to stop at Farmer Joel’s. I’m on
my way to see a peddler boy who lives on the other side of the valley.
They telephoned me to come to see him. He has been badly stung by bees.”
“Oh, that must be our boy!” cried Rose.
“Your boy?” exclaimed the doctor.
“I mean the one who took our lunch,” and Rose related the story.
“Yes, very likely it’s the same boy,” said the physician, with a smile.
“Well, I’ll do the best I can for him. But I think this will be a
lesson to him.”
The doctor drove on and the six little Bunkers hurried to the house and
soon were telling their father and mother all that had happened during
the day.
“What’s that?” asked Farmer Joel, when he heard the tale. “Some bees
came out of the woods and stung the boy, you say?”
“You should have heard him yell!” remarked Russ.
“Well, I don’t like to see any one hurt,” went on Farmer Joel. “But
this story of bees in the woods is a strange one. No swarms have left
my hives lately and—say, wait—I have an idea!” he suddenly cried.
“Did you see a hollow tree anywhere near the place the bees swarmed out
on the boy and stung him?” asked the farmer of Russ.
“No,” was the answer. “We weren’t close enough to see a hollow tree.
But we could see the bees.”
“And we could see the boy dance,” added Laddie.
“Hum!” mused Farmer Joel. “It’s just possible now,” he proceeded, “that
these bees are the same swarm that went away with my fifty-dollar queen
soon after you six little Bunkers arrived. In fact, I’m pretty sure
they’re my bees, but I’m going to find out for certain. That’s what I’m
going to do!”
“How can you?” asked Mr. Bunker.
“I’ll get your children to show me as nearly as they can the place the
bees stung this peddler boy, and I’ll look around there for my missing
swarm and the queen. They must have made a home for themselves in some
hollow tree, those bees must, and when the boy wandered too near it
they swarmed out and stung him, for they thought he was after the honey
they had stored there.”
“But if the runaway bees rushed out and stung the boy, won’t they come
out and sting you if you try to get them back?” asked Mrs. Bunker.
“I’ll wait until cold weather, until the bees are asleep in the tree,
and then, if I find them, I can safely bring them in without getting
stung,” said Farmer Joel. “It would be strange if your children should
be the means of me finding my lost queen. I’d be very glad to get her
back.”
“Maybe the peddler boy could tell where the bee tree is,” suggested
Adam North.
“I guess he won’t want to talk about bees for a long while,” chuckled
Farmer Joel. Dr. Snow had stopped at the farmhouse on his way home
after visiting the lad, and had said the boy was badly stung.
“His face is swelled up like a balloon,” said the physician, “and he
can’t see out of his eyes. If you want to find that honey tree, Joel,
you’ll have to look for it yourself.”
And this Mr. Todd did the next day. As there might be considerable
walking to do, only the four older children went along with their
father and Farmer Joel.
They reached the first picnic ground and Rose pointed out the flat
stump where the lunch had been left before the peddler lad took it.
Then, as nearly as they could remember, the children pointed out where
in the woods they saw the leaping, slapping peddler boy. For it was
there that the bees began to sting him.
“And as so many came out at once it must have been near their honey
tree that it happened,” said the farmer.
Laddie and Russ and the two girls followed their father and Mr. Todd
over into the woods. It was very still and pleasant, the sun shining
down through the green leaves.
“I see some bees!” suddenly cried Laddie. “There’s a whole procession
of them.”
He pointed off to one side and there, flitting through the sunlight and
shadows of the forest could be seen a number of bees—dark bees with
yellow stripes, or bands, on their bodies.
“That’s my kind of bees—the Italian sort,” said Farmer Joel when he had
observed two or three near at hand gathering honey from wild flowers.
“But where do they have their nest—I mean their hive?” asked Russ.
“Oh, somewhere around here,” answered Farmer Joel. “We must look for a
hollow tree. But move carefully. I don’t want any of you to get stung,
though I brought my smoke machine. Guess I’ll start it going.”
He built a smudge fire inside the tin funnel with the bellows beneath
it, and soon smoke was being puffed out into the air. This kept the
bees away from the searchers for the honey tree.
Suddenly Russ exclaimed:
“I hear a humming sound. It’s like the humming your bees make in their
hives, Mr. Joel.”
“I hear it, too,” said Violet.
They looked and listened, and then, off to one side, they saw many bees
flying in through the hole in a tree. It was a hollow tree, that was
evident, and it was a dead one.
“Keep back, all of you,” said Farmer Joel, “and I’ll soon find out if
there are bees in there.”
While the others moved back he tossed a stick against the tree. It
struck with a hollow sound, and instantly a cloud of bees flew out.
“There they are! My bees!” cried Farmer Joel. “The queen must be with
them, for the bees wouldn’t stay and make honey without a queen. Well,
now that I know where they are, I’ll mark this tree and when cold
weather comes I’ll come here and take my bees back again—my bees and
the fifty dollar queen.”
“Are you glad we helped you find them?” asked Laddie.
“Indeed I am, little man! Thank you!” said Farmer Joel. “And to-night
you shall have hot biscuits and honey for supper.”
Marking the location of the tree, so it could easily be found again,
Farmer Joel returned to the house with Mr. Bunker, Russ and Laddie and
the two girls. They had found what they set out to find, and later on,
after the six little Bunkers returned home, there came a letter from
Mr. Todd, saying he had gotten his queen and swarm of bees back and
that also in the hollow tree was found fifty pounds of good honey.
“My bees kept on working for me, even if they ran away from home,” he
said in the letter.
With the finding of the lost swarm, the most exciting adventures of
the six little Bunkers at Farmer Joel’s came to a close. They did not
return home at once, for summer was not over and Miss Todd was not
ready to come home. But the peddler boy did not again bother them.
