otted away.
Now, Johnnie Green took the jug with him because he needed it. It was
part of his plan for punishing the Bumblebee family. And instead of going
straight to the fence-corner, Johnnie made at once for the Bumblebee
family's front door. As soon as he reached it he poured some of the water
out of the jug--but not all of it. Then he put his ear to the jug's mouth
and listened. And he smiled happily--in spite of his stings--as he heard
the roar from inside it.
Buster Bumblebee, hurrying home to go to bed--for he was still following
Mr. Crow's plan--Buster noticed Johnnie and wondered what he was doing.
But as soon as he went inside the house he forgot all about Johnnie
Green. And when, a few moments later, there was a terrible sound of
scraping and scratching in the long hall that led to the innermost part
of the house, Buster Bumblebee never once thought to mention to anyone
that he had seen Johnnie in the dooryard.
VII
A JUGFUL OF BUMBLEBEES
When the workers--as well as Buster Bumblebee--heard the raking, scraping
sound in the hall of their house they all stopped what they were doing
and shrilled "An enemy!" And with one accord they rushed for the front
door. They were terribly angry.
Not wishing to miss anything that was going to happen, Buster joined the
mob and went sailing out into the open meadow. And there, quite close to
the door, stood the queer object that Buster had noticed together with
Johnnie Green only a minute before. He wondered now what that strange
thing was; for Buster Bumblebee did not know a jug when he saw one. And
neither did the workers, nor any other member of the Bumblebee family.
"That's the enemy!" cried Buster suddenly, pointing to the jug. "It was
talking out of its mouth right into Johnnie Green's ear when I came
home."
Sounding a dreadful battle cry, all the workers turned upon the jug and
buzzed so near it that they couldn't help hearing the same roaring from
inside it to which Johnnie Green had listened with so much pleasure.
"Buster's almost right!" several of the workers shouted. "The enemy has
hidden inside this thing. And we'll have to go in and sting him."
At that the workers began to pop into the jug, which Johnnie Green had
thoughtfully left uncorked. And Buster Bumblebee, still eager to see
everything, hastened to plunge inside the dim jug along with the rest.
It was soon not a dim but a dark jug. For the moment the last angry
Bumblebee ha
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