Chapter 2

"How could we get the Firefly family to help us? Have you thought of a way to do that?" Buster's mother said to her son.

"N-no, I haven't," he admitted. "But I'd go straight to Freddie Firefly and tell him what's wanted."

"Suppose you do that, then," said the Queen.

"You wouldn't call that WORKING, would you?" Buster inquired anxiously. Having long since promised himself that he would never work, of course he didn't want to break his word.

His relations--that is, except his mother--couldn't help tittering when Buster said that. But to tell the truth, they were beginning to be the least bit jealous of Buster Bumblebee and his plan. When the Queen frowned at them severely, each of them tried to look as if it had been somebody else that laughed.

Then the Queen assured Buster that paying a call on a person couldn't be said to be work.

"You go and talk with Freddie Firefly," she directed him, "and if your plan proves to be a success, it will then be your turn to laugh at others."

IX

FREDDIE'S PROMISE

Buster Bumblebee did not find Freddie Firefly very easily. It was a sunny afternoon; and if Freddie was flashing his bright light, Buster was unable to see it. But at last he spied Freddie eating a meal of pollen in the meadow.

"How would you like to work for my mother, the Queen?" Buster asked him.

"I don't believe I'd care to, thank you," Freddie Firefly answered, with a mouth so full of food that Buster heard him only with great difficulty.

"I'll wait a moment, until you have finished your lunch," said Buster.

"You'd better not!" Freddie Firefly told him. "It will be dark by that time. And Chirpy Cricket tells me your family always goes to bed at sunset."

"So we do!" Buster agreed. "But my mother, the Queen, is going to order her honey-makers to work overtime for the present. And she wants you and your family to furnish lights so they can see what they're doing." "Oh! That's different!" Freddie Firefly exclaimed. "I thought she wanted me to help make honey. And that's something I know nothing about. ... But when it comes to furnishing a light, I'm certainly a shining success." Freddie then laughed heartily. And much to his surprise, Buster Bumblebee gave him several hard slaps on the back, which hurt him not a little.

"Don't do that!" Freddie Firefly cried.

"I thought you were choking," Buster, explained.

Freddie Firefly shook his head.

"I was joking," he said.

"Well, I didn't make much of a mistake; for joking and choking sound about the same," Buster Bumblebee replied.

"I hope your mother's honey-makers can tell the difference," Freddie Firefly grumbled. "If they can't, I certainly don't care to spend a night in their company."

"Oh, you won't have any trouble with them. They'll be working so busily that they'll hardly notice you," Buster Bumblebee assured him.

So Freddie Firefly promised to be at the house of the Bumblebee family, in the meadow, at dusk. And he said he would try to bring plenty of his relations with him, so that there might be one of them to light the way for each of the honey-makers.

And then Buster Bumblebee hurried away to tell his mother the news.

The Queen praised Buster for what he had done, telling him that in her opinion he would soon be the wisest person in Pleasant Valley--not even excepting old Mr. Crow and Solomon Owl.

Buster was so pleased that he made up his mind to stay awake that evening, in order to see the workers start out for the clover field after dark with Freddie Firefly and his relations. But when sunset came, Buster simply couldn't keep from falling asleep.

Not until the next morning did he know how his plan had turned out. And since it proved to be less successful than he had expected, perhaps it was just as well that he was not present to hear the remarks that were made about him.

Even Freddie Firefly said things about Buster that night that would not have been at all pleasant to listen to.

X

DRAWING LOTS

Buster Bumblebee's mother told her forty-nine honey-makers that Freddie Firefly and at least forty-eight of his relations were expected at the Bumblebees' house at dusk.

"Each of the Fireflies will furnish each of you with a light," the Queen explained, "so you'll be able to go to the clover field almost as easily as you do in the daytime. You're to work until midnight. And after that you may sleep until the trumpeter wakes you at dawn."

The Queen's announcement did not please the honey-makers in the least. They were an ill-tempered lot, anyhow. And when things did not go to suit them they sometimes made themselves most disagreeable.

Of course they didn't dare grumble in the Queen's hearing. But behind her back they spoke their minds quite freely.

"It's all the fault of that boy Buster," they told one another. "If he hadn't suggested his horrid plan to his mother we wouldn't have to work half the night and lose half our sleep."

