Even Freddie Firefly said things about Buster that
night that would not have been at all pleasant to
listen to.
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.
