FREDDIE’S PROMISE
Buster Bumblebee did not find Freddie Firefly very
easily. It was a sunny afternoon; and if Freddie
was flashing his bright light, Buster was unable to
see it. But at last he spied Freddie eating a
meal of pollen in the meadow.
“How would you like to work for my mother, the
Queen?” Buster asked him.
“I don’t believe I’d care to, thank
you,” Freddie Firefly answered, with a mouth
so full of food that Buster heard him only with great
difficulty.
“I’ll wait a moment, until you have finished
your lunch,” said Buster.
“You’d better not!” Freddie Firefly
told him. “It will be dark by that time.
And Chirpy Cricket tells me your family always goes
to bed at sunset.”
“So we do!” Buster agreed. “But
my mother, the Queen, is going to order her honey-makers
to work overtime for the present. And she wants
you and your family to furnish lights so they can
see what they’re doing.” “Oh!
That’s different!” Freddie Firefly exclaimed.
“I thought she wanted me to help make honey.
And that’s something I know nothing about. ...
But when it comes to furnishing a light, I’m
certainly a shining success.” Freddie then
laughed heartily. And much to his surprise, 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.