"I wish he was here now!" one of the honey-makers exclaimed fiercely. "I'd make it hot for him!"

Usually the honey-makers began to grow very drowsy at that time of day (it was then late in the afternoon). But now they were so angry that they were not the least bit sleepy. Their own buzzing kept them awake. And the Queen was glad that it was so, because she herself never could have stopped so many of them from going to sleep. And even then, if the truth must be known, the Queen wished that she might go to bed. Never in all her life had she been up so late before.

"I wish the Fireflies would hurry!" she exclaimed as she stood at the front-door of her house and looked across the fast darkening field.

As she watched anxiously, the Queen soon spied a light, which kept growing brighter and brighter, until at last Freddie Firefly dropped down before her. He took off his cap and made a low bow.

"Here I am, Queen!" he said.

"Where's the rest of your family?" Buster Bumblebee's mother asked him.

"They all had to go to a dance down by the swamp," Freddie Firefly explained. "They wanted me to go with them; but I had promised your son that I'd be here at dusk. And of course I wouldn't think of breaking my promise."

Well, the Queen was terribly disappointed.

"You never can furnish enough light for my forty-nine workers!" she cried.

"Perhaps not!" Freddie admitted. "But I'd be glad to take one of them to the clover-patch to-night, just as a trial, you know."

The Queen said that that was a good idea. And the honey-makers, who had come outside the house, all agreed that it was a fine suggestion. But not one of them wanted to go with Freddie.

"Then you'll have to draw lots," the Queen told them severely.

When the honey-makers heard that, one of them tried to slip away. But the Queen saw her and called her back.

Then they drew lots. And strange to say, the worker who had tried to escape proved to be the unlucky one who was doomed to go to the clover field with Freddie Firefly and gather clover nectar until midnight.

Unluckily for Freddie, she was the worst-tempered person in the whole Bumblebee household. And when she saw that she alone of the whole family was going to lose half her night's sleep you may be sure she felt very surly.

Freddie noticed a wicked gleam in her eyes. And he began to wish he had gone to the dance over near the swamp.

XI

PEPPERY POLLY

Freddie Firefly felt quite uncomfortable as he started off toward the clover field, together with the angry honey-maker. It had not made him feel any more at ease when the Queen of the Bumblebees told him the worker's name. It was Peppery Polly.

"Don't go too fast!" Peppery Polly told Freddie Firefly. "And I'll tell you now that I'll make it warm for you if you try to play any tricks on me to-night."

As a matter of fact, Freddie hadn't thought of such a thing as playing a single trick on her. But Peppery Polly's warning at once put that very idea into his head. So he began to try to think of a good joke that would bother her. And before they had crossed the meadow Freddie Firefly turned to Peppery Polly Bumblebee and said:

"That light off there must be in the farmhouse."

Now, never having been out at night before, his companion wanted to see all the strange sights. So she stopped at once and looked around.

"How bright the light is!" she said. "Are you sure the farmhouse isn't on fire?"

Not receiving any answer, she turned her head. And to her dismay, she couldn't see Freddie Firefly anywhere.

"Oh! Oh! Where are you?" she cried. She was terribly frightened to be left alone in the dark. "Come back--please come back!" she begged.

"Why, here I am!" said Freddie Firefly.

And wheeling about quickly, Peppery Polly found him clinging to a blade of grass right behind her.

Freddie had been hiding under a plantain leaf, so that she couldn't see his light. But Peppery Polly didn't know what had happened.

"Did your light go out?" she inquired anxiously.

"If it did, I never noticed it," he replied.

"Well, don't you dare to leave me alone, no matter what happens!" Peppery Polly Bumblebee cried. "If you did, I'd never be able to find my way home in the dark."

"Don't worry!" Freddie said. "You're perfectly safe with me. ... What I'm wondering is whether I'm perfectly safe with you."

"You are--so long as you behave yourself," she declared. "But remember! I'll make it hot for you if you try any tricks on me! Don't forget that I carry a sting! And what's more, I know how to use it."

Her threat, however, failed to frighten Freddie Firefly. As soon as he saw that his companion was afraid of the dark, he ceased to be afraid of her. So he flashed his light impudently in her eyes.

