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.