title="[Pg 32]"/>

VII
A JUGFUL OF BUMBLEBEES

When the workers—as well as Buster Bumblebee—heard the raking, scraping sound in the hall of their house they all stopped what they were doing and shrilled "An enemy!" And with one accord they rushed for the front door. They were terribly angry.

Not wishing to miss anything that was going to happen, Buster joined the mob and went sailing out into the open meadow. And there, quite close to the door, stood the queer object that Buster had noticed together with Johnnie Green only a minute before. He wondered now what that strange thing was; for Buster Bumblebee did not know a jug when he saw one. And neither did the workers, nor any other member of the Bumblebee family.

"That's the enemy!" cried Buster suddenly, pointing to the jug. "It was talking out of its mouth right into Johnnie Green's ear when I came home."

Sounding a dreadful battle cry, all the workers turned upon the jug and buzzed so near it that they couldn't help hearing the same roaring from inside it to which Johnnie Green had listened with so much pleasure.

"Buster's almost right!" several of the workers shouted. "The enemy has hidden inside this thing. And we'll have to go in and sting him."

At that the workers began to pop into the jug, which Johnnie Green had thoughtfully left uncorked. And Buster Bumblebee, still eager to see everything, hastened to plunge inside the dim jug along with the rest.

It was soon not a dim but a dark jug. For the moment the last angry Bumblebee had disappeared inside it Johnnie Green stole quickly up from behind a haycock and slipped the cork into the mouth of the jug.

Johnnie's face wore a grin of joy. Perhaps he did not stop to realize that he was breaking up a happy home.

"I've got 'em!" he shouted aloud. And then he shook the jug vigorously, listening with delight to the sound of the splashing water within. Soon he set the jug behind the sheltering haycock and sat down beside it to make further plans. It was Johnnie's intention then to drown everything on the farm that carried a sting—wasps, hornets, honey bees. He was not quite sure about mosquitoes, for he thought they might be hard to capture in great numbers.

Since he was intending to go swimming, he did not care to waste much more of the afternoon by staying in the meadow. So he proceeded to empty the jug.

It certainly looked as if the Bumblebee family had met with ill fortune. Several dozen workers—and Buster, too—lay limp and water-soaked upon the ground, when Johnnie Green hurried away to the spring to get more water for his father and the hired man, before he went to the mill-pond.

But it was not long before the half-drowned Buster and his companions began to stir slightly. Gradually the sun dried their wings and warmed their chilled bodies. And one by one they picked themselves up and scurried into their house.

They never knew exactly what had happened. But the workers agreed upon one point. They decided that somehow the whole trouble had been Buster's fault—though they couldn't explain in just what way.

Anyhow, after that the workers looked on Buster with more disfavor than ever. They were forever remarking how lazy and stupid he was. And even the trumpeter was heard to declare that she was ashamed of him—though he was her own brother.

As far back as Buster Bumblebee could remember, he had heard about the Robber Fly. Even the fiercest fighters among the workers spoke his name with great awe. And from everything Buster could learn, his family had good reason to fear that dreadful enemy.

When Buster first left the house to make excursions to the flower garden and the clover field he had felt quite uneasy. He half-expected that the Robber Fly would pop out from behind a blossom at any moment and pounce upon him. For the Robber Fly was a bold, bad villain. And those that were so unfortunate as to find themselves caught by him and held fast in his long, spiny feet had only a very slight chance of getting away from him.

No one of the Bumblebee family knew where the Robber Fly lived. But it was said that he often lurked on the ground, watching for victims. And when he spied one he would fly quickly up with a loud buzz and dart upon the unfortunate.

He had big, keen eyes which enabled him to see very clearly. And he had long, narrow wings which bore him through the air with great swiftness. And he had—worst of all—a sharp, piercing beak which was most frightful to gaze upon.

Now, in spite of his name the Robber Fly looked like no fly that was ever seen in Pleasant Valley. Strange as it may seem, in spite of his cruel beak, his long wings, and his spiny feet, he looked not a little as if he might have been a near relation of Buster Bumblebee. Of course, any member of the Bumblebee family would have known at a glance that he was not one of them. But probably Johnnie Green—if he had noticed him—would have thought the Robber Fly some sort of bumblebee.

Since this monster was known to appear now and then in the neighborhood, one can easily understand why Buster Bumblebee was a bit timid when he first began to venture abroad alone. But as time passed, his dread of meeting the Robber Fly gradually faded. Not only had nobody seen the Robber for a long while, but some began to say that they thought he must have met with an accident, or perhaps he had moved to other parts, and they didn't believe he would ever be heard of again. And Buster himself began to boast that he wasn't afraid of the Robber Fly and said that he was sorry that the Robber had gone away before he had had a chance to see him.

Buster's mother, the Queen, happened to hear her son make that remark one day. And she promptly told him that he was a stupid, silly boaster.

"If you knew what happened to your poor father last fall you would never want even to hear the Robber Fly's name mentioned again," the Queen declared, as a shiver—or a shudder—or both—passed up and down her royal back.

But Buster Bumblebee, being very young and somewhat stupid as well, said "Oh, nonsense!" under his breath, so low that his mother, the Queen, could not hear him.

Though Buster's mother, the Queen, did not hear him when he said "Oh, nonsense!" under his breath, there were others standing near him that caught the words. And they were quite indignant that anybody should scoff at the Queen like that.

They were workers—those that overheard Buster Bumblebee's remark when his mother as much as told him that he had better beware of the wicked Robber Fly. They were workers; and they did not approve of the lazy Buster.

"Let's teach that young loafer a lesson!" they said to one another (there were three of them). And straightway they began to scheme and plan how they should give Buster Bumblebee a thorough fright, in the hope of making him more respectful to his mother, the Queen.

At least, that is what the workers said. But, as a matter of fact, each of them had reasons of her own for wanting to scare Buster. Indeed, there wasn't a worker in the house that was not disgusted with his laziness. And if