"Come on!" he urged her with a grin which she could not see. "Let's get to the clover field, for I like to see people work."

"You do, eh?" snapped Peppery Polly.

"Yes! Watching others work is play for me," he remarked cheerfully. "And I hope to have as much fun to-night as I would have had if I'd gone to the dance over near the swamp."

"Are you fond of music?" Peppery Polly asked him suddenly.

"Am I?" he exclaimed. "I should say I was!"

"Then tell me how you like this," she said. And she began to sing the most terrible song that Freddie Firefly had ever heard in all his life.

XII

A TERRIBLE SONG

It was no wonder that Freddie Firefly grew uneasy again as he listened to the song of Peppery Polly Bumblebee, while they flew towards the clover field through the darkness. The chorus, especially, filled him with alarm. And he shuddered as the disagreeable honey-maker sang it:

"I've never learned to take a joke; So if you try to trick me, My sting in you I'll quickly poke-- You'll find that it will prick ye! It feels like fire--though twice as hot. And I would rather sting than not!"

"How do you like that?" Peppery Polly inquired, after she had finished her song.

"You have a beautiful voice," Freddie Firefly hastened to tell her.

"Yes--of course!" she agreed. "But I refer to the words. What do you think of them?"

"I think they're awful!" Freddie Firefly cried; for his companion had scared the truth out of him before he stopped to think how it would sound.

"Quite right!" said Peppery Polly. "I made up that song. And I flatter myself it's about the worst I ever heard." To Freddie Firefly's relief, she seemed quite pleased.

He was able to draw a deep breath again as they reached the field of red clover, where Peppery Polly Bumblebee settled quickly upon a clover-top and began sucking up the sweet nectar with her long tongue. For some time she worked busily without saying a word. And indeed, how could she have spoken with her tongue buried deep in the heart of a clover blossom?

But when she withdrew her tongue and flitted from one clover-top to another, she never failed to fix her wicked eyes on Freddie Firefly and demand "more light--and be quick about it!"

Since no harm had yet fallen him, he began to wonder after a while if Peppery Polly's bark was not worse than her bite--or perhaps it would be better to say that he wondered if her song was not worse than her sting. Anyhow, he knew that he was very tired of her masterful way of speaking to him. And he soon determined to play another trick on her.

"Here's a big blossom you haven't tasted!" he called to her suddenly. And Peppery Polly--thinking that Freddie meant a clover blossom--hastened to a bloom that Freddie pointed out to her.

She settled upon it quickly. And the next moment Peppery Polly gave a sharp cry of mingled rage and pain.

"What's the matter?" Freddie Firefly asked her.

"Matter!" she exclaimed. "It's a thistle--and I've pricked myself badly."

"Why, so it is a thistle blossom!" said Freddie Firefly. "It's about the same color as a clover head; and I suppose you didn't know the difference in the dark."

"The question is, did YOU know the difference?" Peppery Polly screamed--for she was terribly angry.

"Really, I must decline to answer when you speak to me in such a tone," said Freddie Firefly. And he was quite surprised that the furious honey-maker didn't dart towards him and try to sink her sting into him.

But nothing of the sort happened. And Freddie soon saw that Peppery Polly was in some kind of trouble.

XIII

CAUGHT BY A THISTLE

"You'll have to help me," Peppery Polly Bumblebee said to Freddie Firefly through the darkness. "If you'd been a little less stingy with that light of yours I wouldn't have made the mistake of thinking this thistle was a clover blossom."

"Well, there's nectar in it, isn't there?" he inquired.

"I suppose so," she answered. "But I can't get it. And I'm so daubed with the sticky stuff that's spread right where I put my feet that I can't free myself."

Freddie flew quite close to her and flashed his light upon her. And he saw that she had spoken truly.

"What a pity!" he exclaimed.

"Don't stop to talk!" the honey-maker snapped. "Just help me to get away from this thistle. And THEN you can talk all you want to. In fact, I'll give you something to talk about."

Freddie Firefly was not so dull-witted but that he knew she intended to punish him for sending her to the thistle blossom.

