g bee. Farmer Green's neighbors for miles around came to help
him put up the frame of his new barn. And afterwards they enjoyed a feast
under the trees--and a dance."

Jimmy Rabbit began to shake in a very strange manner.

"Ho! ho!" he cried in a jolly voice. "You are the one that's
mistaken--and not I! You saw a raising bee and didn't know it! Farmer
Green's friends _raised_ the timbers for the barn. And that's why it's
called a _raising_ bee. Any helpful, neighborly gathering like that is
known as a _bee_--though you may not be aware of that fact."

Buster Bumblebee stared open-mouthed. He had never suspected such a
thing. But Jimmy Rabbit said it was so. And there was nothing to do but
believe him.

"So they had something to eat--and a dance too, eh?" said Jimmy Rabbit
pleasantly.

"Yes," said Buster, "and there was a bumblebee in a pumpkin, though I
couldn't see him. But old dog Spot said he did. And I suppose I was
mistaken, for I thought he was inside a fiddle."

And now Jimmy Rabbit was laughing again, holding his sides and shaking so
hard that it seemed as if his ears would fall off if he didn't stop soon.

"No, you were not mistaken at all!" he cried, as soon as he could speak
again. "That's an old, old tune. My grandfather has hummed it to me many
a time. He used to say that there never was another tune just like it."

"What tune?" Buster Bumblebee asked him. "I must say I don't know what
you're talking about."

"Why, _The Bumblebee in the Pumpkin_!" Jimmy Rabbit informed him. "That's
the name of a tune. Every good fiddler knows it. And since the buzzing
sound comes out of the fiddle, the bumblebee must be inside it, of
course."

For a moment Buster looked almost peevish. He had intended to take Jimmy
Rabbit down a peg by telling him he had been mistaken. And here was Jimmy
Rabbit, explaining every strange thing, just as he always did! It was
most annoying--so Buster thought. But all at once a comforting idea
popped into his head.

"Old dog Spot was wrong, wasn't he?" Buster cried.

"He certainly was," Jimmy Rabbit replied.

"Ha! ha!" laughed Buster Bumblebee. "Isn't it odd how stupid some people
are?"

"It certainly is!" said Jimmy Rabbit. And for some unknown reason he
laughed harder than ever before.

But Buster Bumblebee did not mind that in the least. He thought that
Jimmy Rabbit was making game of old dog Spot.

THE END

-----------------------------