XV
THE PRISONER
Buster b.u.mblebee did not stay long in the dooryard of the missing Carpenter. Saying a mournful good-by to the sad company, he flew away toward Farmer Green"s house. It was there that the Carpenter was a prisoner. And Buster could only hope that he might find some way of setting the woodworker free.
Luckily Buster b.u.mblebee did not have to look long for what he was seeking. On the porch of the farmhouse he soon discovered a honey box, with gla.s.s sides. And whom should he see inside it, sitting on a little heap of wild rose leaves and looking forlorn and unhappy--whom should Buster see but the Carpenter.
Buster crowded close against the gla.s.s and began to call so loud that the Carpenter couldn"t help hearing him. And then the poor fellow came and stood on the other side of the gla.s.s barrier, as near Buster as he could get.
"Why don"t you come out?" Buster asked.
"How can I?" said the Carpenter. "Don"t you see that I"m a prisoner?"
"Yes! But why don"t you cut your way out?" Buster b.u.mblebee asked him.
"Well, I"ve tried," the Carpenter confessed. "But this gla.s.s is so hard that I can"t even dent it."
"But you"re a woodworker--not a gla.s.s-worker!" exclaimed Buster b.u.mblebee. "And if you"re as skillful as people say you are, you ought to be able to bore a hole through one of the wooden ends of your prison."
At that suggestion the Carpenter looked decidedly happier.
"That"s so!" he exclaimed. "I wish I had thought of that before."
Of course it was Buster that thought of the plan, then; but he didn"t say so to the Carpenter. Instead, Buster shouted through the gla.s.s:
"Get to work at once! And I"ll wait for you."
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 b.u.mblebee!" one of them exclaimed. And the other echoed immediately, "He"s a b.u.mblebee!" 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 gla.s.s 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 b.u.mblebee."
"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 b.u.mblebees, 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 b.u.mblebee 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 b.u.mblebees. And if Buster b.u.mblebee 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 gla.s.s 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 b.u.mblebees 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 b.u.mblebee 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 b.u.mblebees 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 gla.s.s sides of his prison, which his captor held tightly in one hand, Buster b.u.mblebee 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 b.u.mblebees 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 b.u.mblebee felt himself falling. Then followed a crash of splintering gla.s.s. 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.