"I'll go back to your house and bring somebody to help you, if I can," he said. "Don't you see that it wouldn't be safe for me to try to pull you loose? I might get stuck there myself. And we'd be prisoners for the rest of the night."

Peppery Polly hadn't thought of that. And she was inclined to believe that there might be some such danger.

"You may go for help," she said at last. "But please remember that there's no time to lose. The Queen won't like it at all when she hears about this accident, for she expected me to fetch home a good deal of nectar before midnight."

"I'll hurry. And I'll be back as soon as I can bring one of your fellow-workers with me," Freddie Firefly promised.

Since he was a person of his word, he went straight back to the home of the Bumblebee family in the meadow. Being used to finding his way about after dark, Freddie had no trouble reaching the Bumblebees' home. But rousing the household was an entirely different matter. Though he pounded his hardest at their door, none of the Bumblebee family heard him. Having always slept from sunset till dawn without once waking, they were wrapped in such heavy slumber that not one of them knew what was going on.

To be sure, the family trumpeter--who awakened the household each morning and was a somewhat lighter sleeper than the others--the trumpeter claimed afterward that she DREAMED that she heard somebody at the door that night. But that was all the good that came of Freddie Firefly's efforts.

After trying his best to rouse Peppery Polly's people, Freddie Firefly at last grew discouraged. He saw that the Bumblebee family was bound to sleep until dawn came, no matter what happened.

He reflected, then, that there were two things he could do. He could go back alone to the clover field and try to set that ill-tempered worker free--and no doubt get stung by her for his pains. Or he could go to the dance of the Fireflies over near the swamp, and have a delightful time.

"Let me see!" Freddie mused aloud. "I promised Peppery Polly that I'd come back with one of her own people--IF _I_ COULD. And since I can't do that, I ought not to go back to the clover-patch at all. For if I did, it would be about the same as breaking a promise. ... No! I'll go to the dance instead!" And away he flew.

Luckily the dance was not half finished when he reached it. And he had such a pleasant time that he forgot all about that Bumblebee worker, stuck fast to the thistle blossom.

But you may be sure that Peppery Polly did not forget him. After her friends set her free the following morning she spent the whole day looking for Freddie Firefly.

But he lay very low. And all the rest of the summer he shunned the clover field--and the flower garden, too.

XIV

JENNIE JUNEBUG

On the day--or rather, on the night--when he first met Jennie Junebug, Freddie Firefly was ill at ease. In fact it might be truthfully said that he was quite upset.

One beautiful, warm, dark night early in the summer Freddie was hurrying to join a big family party which was already gathering in the hollow beyond the hill.

He was scooting along through the damp air, flashing his light at the rate of about thirty-six times a minute, when a heavy body bumped into him and knocked him head over heels upon the grass-carpeted ground.

It was no wonder that he felt upset. And he felt quite peevish, too, as he picked himself up and looked about him to see what had happened.

The next moment he was flashing his light into the blinking eyes of an enormous fat person, who seemed to be dazed, either by the shock of the collision or by the light--Freddie Firefly couldn't tell which.

"Why don't you look where you're going?" Freddie cried impatiently. "You knocked the breath out of me. And you almost broke one of my legs." The next instant he was heartily ashamed of himself; for he saw, to his surprise, that he was talking to a lady. "Oh! I beg your pardon!" he cried. "Ex--excuse me! I hope you're not seriously injured?"

"Oh, no!" wheezed the fat lady. "I'm all right. It's no matter, I assure you. I'm quite used to running into things after dark."

Freddie Firefly didn't quite like being referred to as a THING. But he was too polite to say so.

"You ought to be careful," he told the strange fat lady. "It's dangerous for one of your weight--"

"Oh, don't!" she exclaimed quickly. "PLEASE don't tell me I'm fat! I've tried every remedy I know and I can't lose a single pound!"

"Don't you think that flying makes you thinner?" Freddie Firefly asked her.

But the stout person shook her head dolefully.

"It only seems to make me bigger," she groaned.

"Then why do you do it?"

"Oh, I just adore flying!" she cried. "Don't you?"

Freddie Firefly admitted that he did like to fly. And he was sorry, the next moment, that he had made such a statement. For the fat lady blinked happily at him. And clasping her hands together, she said:

"Oh, do let's fly together, then!"

