"

Jimmy Rabbit only smiled at his small friend. He said nothing at
all--though he looked uncommonly wise.

"What time to-morrow can I get a peep at this 'raising bee,' as he calls
himself?" Buster Bumblebee inquired.

"You had better plan to reach the farmyard at nine o'clock sharp," Jimmy
Rabbit advised him.

"How shall I know where to look?" Buster asked him.

"Oh! you'll have no trouble finding the raising bee," Jimmy replied.
"Just follow the crowd! All of Farmer Green's friends for miles around
will be there."

"Is that so?" said Buster. "What are they coming for?"

"Why, they've heard about the raising bee, too," Jimmy told him. "Farmer
Green has invited everybody to come to his house. And there'll be plenty
to eat for everyone. No doubt they'll have a dance, too, in the
afternoon--just before milking time. Of course they'll all have to go
home in time to milk the cows," Jimmy explained.

"I suppose so," Buster remarked. "And I must say I'm glad that I have no
cows, for it has always seemed to me that they are only a nuisance."

Jimmy Rabbit agreed heartily in that opinion.

"Yes!" Buster Bumblebee continued. "Farmer Green has many strange ways.
Now, what's the sense of having a vegetable garden? And yet I understand
that he always plants one over there where you're sitting."

Jimmy Rabbit shook his head.

"I can't quite agree with you," he said quickly, "though I've always
claimed that a flower garden is just a waste of time."

"What a strange notion!" cried Buster Bumblebee. "To my way of thinking,
this flower garden is the best thing Farmer Green has--unless it's the
clover patch."

Now, some people would have flown into a temper at once on being disputed
like that. But Jimmy Rabbit was never known to be angry.

"Billy Woodchuck would agree with you about the clover," he said with a
chuckle. "You know he's very fond of clover-tops."

"He's a sensible chap," Buster Bumblebee declared. "And speaking of
clover makes me so hungry for some that I'm going to the clover patch
this very minute."

So Buster darted away, calling out as he went that he would meet Jimmy at
the hollyhock hedge on the next morning but one.

"I'll tell you all about the raising bee," he promised once more.

And Jimmy Rabbit laughed so heartily that he almost choked over a choice
lettuce leaf.

XVIII

FOLLOWING THE CROWD

Well, the next day Buster Bumblebee arrived at Farmer Green's place just
as the cucko