I hope to have as much fun to-night as I would have had if I'd gone to
the dance over near the swamp."

"Are you fond of music?" Peppery Polly asked him suddenly.

"Am I?" he exclaimed. "I should say I was!"

"Then tell me how you like this," she said. And she began to sing the
most terrible song that Freddie Firefly had ever heard in all his life.




XII

A TERRIBLE SONG


It was no wonder that Freddie Firefly grew uneasy again as he listened
to the song of Peppery Polly Bumblebee, while they flew towards the
clover field through the darkness. The chorus, especially, filled him
with alarm. And he shuddered as the disagreeable honey-maker sang it:

"I've never learned to take a joke;
So if you try to trick me,
My sting in you I'll quickly poke--
You'll find that it will prick ye!
It feels like fire--though twice as hot.
And I would rather sting than not!"