at last "But there's something about you
that I can't help liking, though it would be hard for me to say just what
it is--so please don't ask me!"

"Then you'll make me a house, after all?" Buster cried joyfully.

"I will," the Carpenter promised, "just as soon as I finish the addition
I'm building to my own home."

"Good!" said Buster. And wishing the Carpenter Bee a hasty
good-afternoon, he flew off to find little Mrs. Ladybug and tell her that
he was going to have a house of his own, just as she had suggested.

After that the news spread quickly, for Mrs. Ladybug was somewhat of a
gossip--in a pleasant enough way. Being much interested in her neighbors,
she liked to talk about their affairs. And now she told everyone that
Buster Bumblebee was going to have a fine new house, and that the
Carpenter was going to build it for him.

Naturally, Buster's friends all told him that they were glad to hear of
his good fortune. And whenever anyone mentioned the matter, Buster
promptly invited him to come to a party that he intended to give as soon
as his new home was ready to move into.

"Mrs. Ladybug tells me that I ought to have a house-warming," Buster
explained. And though some of his neighbors didn't know what he meant by
that, they said "Of course!" and tried to look wise.

There was only one thing about the whole affair that annoyed Buster: when
people asked him when his new house would be finished he was unable to
tell them.

"Well, when is the Carpenter going to start building it?" they would ask.
And he could only reply that as soon as the Carpenter completed the
addition to his own house he had promised to begin to build Buster's.

Now, many people were satisfied with that answer. But there were some
(they were the curious ones) that insisted on knowing exactly when that
would be. And then there was nothing that Buster Bumblebee could do
except to admit that he didn't know.

"Why don't you find out about it?" asked the most curious person in all
Pleasant Valley--and that, of course, was old Mr. Crow. "If I were you
I'd go to the Carpenter and _insist_ on his telling me."

So Buster Bumblebee began calling at the Carpenter's house every day.
Some days he even went there two or three times. It must have been
annoying for anybody as busy as the Carpenter to be interrupted so
often--and always for the same reason. But he never once thought of being
angry--though he did wish that Buster would let him work in pe