XIII

CAUGHT BY A THISTLE


"You'll have to help me," Peppery Polly Bumblebee said to Freddie
Firefly through the darkness. "If you'd been a little less stingy with
that light of yours I wouldn't have made the mistake of thinking this
thistle was a clover blossom."

"Well, there's nectar in it, isn't there?" he inquired.

"I suppose so," she answered. "But I can't get it. And I'm so daubed
with the sticky stuff that's spread right where I put my feet that I
can't free myself."

Freddie flew quite close to her and flashed his light upon her. And he
saw that she had spoken truly.

"What a pity!" he exclaimed.

"Don't stop to talk!" the honey-maker snapped. "Just help me to get away
from this thistle. And THEN you can talk all you want to. In fact, I'll
give you something to talk about."

Freddie Firefly was not so dull-witted but that he knew she intended to
punish him for sending her to the thistle blossom.