at a table after the
good things had all been eaten off it). And Buster Bumblebee had just
made up his mind that the whole affair was very dull! Yes! he had begun
to wish he had not wasted his time at Farmer Green's party, when suddenly
he heard something that sent a tingle all through him.

It was a most delightful sound. And noticing that the people were leaving
the scene of the banquet, Buster again recalled Jimmy Rabbit's advice to
"follow the crowd." So he found himself shortly in the carriage-house,
from which everything on wheels had been run outside into the farmyard.

At one side of the great square room sat three men, each holding a queer
wooden object, upon which he sawed busily without appearing to cut
anything. And Buster soon learned that the bewitching sound came from the
sawing.

"How do you like the music?" said a voice in Buster's ear. He turned
quickly. And he saw then that old dog Spot had followed the crowd too and
was sitting in the doorway, where everyone had to walk around him. He
seemed to be enjoying himself. And he kept thumping the floor with his
tail as if he were trying to keep time with the tune.

"The music is beautiful," Buster Bumblebee said in reply to Spot's
question. "But there's something I don't quite understand. I've seen men
sawing wood before, but they made no such sound as this."

Old dog Spot couldn't help smiling the least bit.

"Why, those men aren't sawing wood. They're _fiddling_," he explained;
"three fiddlers fiddling upon fiddles.... There's going to be a dance,
you know," old dog Spot continued. "And of course nobody cares to dance
without music."

"Oh, certainly not!" Buster Bumblebee agreed. And he began to be glad he
had come to the farmyard, after all. You see, he was fond of music and
dancing. And he thought the music played by the three fiddlers was too
wonderful for words.

Soon the floor was crowded with merry people who bowed and scraped to one
another and danced breakdowns and cut pigeon-wings and other capers,
while Buster Bumblebee flitted gaily about just above their bobbing
heads, trying his best to keep time to the music and wishing that he had
brought some of his friends along with him to Farmer Green's party.

As for the raising bee, Buster had completely forgotten it. He was having
so much fun at the dance that the real reason for his coming to Farmer
Green's place had quite slipped out of his mind.

XXI

THE BUMBLEBEE IN THE PUMPK