THE BUMBLEBEE IN THE PUMPKIN


Of course the dancers at Farmer Green's party had to stop now and then to
get their breath. And the fiddlers, too, had to pause in order to rest.
That is, two of them found it necessary to lay their fiddles aside once
in a while. And it was no wonder; for they had each eaten a whole custard
pie.

But the third fiddler was different. He was a man after Buster
Bumblebee's own heart. He seemed to love to make music and never tired of
coaxing the jolliest tunes out of his old fiddle that anybody could hope
to hear. _He_ only laughed when his fellow fiddlers lay back in their
chairs and mopped their red faces. And just to keep the company in good
spirits--and because he couldn't help it--this frolicsome fiddler would
start right ahead and play something that was sure to set a body's feet
a-going and make him feel so happy that he would want to shout right
out--good and loud.

Whenever this merry musician played all alone like that Buster Bumblebee
stayed close by him in order to hear better. And so it was that Buster at
last met with a surprise. He was bobbing about with a great deal of
pleasure to the strains of a lively tune when he heard something that
made him settle quickly upon a beam above the jolly fiddler's head.

He wanted to sit still and listen. (Somehow he always had to buzz more or
less when he was flying.) Yes! he wanted to listen closely because he was
almost certain that he heard the buzzing of a strange bee. And the sound
seemed to come right out of the fiddle!