Freddie Firefly was so taken aback that at first he couldn't think what to say. But at last he managed to stammer a reply.

"Why--why--I--I'll be glad to, but I don't even know your name!" he told her.

"It's Jennie Junebug," she explained, as she fanned herself with a fan made from a white clover leaf.

"You're a newcomer in these parts, aren't you?" Freddie Firefly inquired.

"I just arrived here this month," she informed him. "This is the month of June, you know. And I'm one of the well-known Junebug family. ... I already know who you are," she continued. "You've been pointed out to me. You are Freddie Firefly; and you can't deny it."

XV

THE FAT LADY'S SECRET

Somehow, the longer Freddie Firefly talked with Jennie Junebug, the more he wished that he might fly off and leave her there in the meadow. But he had just the same as told her that he would be glad to fly with her. And he really didn't see how he could escape that unpleasant duty.

"Well, we may as well move on," he said at last. "Where were you going when we ran into each other?"

"Oh, nowhere in particular!" she answered. "Where were YOU going?"

Freddie Firefly had to bite his lip to keep from telling her that he had been on his way to a family party in the hollow beyond the hill. He certainly didn't want to go there in the company of that strange fat lady.

"I WAS going over the hill," he faltered at last. "But I'd rather stay here in the meadow with you."

"How nice of you to say that!" Jennie Junebug murmured. "And now let's begin flying at once!" she said.

So they rose into the air. But they hadn't flown more than a few feet when Jennie once more banged squarely into her companion.

It was a terrific blow. And Freddie Firefly soon found himself lying flat on the ground. He was so nearly stunned that he scarcely knew what had happened.

"What fun!" the fat lady gurgled right in his ear, with a horrible laugh. "Come! Let's do it again!"

"Do it again!" Freddie Firefly repeated after her, as a sudden fear gripped him. "Do you mean to tell me that you ran into me ON PURPOSE?" "Why, certainly!" she replied. "Running into a light is more than half the fun of flying."

Her terrible secret was out at last. If Freddie Firefly had been older and wiser he would have known, in the beginning, that his first collision with the fat lady was no accident. The whole Junebug family were alike in one respect: preferring to fly at night, whenever they saw a light anywhere they made straight for it as fast as they could fly. Sometimes they landed with a crash against one of the farmhouse windows. Sometimes they struck the lantern, if Farmer Green happened to be carrying it across the farmyard. It really made little difference to a Junebug what he--or she--hit, so long as it gleamed brightly out of the night.

Well, Freddie Firefly saw at last that he was in a terrible fix. He knew now why Jennie Junebug had asked him to fly with her. It was on account of his flashing light! And the dreadful creature actually expected him to fly for her so that she might have the pleasure of bowling him over every time he rose into the air.

Such a practice was disagreeable, to say the least. Indeed, Freddie Firefly thought it was positively dangerous, for him.

"Come! Come!" Jennie Junebug urged him playfully, even while he lay on the ground trying to get his breath. "If you don't hurry and fly some more I shall knock you over right where you are!"

Freddie Firefly answered her with a faint moan. He couldn't run away from her. So he thought of hiding. But he had promised to fly with her. And she was a lady.

What could he do?

XVI

FREDDIE'S ESCAPE

There was really nothing Freddie Firefly could do except struggle to his feet and try to think at the same time. Flashing his light upon Jennie Junebug he saw that she was looking at him fondly. And that made him detest her more than ever.

"You seem to be enjoying yourself," he said spitefully.

"Yes, indeed!" the fat lady exclaimed. "I haven't had such sport for a whole week. One of your cousins flew with me one night. And we had a fine time. No doubt we'd be enjoying each other's company yet, if I hadn't had a bit of bad luck."

"What was that?" Freddie Firefly asked her quickly. He thought that if he could only keep his dreadful companion TALKING, perhaps she would forget about FLYING--and knocking him down. "What was your bad luck?" he repeated impatiently.

Jennie Junebug paused and wiped her eyes.

"It was dreadful!" she said at last, as soon as she could control her shaking voice. "It was the worst accident that ever happened to me. ... Your cousin broke his neck!"

Although Freddie Firefly sank back with a groan, she did not seem to notice him.