him
one day.

"I should think--" she said--"I should think that the son of a queen
ought to have a house of his own, instead of sleeping--like a
tramp--where night overtakes him."

Now, Mrs. Ladybug's words did not offend Buster Bumblebee in the least.

"No doubt you know best," he told her. "But how can I build a house? I've
never worked in all my life. And I don't intend to begin now."

"Why not get some one to build a house for you?" she asked him.

"I never thought of that!" he cried. "Whom would you suggest?"

"I know the very person!" Mrs. Ladybug told him. "He's a Carpenter Bee;
and he lives in the big poplar by the brook. Perhaps you know him.
Johnnie Green calls him Whiteface," she said. "They do say he's a very
skillful workman."

Buster Bumblebee replied that he had never met the Carpenter, but that he
would go and see him at once. So over to the big poplar he flew. And soon
he was knocking boldly at the door of the Carpenter's house.

Pretty soon a mild-appearing person, who looked not a little like Buster
himself, stepped through the doorway. He wore a white patch across his
front and his clothes needed brushing sadly, for they showed many marks
of sawdust.

"Are you the Carpenter?" Buster Bumblebee inquired.

The mild stranger said he was.

"How would you like to build a house for me?" Buster asked him.

The Carpenter seemed greatly surprised at the suggestion. "I don't think
I'd like it very well," he said timidly.

"Why not?" Buster demanded.

"Well, I'm busy building an addition to my house," the Carpenter
explained. "And besides, you're a total stranger. I've never seen you
before; and we might quarrel if I did any work for you."

"Oh, no!" Buster Bumblebee assured him. "You couldn't quarrel with me,
because I'm the most peace-loving person in Pleasant Valley."

"There!" the Carpenter cried. "I knew as soon as I set eyes on you that
we were bound not to agree.... I've always claimed that there's no
peacefuller person than I am in this whole neighborhood. So here we are,
quarreling already!"

"Maybe you're right," Buster said then. "I'll agree that you like peace
more than I do. But remember! Next to you there's no one that hates a
fight the way I do--and hates work, too!"

XIII

THE CARPENTER'S PROMISE

When Buster Bumblebee told Whiteface the Carpenter Bee, that he hated to
work that honest artisan stared at his caller in astonishment.

"You're a queer one!" he said