The Tale of Buster Bumblebee | Page 3

said Buster.
Now, without thinking what he was doing he had spoken his thought
right out loud. And since he was quite near the trumpeter and staring
directly at her, it was no wonder that she heard what he said.
"Don't be impertinent, young man!" the trumpeter snapped, growing
somewhat red in the face. "I'm sure it's no affair of yours whether I
wear a hat or whether I don't. And if you want to make me happy, I'll
tell you the best way in the world."
"Oh! Will you?" cried Buster Bumblebee hopefully. And in his
eagerness he drew even nearer to the trumpeter, who actually smiled at
him. But there was something in her smile that sent a shiver up and
down Buster's back. It was not at all a pleasant smile.

"If you want to make me happy all you need do is to keep out of my
sight," said the trumpeter rudely. "You're just a lazy, good-for-nothing
drone. And for my part, I don't see why you're allowed to stay in our
house. If I had my way you'd be driven out into the world to shift for
yourself.... And I know others who say the same."
Upon hearing that disagreeable speech Buster Bumblebee jumped back
quickly. He was not angry--but merely disappointed, for he had
expected something quite different.
"You--er--you trumpet beautifully," he stammered, remembering that
that was another remark which Chirpy Cricket had suggested as being
likely to put the trumpeter into a pleasant frame of mind.
At that the rude creature laughed most scornfully.
"I'd like to know how you can say that," she sneered. "You're so lazy
and such a sleepy-head that you never hear me when I wake the
household. In fact, I don't believe you would ever wake up enough to
crawl out of bed if you didn't get hungry--and goodness knows you do
love to eat."
"No such thing!" cried Buster Bumblebee.
And happening just at that moment to spy an unusually tempting
clover-top close beside him, he lighted upon it and began to suck up its
sweet juices.
The trumpeter at once screamed joyfully and pointed a finger straight at
him.
"There you go!" she cried. "You have to stop and eat even while you're
talking with a lady! Why, you eat and sleep so much that you don't
know what you're doing or saying half the time."
One might naturally think that such a remark would have angered
Buster. But he was not one to lose his temper easily. And he merely
looked at the trumpeter sadly and said:

"Don't speak to me like that! I'm a queen's son. I'm a gentleman."

IV
BUSTER FINDS A SISTER
Buster Bumblebee's announcement that he was a queen's son--and a
gentleman--seemed to amuse the trumpeter hugely. She held her sides
and laughed uproariously.
"That's nothing!" she said at last. "I'm one myself!"
"One what?" Buster asked her quickly. "You're certainly no
gentleman--for you just referred to yourself as a lady not two minutes
ago. And neither can you be anybody's son, I should think."
"I mean I'm a queen's daughter--though maybe you didn't know it," the
trumpeter replied.
And Buster Bumblebee answered in a dazed fashion that he had had no
idea she was of royal blood, like himself.
"It's true," the trumpeter assured him. "You'd never guess it; but I'm
your own sister."
Well, Buster Bumblebee was so surprised that he almost fell off the
clover-head on which he was sitting. It was really a sad blow to be told
that that disagreeable, vixenish trumpeter, who awakened the workers
each morning, was so closely related to him. But it was no more than
he might have expected, living as he did in a family of more than two
hundred souls.
"It's--it's hard to believe," he gasped, shaking his head slowly.
"It certainly is," said the trumpeter. "I don't understand how my own
brother can be so lazy as you are."

"It's not that I'm lazy--it's the way my mother brought me up," Buster
protested.
"Our mother, you mean," the trumpeter corrected him. "Maybe you're
right.... After all, you'd only be in everybody's way if you tried to
work--you're so awkward and clumsy. So maybe it's just as well for
you to play the gentleman--though you must find it a dull life."
"It suits me," said Buster. "But I do wish you could manage to rouse the
workers in the morning without disturbing me." He was bolder, now
that he knew he was talking to his own sister.
The trumpeter pondered for a little time before replying.
"It's my duty to trumpet loudly," she said at last. "The summer is none
too long. And there's a great deal of honey to be made before fall....
Have you thought of stuffing your ears