CHAPTER XXVTHE HONEY TREE
The six little Bunkers paused a moment before leaving the picnic grounds, where so sad a happening as losing their lunch had occurred, and looked toward the peddler boy. He was certainly running as hard as he could to get away from the stinging insects.
“It serves him right for taking our lunch!” declared Rose, though perhaps she shouldn’t have said it.
“Do you s’pose the bees knew he took our things? And did they sting him because they like us and because Farmer Joel has bees like these bees?” asked Violet, looking at a honey insect perched on a flower. Violet seemed to think it best to ask as many questions at once as possible.
But no one took the trouble to answer them. Russ and Rose were anxious to get the smaller children out of the way of the bees.
“Come, children! We’ve got to hurry, just as Russ says,” said Rose.
“Is it goin’ to rain?” asked Mun Bun. Generally when there was a shower coming up he knew the need of haste.
“No, it isn’t going to rain,” said Russ. “If it did it would send the bees into shelter and they wouldn’t take after that boy.”
“Do you think they stung him much?” asked Rose.
“From the way he yelled I should say they stung him pretty hard,” Russ answered. “I’m glad they didn’t come our way.”
By this time they were some distance from their picnic ground, and no bees were buzzing around them.
“Do you think they were Farmer Joel’s bees?” asked Rose of Russ, as they walked on toward the house.
“I’m pretty sure of it,” was his reply. “No one else around here keeps honey bees.”
“Are there any other kinds of bees except honey bees?” Vi wanted to know.
“Oh, yes,” answered Rose. “Ask mother about them—or daddy.”
“What’s the matter, children, didn’t youhave fun at your picnic?” Norah wanted to know, when the six little Bunkers came straggling back, some hours before she expected them. Farmer Joel and Mr. and Mrs. Bunker were still in town.
“Yes, we had some fun,” answered Rose. “But we had to come back to get more lunch,” for she had decided, as it was not yet late, they could go back to the woods.
“You want more lunch!” cried the good-natured cook. “Bless and save us, my dears! But if you ate all that, and want more—oh, I wouldn’t dare give it to you! Your mother wouldn’t like it. You’d get sick.”
“But we didn’t eat it!” cried Laddie.
“You didn’t? Who did?”
“The peddler boy!”
And then the story was told—about the bees and everything. Norah laughed when she heard how the bad boy had been sent howling into the woods by the stings of the honey insects, and she quickly put up another lunch for the children.
“But if you go back to the same place to eat it,” she said, “that same peddler boy may take it again.”
“No, he won’t!” cried Russ. “If he does—I’ll take a big club along this time.”
“And we’ll hide the lunch where he can’t find it,” added Laddie.
“I guess we’ll be so hungry we’ll eat it as soon as we get to the woods and then there won’t be anything left for him to take,” observed Violet. And this was voted the best idea of all.
“But maybe the bees might sting you,” said Norah. “Perhaps you had better stay around here and eat.”
“No, thank you,” answered Russ. “We’ll go just a little way into the woods—not as far as before, and then the bees won’t come. But did any swarm get away from here, Norah? It was a swarm of bees we saw in the woods chasing that peddler boy.”
“No, I didn’t hear of any swarm getting away from here,” said Norah. “But then I don’t know much about bees. Better ask Adam.”
Before starting off on their second picnic Russ found the hired man and inquired about the swarm of bees.
“No, they didn’t come from here,” saidAdam. “I’ve been around the orchard all day and I’ve seen no bees starting out to take an excursion with the queen. They must be from somewhere else, but I don’t know of any one who has bees around here except Farmer Joel.”
The children gave little more thought to the bees, because they were hungry and wanted to have fun off in the woods eating the second lunch that Norah had put up for them.
This time no bad boy took the good things, and the six little Bunkers had the cakes and sandwiches for themselves. It was while they were walking along the road on their way home later in the afternoon that the carriage of Dr. Snow passed them.
The six little Bunkers had met Dr. Snow a few weeks before, when one of Farmer Joel’s hired men had cut his foot with an axe. The doctor had called at the farmhouse several times and now knew every one from Mun Bun to Russ. Seeing the doctor driving past in a hurry and knowing that by this time Mr. and Mrs. Bunker must be at home, Russ began to wonder if an accident had happened.
“Is any one sick at Farmer Joel’s?” called Russ, as the doctor’s carriage drove past.
“No, my little man. No, I’m glad to say,” answered Dr. Snow, pulling his horses to a stop. “I’m not going to stop at Farmer Joel’s. I’m on my way to see a peddler boy who lives on the other side of the valley. They telephoned me to come to see him. He has been badly stung by bees.”
“Oh, that must be our boy!” cried Rose.
“Your boy?” exclaimed the doctor.
“I mean the one who took our lunch,” and Rose related the story.
“Yes, very likely it’s the same boy,” said the physician, with a smile. “Well, I’ll do the best I can for him. But I think this will be a lesson to him.”
The doctor drove on and the six little Bunkers hurried to the house and soon were telling their father and mother all that had happened during the day.
“What’s that?” asked Farmer Joel, when he heard the tale. “Some bees came out of the woods and stung the boy, you say?”
“You should have heard him yell!” remarked Russ.
“Well, I don’t like to see any one hurt,” went on Farmer Joel. “But this story of bees in the woods is a strange one. No swarms have left my hives lately and—say, wait—I have an idea!” he suddenly cried.
“Did you see a hollow tree anywhere near the place the bees swarmed out on the boy and stung him?” asked the farmer of Russ.
