"But you don"t need to call on Mrs. Green!" Chirpy Cricket cried.
"That"s not your banner, you know. It belongs to Mehitable Moth."
"I"m afraid Mrs. Green has heard I"m coming; and I don"t want to disappoint her," Freddie replied.
And then he sprang from his perch and went zigzagging away.
One might think that Chirpy Cricket would have been quite upset by the breaking up of his torchlight procession. But being naturally cheerful, he merely smiled and said that it was plain that the Fireflies were a very flighty family.
VIII
BUSTER"S SCHEME
About the time summer was half gone, Buster b.u.mblebee"s mother, the Queen, began to worry. She was afraid her workers were not going to make enough honey for her family"s needs.
Then came a few days of steady rain, when the workers of the b.u.mblebee family couldn"t venture away from home, on account of getting their wings wet. And of course the Queen was terribly upset.
"I don"t know what to do!" she kept exclaiming. "The days are already growing shorter. It"s a pity the honeymakers can"t work in the dark."
Buster b.u.mblebee happened to hear his mother talking in that fashion with some of the older members of the family. And he spoke up at once and said:
"I know of a plan that might help."
n.o.body paid the slightest attention to his remark, because the whole family thought that Buster was not only fat and lazy, but somewhat stupid as well.
"I know of something you could do that would help," he persisted, in a much louder voice. "The honey-makers could work after dark if you"d only get the Firefly family to furnish lights for them."
A number of Buster"s relations snickered when they heard his plan. It struck them as being too silly for anything. But his mother, the Queen, looked very thoughtful.
"I"m not sure but that this boy has a good idea," she observed, much to the surprise of the others. "For a long time I"ve been waiting for him to say something worth listening to. And now I do believe he has had a happy thought at last." She turned to Buster. "How did you chance upon this scheme?" she asked him.
"Oh, the notion just came to me. I didn"t have to WORK, to think of it,"
Buster explained. And he wondered why everybody laughed.
You know, Buster b.u.mblebee was so lazy that he never would lift a finger to do a stroke of work. And now the word "work" had a very funny sound, coming from his mouth.
"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 t.i.ttering when Buster said that. But to tell the truth, they were beginning to be the least bit jealous of Buster b.u.mblebee 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 a.s.sured 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 b.u.mblebee 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 b.u.mblebee 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 b.u.mblebee 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 b.u.mblebee a.s.sured him.
So Freddie Firefly promised to be at the house of the b.u.mblebee 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 b.u.mblebee 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.