The Tale of Buster Bumblebee Part 9

From his seat on the beam Buster b.u.mblebee looked down at the fiddle, upon which the fiddler was sc.r.a.ping 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 b.u.mblebee 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 b.u.mblebee 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 b.u.mblebee in the pumpkin."

"b.u.mblebee!" Buster cried. "Pardon me--but you are mistaken yourself.

That's no b.u.mblebee. 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 b.u.mblebee--in a pumpkin."

"What pumpkin?" Buster wanted to know.

"Well, that one--I suppose," old dog Spot told him, c.o.c.king an eye and an ear towards a big yellow pumpkin, which someone had set on a wide shelf on the wall.

Buster b.u.mblebee 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 b.u.mblebee 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 b.u.mblebee bl.u.s.tered back to old dog Spot once more.

"You're certainly wrong!" he exclaimed. "There's no b.u.mblebee--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 b.u.mblebee, looking much puzzled.

"Well, _I_ did," old Spot replied. "And that proves that I'm right."

Buster b.u.mblebee 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 b.u.mblebee 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 b.u.mblebee 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 b.u.mblebee 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 b.u.mblebee 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

"Where have you been keeping yourself?" Buster b.u.mblebee cried, the moment he caught sight of Jimmy Rabbit's ears sticking up from behind a head of Farmer Green's lettuce. "It's quite plain that you forgot to meet me, so I might tell you about the raising bee."

At that Jimmy Rabbit promptly replied that he had come there each morning.

"Anyhow," he said, "you promised to meet me. And since you haven't met me until now it must be your fault, for you certainly haven't done as you agreed."

Buster b.u.mblebee looked puzzled. He was sure that the fault had not been his. But his wits were not so nimble as Jimmy Rabbit's. And he could think of no answer at all.

"Well, what do you know about the raising bee?" Jimmy asked him with an encouraging smile.

"You were mistaken about that," Buster told him eagerly. "There wasn't any raising bee. Farmer Green's neighbors for miles around came to help him put up the frame of his new barn. And afterwards they enjoyed a feast under the trees--and a dance."

Jimmy Rabbit began to shake in a very strange manner.

"Ho! ho!" he cried in a jolly voice. "You are the one that's mistaken--and not I! You saw a raising bee and didn't know it! Farmer Green's friends _raised_ the timbers for the barn. And that's why it's called a _raising_ bee. Any helpful, neighborly gathering like that is known as a _bee_--though you may not be aware of that fact."

Buster b.u.mblebee stared open-mouthed. He had never suspected such a thing. But Jimmy Rabbit said it was so. And there was nothing to do but believe him.

"So they had something to eat--and a dance too, eh?" said Jimmy Rabbit pleasantly.

"Yes," said Buster, "and there was a b.u.mblebee in a pumpkin, though I couldn't see him. But old dog Spot said he did. And I suppose I was mistaken, for I thought he was inside a fiddle."

And now Jimmy Rabbit was laughing again, holding his sides and shaking so hard that it seemed as if his ears would fall off if he didn't stop soon.

"No, you were not mistaken at all!" he cried, as soon as he could speak again. "That's an old, old tune. My grandfather has hummed it to me many a time. He used to say that there never was another tune just like it."