er, everybody quite forgot about him. Johnnie and the
twins were too busy putting mud poultices on their wounds, to ease their
aches and pains, to think of the prisoner they had left on the farmhouse
porch. It was not until the next day that Johnnie Green remembered his
new pet. And when he went to see him then the honey box was empty. The
Carpenter had cut a tunnel through the wall of his prison.

Later the Carpenter sent a message to Buster, by little Mrs. Ladybug.

"The Carpenter has lost so much time," she told Buster, "that he thinks
he will never be able to finish the addition to his house. So he says
you'll have to get somebody else to build your new home for you."

At first Buster was disappointed. But he soon recovered his good spirits.

"After all, it's just as well," he remarked cheerfully. "I know where
there's a fine new house right in the clover patch. And I'll move into it
at once."

Of course he meant the honey box which the boy had dropped upon the rock
and forgotten. So Buster had his new home without the help of the
Carpenter. And all his friends agreed that the house-warming he gave was
the most successful that ever was known in those parts. It took place on
the hottest day of the summer. And Buster's house was so warm that three
of his guests almost had sunstrokes--and had to be helped home.

XVII

BUSTER LEARNS OF THE RAISING BEE

"Yes!" said Jimmy Rabbit. "I hear that there's going to be a raising bee
at Farmer Green's place to-morrow. And if I were you I should certainly
want to be there."

Being very good-natured, Jimmy Rabbit was always ready to talk to anybody
he happened to meet, no matter how small the other person might be. And
now, while he was nibbling at Farmer Green's lettuce, he had chanced to
glance up and spy Buster Bumblebee, who was buzzing about the tall
hollyhocks, which made a sort of hedge where the flower and the vegetable
garden met.

"A raising bee!" Buster Bumblebee exclaimed, when he heard Jimmy Rabbit's
bit of news. "I've never in my life seen that kind of bee--nor heard of
it, either.... It must be a great curiosity."

"Yes!" said Jimmy Rabbit. "And you ought not to miss seeing this one. I'd
like to go over to the farmhouse to-morrow myself--if I had the time."

"Well, I'm going, anyhow," Buster declared. "And when next I see you I'll
tell you all about this strange bee. For all we know now it may be
nothing but a honey bee that has changed his name.