“No,” was the answer. “We weren’t close enough to see a hollow tree. But we could see the bees.”
“And we could see the boy dance,” added Laddie.
“Hum!” mused Farmer Joel. “It’s just possible now,” he proceeded, “that these bees are the same swarm that went away with my fifty-dollar queen soon after you six little Bunkers arrived. In fact, I’m pretty sure they’re my bees, but I’m going to find out for certain. That’s what I’m going to do!”
“How can you?” asked Mr. Bunker.
“I’ll get your children to show me as nearly as they can the place the bees stung this peddler boy, and I’ll look around there for my missing swarm and the queen. They must have made a home for themselves in some hollowtree, those bees must, and when the boy wandered too near it they swarmed out and stung him, for they thought he was after the honey they had stored there.”
“But if the runaway bees rushed out and stung the boy, won’t they come out and sting you if you try to get them back?” asked Mrs. Bunker.
“I’ll wait until cold weather, until the bees are asleep in the tree, and then, if I find them, I can safely bring them in without getting stung,” said Farmer Joel. “It would be strange if your children should be the means of me finding my lost queen. I’d be very glad to get her back.”
“Maybe the peddler boy could tell where the bee tree is,” suggested Adam North.
“I guess he won’t want to talk about bees for a long while,” chuckled Farmer Joel. Dr. Snow had stopped at the farmhouse on his way home after visiting the lad, and had said the boy was badly stung.
“His face is swelled up like a balloon,” said the physician, “and he can’t see out of his eyes. If you want to find that honey tree, Joel, you’ll have to look for it yourself.”
And this Mr. Todd did the next day. As there might be considerable walking to do, only the four older children went along with their father and Farmer Joel.
They reached the first picnic ground and Rose pointed out the flat stump where the lunch had been left before the peddler lad took it. Then, as nearly as they could remember, the children pointed out where in the woods they saw the leaping, slapping peddler boy. For it was there that the bees began to sting him.
“And as so many came out at once it must have been near their honey tree that it happened,” said the farmer.
Laddie and Russ and the two girls followed their father and Mr. Todd over into the woods. It was very still and pleasant, the sun shining down through the green leaves.
“I see some bees!” suddenly cried Laddie. “There’s a whole procession of them.”
He pointed off to one side and there, flitting through the sunlight and shadows of the forest could be seen a number of bees—dark bees with yellow stripes, or bands, on their bodies.
“That’s my kind of bees—the Italian sort,” said Farmer Joel when he had observed two or three near at hand gathering honey from wild flowers.
“But where do they have their nest—I mean their hive?” asked Russ.
“Oh, somewhere around here,” answered Farmer Joel. “We must look for a hollow tree. But move carefully. I don’t want any of you to get stung, though I brought my smoke machine. Guess I’ll start it going.”
He built a smudge fire inside the tin funnel with the bellows beneath it, and soon smoke was being puffed out into the air. This kept the bees away from the searchers for the honey tree.
Suddenly Russ exclaimed:
“I hear a humming sound. It’s like the humming your bees make in their hives, Mr. Joel.”
“I hear it, too,” said Violet.
They looked and listened, and then, off to one side, they saw many bees flying in through the hole in a tree. It was a hollow tree, that was evident, and it was a dead one.
“Keep back, all of you,” said Farmer Joel,“and I’ll soon find out if there are bees in there.”
While the others moved back he tossed a stick against the tree. It struck with a hollow sound, and instantly a cloud of bees flew out.
“There they are! My bees!” cried Farmer Joel. “The queen must be with them, for the bees wouldn’t stay and make honey without a queen. Well, now that I know where they are, I’ll mark this tree and when cold weather comes I’ll come here and take my bees back again—my bees and the fifty dollar queen.”
“Are you glad we helped you find them?” asked Laddie.
“Indeed I am, little man! Thank you!” said Farmer Joel. “And to-night you shall have hot biscuits and honey for supper.”
Marking the location of the tree, so it could easily be found again, Farmer Joel returned to the house with Mr. Bunker, Russ and Laddie and the two girls. They had found what they set out to find, and later on, after the six little Bunkers returned home, there came a letter from Mr. Todd, saying he had gotten his queen and swarm of bees back and thatalso in the hollow tree was found fifty pounds of good honey.
“My bees kept on working for me, even if they ran away from home,” he said in the letter.
With the finding of the lost swarm, the most exciting adventures of the six little Bunkers at Farmer Joel’s came to a close. They did not return home at once, for summer was not over and Miss Todd was not ready to come home. But the peddler boy did not again bother them.
From Dr. Snow it was learned that the shoe-lace chap went back to the city to sell things after his bee stings were cured. And I think he never again took the picnic lunch of any little boys and girls.
“Well, Mother, and children, we must soon begin to think of getting back home,” said Daddy Bunker, one day after a pleasant trip in the woods and fields.
“Oh, it’s too soon to go home yet!” sighed Russ. “I want to stay until the pumpkins are large enough to make into a jack-o’-lantern.”
“I wanted to gather some popcorn,” said Rose.
“Couldn’t we stay until chestnuts are ripe?” asked Laddie.
“I’m afraid not,” said his father. “I must get back to my real estate business, and you children must get ready for school.”
But at least one wish came true, for a few days later Farmer Joel brought into the house a big yellow pumpkin that had ripened faster than any of the others. Out of this Russ made a jack-o’-lantern, and he and the children had a jolly parade around the house that evening.
And so the summer of the six little Bunkers at Farmer Joel’s came to an end, and they all said it was one of the happiest times they had ever spent.
THE END