ody should scoff
at the Queen like that.

They were workers--those that overheard Buster Bumblebee's remark when
his mother as much as told him that he had better beware of the wicked
Robber Fly. They were workers; and they did not approve of the lazy
Buster.

"Let's teach that young loafer a lesson!" they said to one another (there
were three of them). And straightway they began to scheme and plan how
they should give Buster Bumblebee a thorough fright, in the hope of
making him more respectful to his mother, the Queen.

At least, that is what the workers said. But, as a matter of fact, each
of them had reasons of her own for wanting to scare Buster. Indeed, there
wasn't a worker in the house that was not disgusted with his laziness.
And if he hadn't been the son of the Queen they would certainly have
driven him out into the wide world long before.

Of course, Buster had no idea of what was afoot. He continued to tell
everybody how sorry he was that he had never met the Robber Fly, until a
few began to believe that he must be very brave indeed. But they were
those that didn't know him well. As for the workers, there wasn't one in
the Bumblebee household that was deceived by Buster's bold talk. They all
knew him for the coward he was.

Well, the very next day after Buster's impertinence to his mother a
worker called Peevish Peggy stopped and spoke to him as he sat on a
clover-head.

"If I were you I wouldn't come near the clover patch," she said. "You
know the Robber Fly often prowls about on the ground. And it would be
easy for him to catch you on a clover-top, you're so fat and clumsy....
Why don't you dine on the hollyhocks in the flower garden? They are high,
and much safer."

Buster Bumblebee seemed greatly amused.

"Ho, ho!" he laughed--as well as "Ha, ha!" And then he said: "It seems to
me that you are the one that ought to buzz around the hollyhocks, since
you are so nervous about the Robber Fly."

The worker, Peevish Peggy, at once flew into a temper.

"You'd better look out!" she warned Buster. "Once the Robber Fly pounces
on you you'll be so frightened you can't even squirm."

"Oh, nonsense!" said Buster.

The quick-tempered worker, Peevish Peggy, looked slyly over her shoulder
and nodded slightly.

Buster did not see the form that crept nearer and nearer to him, a little
later. And he was still chuckling to himself when he heard a terrible
humming. Then all at once he felt himself seized and