From Dr. Snow it was learned that the shoe-lace chap went back to the
city to sell things after his bee stings were cured. And I think he
never again took the picnic lunch of any little boys and girls.
“Well, Mother, and children, we must soon begin to think of getting
back home,” said Daddy Bunker, one day after a pleasant trip in the
woods and fields.
“Oh, it’s too soon to go home yet!” sighed Russ. “I want to stay until
the pumpkins are large enough to make into a jack-o’-lantern.”
“I wanted to gather some popcorn,” said Rose.
“Couldn’t we stay until chestnuts are ripe?” asked Laddie.
“I’m afraid not,” said his father. “I must get back to my real estate
business, and you children must get ready for school.”
But at least one wish came true, for a few days later Farmer Joel
brought into the house a big yellow pumpkin that had ripened faster
than any of the others. Out of this Russ made a jack-o’-lantern, and he
and the children had a jolly parade around the house that evening.
And so the summer of the six little Bunkers at Farmer Joel’s came to an
end, and they all said it was one of the happiest times they had ever
spent.
THE END
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS SERIES
By LAURA LEE HOPE
Author of “The Bobbsey Twins Books,”
“The Bunny Brown Series,”
“The Make-Believe Series,” Etc.
Durably Bound. Illustrated. Uniform Style of Binding
Delightful stories for little boys and girls which sprung into
immediate popularity. To know the six little Bunkers is to take them
at once to your heart, they are so intensely human, so full of fun and
cute sayings. Each story has a little plot of its own—one that can be
easily followed—and all are written in Miss Hope’s most entertaining
manner. Clean, wholesome volumes which ought to be on the bookshelf of
every child in the land.
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT GRANDMA BELL’S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT AUNT JO’S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT COUSIN TOM’S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT GRANDPA FORDS
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT UNCLE FRED’S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN’S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT COWBOY JACK’S
GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
THE BOBBSEY TWINS BOOKS
For Little Men and Women
By LAURA LEE HOPE
Author of “The Bunny Brown” Series, Etc.
12mo. DURABLY BOUND. ILLUSTRATED. UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING
Copyright publications which cannot be obtained elsewhere. Books that
charm the hearts of the little ones, and of which they never tire.
THE BOBBSEY TWINS
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE SEASHORE
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SCHOOL
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SNOW LODGE
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON A HOUSEBOAT
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT MEADOW BROOK
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT HOME
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN A GREAT CITY
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON BLUEBERRY ISLAND
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON THE DEEP BLUE SEA
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE GREAT WEST
GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES
By LAURA LEE HOPE
Author of the Popular “Bobbsey Twins” Books
Wrapper and text illustrations drawn by
FLORENCE ENGLAND NOSWORTHY
12mo. DURABLY BOUND. ILLUSTRATED. UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING
These stories by the author of the “Bobbsey Twins” Books are eagerly
welcomed by the little folks from about five to ten years of age. Their
eyes fairly dance with delight at the lively doings of inquisitive
little Bunny Brown and his cunning, trustful sister Sue.
Bunny was a lively little boy, very inquisitive. When he did anything,
Sue followed his leadership. They had many adventures, some comical in
the extreme.
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON GRANDPA’S FARM
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE PLAYING CIRCUS
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CAMP REST-A-WHILE
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT AUNT LU’S CITY HOME
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE IN THE BIG WOODS
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON AN AUTO TOUR
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AND THEIR SHETLAND PONY
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE GIVING A SHOW
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CHRISTMAS TREE COVE
GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
THE MAKE-BELIEVE STORIES
(Trademark Registered.)
By LAURA LEE HOPE
Author of THE BOBBSEY TWINS BOOKS, ETC.
Colored Wrappers and Illustrations by HARRY L. SMITH
In this fascinating line of books Miss Hope has the various toys come
to life “when nobody is looking” and she puts them through a series of
adventures as interesting as can possibly be imagined.
THE STORY OF A SAWDUST DOLL
How the toys held a party at the Toy Counter; how the Sawdust Doll
was taken to the home of a nice little girl, and what happened to her
there.
THE STORY OF A WHITE ROCKING HORSE
He was a bold charger and a man purchased him for his son’s birthday.
Once the Horse had to go to the Toy Hospital, and my! what sights he
saw there.
THE STORY OF A LAMB ON WHEELS
She was a dainty creature and a sailor bought her and took her to a
little girl relative and she had a great time.
THE STORY OF A BOLD TIN SOLDIER
He was Captain of the Company and marched up and down in the store at
night. Then he went to live with a little boy and had the time of his
life.
THE STORY OF A CANDY RABBIT
He was continually in danger of losing his life by being eaten up.
But he had plenty of fun, and often saw his many friends from the Toy
Counter.
THE STORY OF A MONKEY ON A STICK
He was mighty lively and could do many tricks. The boy who owned him
gave a show, and many of the Monkey’s friends were among the actors.
THE STORY OF A CALICO CLOWN
He was a truly comical chap and all the other toys loved him greatly.
THE STORY OF A NODDING DONKEY
He made happy the life of a little lame boy and did lots of other good
deeds.
THE STORY OF A CHINA CAT
The Cat had many adventures, but enjoyed herself most of the time.
THE STORY OF A PLUSH BEAR
This fellow came from the North Pole, stopped for a while at the toy
store, and was then taken to the seashore by his little master.
THE STORY OF A STUFFED ELEPHANT
He was a wise looking animal and had a great variety of adventures.
GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
Transcriber’s Notes
pg 196 Changed: bathed the sore sport with witch hazel
to: bathed the sore spot with witch hazel