The Tale of Freddie Firefly | Page 7

Buster Bumblebee gave him several hard slaps on the back,
which hurt him not a little.
"Don't do that!" Freddie Firefly cried.
"I thought you were choking," Buster, explained.
Freddie Firefly shook his head.
"I was joking," he said.
"Well, I didn't make much of a mistake; for joking and choking sound
about the same," Buster Bumblebee replied.
"I hope your mother's honey-makers can tell the difference," Freddie
Firefly grumbled. "If they can't, I certainly don't care to spend a night in
their company."
"Oh, you won't have any trouble with them. They'll be working so
busily that they'll hardly notice you," Buster Bumblebee assured him.
So Freddie Firefly promised to be at the house of the Bumblebee family,
in the meadow, at dusk. And he said he would try to bring plenty of his
relations with him, so that there might be one of them to light the way
for each of the honey-makers.
And then Buster Bumblebee hurried away to tell his mother the news.
The Queen praised Buster for what he had done, telling him that in her
opinion he would soon be the wisest person in Pleasant Valley--not
even excepting old Mr. Crow and Solomon Owl.
Buster was so pleased that he made up his mind to stay awake that
evening, in order to see the workers start out for the clover field after
dark with Freddie Firefly and his relations. But when sunset came,
Buster simply couldn't keep from falling asleep.

Not until the next morning did he know how his plan had turned out.
And since it proved to be less successful than he had expected, perhaps
it was just as well that he was not present to hear the remarks that were
made about him.
Even Freddie Firefly said things about Buster that night that would not
have been at all pleasant to listen to.

X
DRAWING LOTS
Buster Bumblebee's mother told her forty-nine honey-makers that
Freddie Firefly and at least forty-eight of his relations were expected at
the Bumblebees' house at dusk.
"Each of the Fireflies will furnish each of you with a light," the Queen
explained, "so you'll be able to go to the clover field almost as easily as
you do in the daytime. You're to work until midnight. And after that
you may sleep until the trumpeter wakes you at dawn."
The Queen's announcement did not please the honey-makers in the
least. They were an ill-tempered lot, anyhow. And when things did not
go to suit them they sometimes made themselves most disagreeable.
Of course they didn't dare grumble in the Queen's hearing. But behind
her back they spoke their minds quite freely.
"It's all the fault of that boy Buster," they told one another. "If he hadn't
suggested his horrid plan to his mother we wouldn't have to work half
the night and lose half our sleep."
"I wish he was here now!" one of the honey-makers exclaimed fiercely.
"I'd make it hot for him!"
Usually the honey-makers began to grow very drowsy at that time of
day (it was then late in the afternoon). But now they were so angry that
they were not the least bit sleepy. Their own buzzing kept them awake.
And the Queen was glad that it was so, because she herself never could
have stopped so many of them from going to sleep. And even then, if
the truth must be known, the Queen wished that she might go to bed.
Never in all her life had she been up so late before.
"I wish the Fireflies would hurry!" she exclaimed as she stood at the
front-door of her house and looked across the fast darkening field.
As she watched anxiously, the Queen soon spied a light, which kept
growing brighter and brighter, until at last Freddie Firefly dropped

down before her. He took off his cap and made a low bow.
"Here I am, Queen!" he said.
"Where's the rest of your family?" Buster Bumblebee's mother asked
him.
"They all had to go to a dance down by the swamp," Freddie Firefly
explained. "They wanted me to go with them; but I had promised your
son that I'd be here at dusk. And of course I wouldn't think of breaking
my promise."
Well, the Queen was terribly disappointed.
"You never can furnish enough light for my forty-nine workers!" she
cried.
"Perhaps not!" Freddie admitted. "But I'd be glad to take one of them to
the clover-patch to-night, just as a trial, you know."
The Queen said that that was a good idea. And the honey-makers, who
had come outside the house, all agreed that it was a fine suggestion.
But not one of them wanted to go with Freddie.
"Then you'll have to draw lots," the Queen told them severely.
When the