Chapter 3

So the Carpenter began to cut away at an end of the honey box. But unluckily for him, he had hardly begun his task when Johnnie Green came dancing out upon the porch, followed by two strange boys.

"Here he is!" cried Johnnie, kneeling beside the Carpenter's prison. "See him! Do you know what he is?"

The two strange boys did not wear overalls, like Johnnie Green. But they did not seem to mind that. They knelt right down beside him in their spick-and-span velvet suits and stared curiously at the Carpenter.

"He's a bumblebee!" one of them exclaimed. And the other echoed immediately, "He's a bumblebee!" Being twins, and looking just alike, they always tried to do and say the same things.

Johnnie Green did not tell them their mistake. With an odd smile he slid aside one of the glass doors of the Carpenter's prison and picked the frightened captive up with his fingers.

"Oh!" cried the two guests. "Won't he sting you?"

"Naw!" said Johnnie Green scornfully. "He won't sting me. He knows me."

For a few minutes the two city boys--for that is what they were--for a few minutes they watched Johnnie Green expectantly. They seemed to be waiting for something. And they were. They were waiting for Johnnie Green to be stung.

But nothing of the sort happened. And soon one of them said:

"I wish I had a pet bumblebee."

"So do I!" said the other twin.

"Do you?" asked Johnnie Green. "Well,--I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll give you each a honey box. And maybe you can catch some bumblebees, if you want to."

Of course, the twins were delighted. And Johnnie Green appeared pleased 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.