XXITHE BUMBLEBEE IN THE PUMPKIN
Of course the dancers at Farmer Green's party had to stop now and then to get their breath. And the fiddlers, too, had to pause in order to rest. That is, two of them found it necessary to lay their fiddles aside once in a while. And it was no wonder; for they had each eaten a whole custard pie.
But the third fiddler was different. He was a man after Buster Bumblebee's own heart. He seemed to love to make music and never tired of coaxing the jolliest tunes out of his old fiddle that anybodycould hope to hear.Heonly laughed when his fellow fiddlers lay back in their chairs and mopped their red faces. And just to keep the company in good spirits—and because he couldn't help it—this frolicsome fiddler would start right ahead and play something that was sure to set a body's feet a-going and make him feel so happy that he would want to shout right out—good and loud.
Whenever this merry musician played all alone like that Buster Bumblebee stayed close by him in order to hear better. And so it was that Buster at last met with a surprise. He was bobbing about with a great deal of pleasure to the strains of a lively tune when he heard something that made him settle quickly upon a beam above the jolly fiddler's head.
He wanted to sit still and listen. (Somehow he always had to buzz more or lesswhen he was flying.) Yes! he wanted to listen closely because he was almost certain that he heard the buzzing of a strange bee. And the sound seemed to come right out of the fiddle!
From his seat on the beam Buster Bumblebee looked down at the fiddle, upon which the fiddler was scraping 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 Bumblebee 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 Bumblebee 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 bumblebee in the pumpkin."
"Bumblebee!" Buster cried. "Pardon me—but you are mistaken yourself. That's no bumblebee. 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 bumblebee—in a pumpkin."
"What pumpkin?" Buster wanted to know.
"Well, that one—I suppose," old dog Spot told him, cocking an eye and an ear towards a big yellow pumpkin, which someone had set on a wide shelf on the wall.
Buster Bumblebee 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.
XXIISOMEONE'S MISTAKE
Though he alighted right on top of the pumpkin, which stood on the wide shelf in Farmer Green's carriage-house, Buster Bumblebee 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 Bumblebee blustered back to old dog Spot once more.
"You're certainly wrong!" he exclaimed. "There's no bumblebee—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 Bumblebee, looking much puzzled.
"Well,Idid," old Spot replied. "And that proves that I'm right."
Buster Bumblebee 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 bumblebee in the pumpkin, and even his dispute with old dog Spot.
So the dance went on. And at last, latein 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 Bumblebee 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 Bumblebee 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 caredmuch 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 Bumblebee 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 stillclung 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.
XXIIIMAKING GAME OF OLD DOG SPOT
"Where have you been keeping yourself?" Buster Bumblebee 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 Bumblebee 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 friendsraisedthe timbersfor the barn. And that's why it's called araisingbee. Any helpful, neighborly gathering like that is known as abee—though you may not be aware of that fact."
Buster Bumblebee 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 bumblebee 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."
"What tune?" Buster Bumblebee asked him. "I must say I don't know what you're talking about."
"Why,The Bumblebee in the Pumpkin!" Jimmy Rabbit informed him. "That's the name of a tune. Every good fiddler knows it. And since the buzzing sound comes out of the fiddle, the bumblebee must be inside it, of course."
For a moment Buster looked almost peevish. He had intended to take Jimmy Rabbit down a peg by telling him he had been mistaken. And here was Jimmy Rabbit, explaining every strange thing, just as he always did! It was most annoying—soBuster thought. But all at once a comforting idea popped into his head.
"Old dog Spot was wrong, wasn't he?" Buster cried.
"He certainly was," Jimmy Rabbit replied.
"Ha! ha!" laughed Buster Bumblebee. "Isn't it odd how stupid some people are?"
"It certainly is!" said Jimmy Rabbit. And for some unknown reason he laughed harder than ever before.
But Buster Bumblebee did not mind that in the least. He thought that Jimmy Rabbit was making game of old dog Spot.
THE END
SLEEPY-TIME TALES(Trademark Registered.)By ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEYAUTHOR OF THETUCK-ME-IN TALES and SLUMBER-TIME TALESColored Wrapper and Text Illustrations Drawn by HARRY L. SMITH
This series of animal stories for children from three to eight years, tells of the adventures of the four-footed creatures of our American woods and fields in an amusing way, which delights small two-footed human beings.
THE TALE OF CUFFY BEARTHE TALE OF FRISKY SQUIRRELTHE TALE OF TOMMY FOXTHE TALE OF FATTY COONTHE TALE OF BILLY WOODCHUCKTHE TALE OF JIMMY RABBITTHE TALE OF PETER MINKTHE TALE OF SANDY CHIPMUNKTHE TALE OF BROWNIE BEAVERTHE TALE OF PADDY MUSKRATTHE TALE OF FERDINAND FROGTHE TALE OF DICKIE DEER MOUSETHE TALE OF TIMOTHY TURTLETHE TALE OF BENNY BADGERTHE TALE OF MAJOR MONKEYTHE TALE OF GRUMPY WEASELTHE TALE OF GRANDFATHER MOLETHE TALE OF MASTER MEADOW MOUSE
Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York.
TUCK-ME-IN TALES(Trademark Registered.)By ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEYAUTHOR OF THESLEEPY-TIME TALES and SLUMBER-TIME TALESColored Wrapper and Text Illustrations Drawn by HARRY L. SMITH
A delightful and unusual series of bird and insect stories for boys and girls from three to eight years old, or thereabouts.
THE TALE OF JOLLY ROBIN
Jolly Robin spreads happiness everywhere with his merry song.
THE TALE OF OLD MR. CROW
A wise bird was Mr. Crow. He'd laugh when any one tried to catch him.
THE TALE OF SOLOMON OWL
Solomon Owl looked so solemn that many people thought he knew everything.
THE TALE OF JASPER JAY
Jasper Jay was very mischievous. But many of his neighbors liked him.
THE TALE OF RUSTY WREN
Rusty Wren fought bravely to keep all strangers out of his house.
THE TALE OF DADDY LONG-LEGS
Daddy Long-Legs could point in all directions at once—with his different legs.
THE TALE OF KIDDIE KATYDID
He was a musical person and chanted all night during the autumn.
THE TALE OF BETSY BUTTERFLY
Betsy spent most of her time among the flowers.
THE TALE OF BUSTER BUMBLEBEE
Buster was clumsy and blundering, but was known far and wide.
THE TALE OF FREDDIE FIREFLY
Freddie had great sport dancing in the meadow and flashing his light.
THE TALE OF BOBBY BOBOLINK
Bobby had a wonderful voice and loved to sing.
THE TALE OF CHIRPY CRICKET
Chirpy loved to stroll about after dark and "chirp."
THE TALE OF MRS. LADYBUG
Mrs. Ladybug loved to find out what her neighbors were doing and to give them advice.
Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York.
Transcriber's NotesPunctuation has been normalized to contemporary standards.Frontispiece illustration relocated to after title page.Lines printed out of order in published text have been corrected:page 68, lines 4 and 5 as in original:friends to a house-warming and I don'thard on me. For I've invited all mypage 112, lines 19 and 20 as in original:You saw a raising bee and didn't know it!are the one that's mistaken--and not I!