t. And all the Carpenter's neighbors
gathered around him and said what a kind-hearted young gentleman he was,
but that it was no more than you might expect of a queen's son.

"The Carpenter must have been a dear friend of yours," quavered old Daddy
Longlegs, tottering up to Buster and peering into his face.

"Oh, no!" said Buster Bumblebee. "But he promised to build a house for me
as soon as he had finished working on his own. So his being a prisoner is
pretty hard on me. For I've invited all my friends to a house-warming and
I don't know what to do."

XV

THE PRISONER

Buster Bumblebee did not stay long in the dooryard of the missing
Carpenter. Saying a mournful good-by to the sad company, he flew away
toward Farmer Green's house. It was there that the Carpenter was a
prisoner. And Buster could only hope that he might find some way of
setting the woodworker free.

Luckily Buster Bumblebee did not have to look long for what he was
seeking. On the porch of the farmhouse he soon discovered a honey box,
with glass sides. And whom should he see inside it, sitting on a little
heap of wild rose leaves and looking forlorn and unhappy--whom should
Buster see but the Carpenter.

Buster crowded close against the glass and began to call so loud that the
Carpenter couldn't help hearing him. And then the poor fellow came and
stood on the other side of the glass barrier, as near Buster as he could
get.

"Why don't you come out?" Buster asked.

"How can I?" said the Carpenter. "Don't you see that I'm a prisoner?"

"Yes! But why don't you cut your way out?" Buster Bumblebee asked him.

"Well, I've tried," the Carpenter confessed. "But this glass is so hard
that I can't even dent it."

"But you're a woodworker--not a glass-worker!" exclaimed Buster
Bumblebee. "And if you're as skillful as people say you are, you ought to
be able to bore a hole through one of the wooden ends of your prison."

At that suggestion the Carpenter looked decidedly happier.

"That's so!" he exclaimed. "I wish I had thought of that before."

Of course it was Buster that thought of the plan, then; but he didn't say
so to the Carpenter. Instead, Buster shouted through the glass:

"Get to work at once! And I'll wait for you."

So the Carpenter began to cut away at an end of the honey box. But
unluckily for him, he had hardly begun his task when Johnnie Green came
dancing out upon the porch, followed by two strange boys.

"Here he is!"