The Tale of Buster Bumblebee

͂
The Tale of Buster Bumblebee

Project Gutenberg's The Tale of Buster Bumblebee, by Arthur Scott Bailey This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: The Tale of Buster Bumblebee
Author: Arthur Scott Bailey
Illustrator: Harry L. Smith
Release Date: June 23, 2006 [EBook #18662]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF BUSTER BUMBLEBEE ***

Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

SLUMBER-TOWN TALES (Trademark Registered)
THE TALE OF BUSTER BUMBLEBEE
BY ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY
Author of "SLEEPY-TIME TALES"
(Trademark Registered) ILLUSTRATED BY HARRY L. SMITH
NEW YORK GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS
Made in the United States of America
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright, 1918, by GROSSET & DUNLAP
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
TUCK-ME-IN TALES (Trademark Registered)
by ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY
author of SLEEPY-TIME TALES (Trademark Registered)
The Tale of Jolly Robin The Tale of Old Mr. Crow The Tale of Solomon Owl The Tale of Jasper Jay The Tale of Rusty Wren The Tale of Daddy Longlegs The Tale of Kiddie Katydid The Tale of Buster Bumblebee The Tale of Freddie Firefly The Tale of Betsy Butterfly
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: Buster Bumblebee and Chirpy Cricket Have A Chat. Frontispiece--(Page 9)]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
I THE BIG FAMILY 1 II CHIRPY CRICKET'S ADVICE 6 III THE RUDE TRUMPETER 11 IV BUSTER FINDS A SISTER 16 V MR. CROW TO THE RESCUE 21 VI JOHNNIE GREEN IS STUNG 27 VII A JUGFUL OF BUMBLEBEES 32 VIII BUSTER THE BOASTER 37 IX THE ROBBER FLY AT LAST 41 X BUSTER MAKES A SPEECH 45 XI THE DRONE 52 XII THE CARPENTER BEE 56 XIII THE CARPENTER'S PROMISE 61 XIV BAD NEWS 64 XV THE PRISONER 69 XVI THE TWINS IN THE CLOVER PATCH 74 XVII BUSTER LEARNS OF THE RAISING BEE 81 XVIII FOLLOWING THE CROWD 86 XIX THE FEAST AT FARMER GREEN'S 91 XX BUSTER AND THE FIDDLERS 96 XXI THE BUMBLEBEE IN THE PUMPKIN 101 XXII SOMEONE'S MISTAKE 106 XXIII MAKING GAME OF OLD DOG SPOT 111
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
ILLUSTRATIONS
Buster Bumblebee and Chirpy Cricket Have A Chat. Frontispiece Frontispiece--(Page 9) Buster Thanks Old Mr. Crow For His Advice. (Page 25) 23 Buster Shouted For Everybody to Keep Quiet. (Page 48) 47 Buster Listened to Mrs. Ladybug's Suggestion. (Page 56) 56
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE TALE OF BUSTER BUMBLEBEE
I
THE BIG FAMILY
When Mrs. Field Mouse moved from her home in Farmer Green's meadow to the more fashionable neighborhood near the gristmill, she had no idea that anyone would care to live in the little old house that she had left.
So she was much surprised, the following summer, when she heard that a new family was occupying her former home.
"If it's a small family they'll get along well enough," she remarked to Aunt Polly Woodchuck, who had told her the news.
"Small!" Aunt Polly exclaimed, lifting both her hands (with the black mitts on them) high in the air. "They say it's a dreadful big family--at least two hundred of 'em, so I've been told."
Well, for a moment Mrs. Field Mouse couldn't say a word, she was so astonished. Then she managed to gasp:
"What's their name?"
"I declare, I can't just remember," said Aunt Polly Woodchuck. "But it's a name that rhymes with apple tree--though that's not quite it.... They're a very musical family, I understand. My nephew, Billy Woodchuck, passed right by their door only yesterday; and he says he heard music and the sound of dancing from inside the house."
"Two hundred of them dancing in that little house!" cried Mrs. Field Mouse. "Why, it's positively dangerous! I should think they'd trample one another."
And Aunt Polly Woodchuck agreed, before she went off towards her home under the hill, that there were queer goings-on over there in the meadow.
Later she sent her nephew Billy to tell Mrs. Field Mouse that on her way home she had remembered the name of the big family. It was Bumblebee.
"They must be an odd lot," Mrs. Field Mouse remarked to her husband. "Farmer Green's meadow is becoming more unfashionable than ever. And I shall never regret having moved away from there."
So that was Buster Bumblebee's first home--the old house in the meadow. It was true that the Bumblebee family numbered at least two hundred souls. Nobody knew what the exact count might have been; for in the daytime all the members of the family were bustling about, never staying in one place long enough to be counted. And at night they were all too drowsy to bother their heads over anything but sleep.
It was true, too, that the Bumblebee family filled their house almost to overflowing--especially when they began to store away great quantities of honey in it. But they never seemed to mind being crowded. And if any of them wanted more room he had only to go out of doors