The Tale of Freddie Firefly | Page 9

companion had
scared the truth out of him before he stopped to think how it would
sound.
"Quite right!" said Peppery Polly. "I made up that song. And I flatter
myself it's about the worst I ever heard." To Freddie Firefly's relief, she
seemed quite pleased.
He was able to draw a deep breath again as they reached the field of red
clover, where Peppery Polly Bumblebee settled quickly upon a
clover-top and began sucking up the sweet nectar with her long tongue.
For some time she worked busily without saying a word. And indeed,
how could she have spoken with her tongue buried deep in the heart of
a clover blossom?
But when she withdrew her tongue and flitted from one clover-top to
another, she never failed to fix her wicked eyes on Freddie Firefly and
demand "more light--and be quick about it!"

Since no harm had yet fallen him, he began to wonder after a while if
Peppery Polly's bark was not worse than her bite--or perhaps it would
be better to say that he wondered if her song was not worse than her
sting. Anyhow, he knew that he was very tired of her masterful way of
speaking to him. And he soon determined to play another trick on her.
"Here's a big blossom you haven't tasted!" he called to her suddenly.
And Peppery Polly--thinking that Freddie meant a clover blossom--
hastened to a bloom that Freddie pointed out to her.
She settled upon it quickly. And the next moment Peppery Polly gave a
sharp cry of mingled rage and pain.
"What's the matter?" Freddie Firefly asked her.
"Matter!" she exclaimed. "It's a thistle--and I've pricked myself badly."
"Why, so it is a thistle blossom!" said Freddie Firefly. "It's about the
same color as a clover head; and I suppose you didn't know the
difference in the dark."
"The question is, did YOU know the difference?" Peppery Polly
screamed-- for she was terribly angry.
"Really, I must decline to answer when you speak to me in such a
tone," said Freddie Firefly. And he was quite surprised that the furious
honey- maker didn't dart towards him and try to sink her sting into him.
But nothing of the sort happened. And Freddie soon saw that Peppery
Polly was in some kind of trouble.

XIII
CAUGHT BY A THISTLE
"You'll have to help me," Peppery Polly Bumblebee said to Freddie
Firefly through the darkness. "If you'd been a little less stingy with that
light of yours I wouldn't have made the mistake of thinking this thistle
was a clover blossom."
"Well, there's nectar in it, isn't there?" he inquired.
"I suppose so," she answered. "But I can't get it. And I'm so daubed
with the sticky stuff that's spread right where I put my feet that I can't
free myself."
Freddie flew quite close to her and flashed his light upon her. And he
saw that she had spoken truly.
"What a pity!" he exclaimed.
"Don't stop to talk!" the honey-maker snapped. "Just help me to get

away from this thistle. And THEN you can talk all you want to. In fact,
I'll give you something to talk about."
Freddie Firefly was not so dull-witted but that he knew she intended to
punish him for sending her to the thistle blossom.
"I'll go back to your house and bring somebody to help you, if I can,"
he said. "Don't you see that it wouldn't be safe for me to try to pull you
loose? I might get stuck there myself. And we'd be prisoners for the rest
of the night."
Peppery Polly hadn't thought of that. And she was inclined to believe
that there might be some such danger.
"You may go for help," she said at last. "But please remember that
there's no time to lose. The Queen won't like it at all when she hears
about this accident, for she expected me to fetch home a good deal of
nectar before midnight."
"I'll hurry. And I'll be back as soon as I can bring one of your fellow-
workers with me," Freddie Firefly promised.
Since he was a person of his word, he went straight back to the home of
the Bumblebee family in the meadow. Being used to finding his way
about after dark, Freddie had no trouble reaching the Bumblebees'
home. But rousing the household was an entirely different matter.
Though he pounded his hardest at their door, none of the Bumblebee
family heard him. Having always slept from sunset till dawn without
once waking, they were wrapped in such heavy slumber that not one of
them knew what was going on.
To be sure, the family trumpeter--who awakened the household each
morning and was a somewhat lighter sleeper than the others--the
trumpeter claimed afterward