"The bee people were very glad. They told their cousins, the hornets and
the wasps, that the Master of Life had promised to assist them against
their enemies. At the end of the two moons, the Master of Life came and
all the bees assembled to meet him. The wasps and the hornets came also.

"'I have thought of a way to help you,' said the Master of Life to them.
'From this day you shall have stings. Hereafter, if anyone comes to
steal your honey, you will be able to defend yourselves.'

"The bees were greatly pleased. They were no longer afraid of their
enemies and did not try to hide their storehouses as they had done
before.

"Now the worst of all the enemies of the bee people was Moo-ween the
Black Bear. One day Mr. and Mrs. Moo-ween were walking by a hollow tree
where the bees had made their home. They looked up and saw many of the
bee folk going in and out of a hole in the tree.

"'What lots of honey there must be in that tree,' said Moo-ween. 'How
good it would taste. Let us climb up and take it away from the bees.'
So the two bears began to climb the tree.

"But the bees were not afraid of them. They did not fly away and leave
the bears to eat their honey, as they had always done before. Instead,
they flew down and began to sting the bears. The two bears could not
understand it. They had never been stung before and they groaned and
growled with pain. The bees settled upon their eyes, their ears, and
their noses, and stung them again and again, until they had to let go
of the tree, and fell to the ground. There they rolled over and over,
growling and groaning and snapping their teeth. The bees kept on