ent a person of royal blood--like myself--expects to
receive at a party."

"Who interrupted you?" Chirpy Cricket inquired.

"I don't know," Joseph Bumble answered. "But someone was talking in a
loud voice."

"Are you sure it wasn't yourself that you heard?" Daddy Longlegs wanted
to know.

"Certainly not!" cried Joseph. "Don't be silly! Don't you suppose I know
my own voice when I hear it?"

"Perhaps it was your echo that you heard," Daddy ventured.

At that Joseph Bumble rudely turned his back on him and began whispering
to Chirpy Cricket. He was actually suggesting that Daddy Longlegs should
be thrown out of the party!

And then Mr. Bumble again paused abruptly and listened.

"There!" he said to Chirpy Cricket. "Don't you hear that buzzing? That's
the person that interrupted me. And I'd like to have him put out of the
party too, along with this queer old chap who insulted me a moment ago."

Chirpy Cricket looked around, until his eye rested on Buster Bumblebee,
who had just arrived and who was at that moment talking with Betsy
Butterfly.

"There's the young man you hear!" Chirpy told Joseph Bumble. "Don't you
know him?"

"No!" replied Joseph, as his eyes followed Chirpy Cricket's. "And I
don't want to know him, either. He looks to me to be a very ordinary
person. And anybody can see that he's annoying Betsy Butterfly. I tell
you, I want him chased away from here at once. For I'm of royal blood;
and I'm not accustomed to go to parties with ragtags and bobtails. I'm a
cousin of Buster Bumblebee, the Queen's son."

Well, Chirpy Cricket tried hard not to laugh right in Joseph Bumble's
face.

"I'll see what I can do," Chirpy promised him. "And I will admit that
_somebody_ ought to be barred out of this party."

"Good!" exclaimed Joseph Bumble. "I'm glad to know that you're so
sensible."

Perhaps he would have spoken in a different fashion had he known exactly
what Chirpy Cricket had in mind. But now he said nothing more, though he
continued to stare angrily at Buster Bumblebee, who was glad to see
Betsy Butterfly, and was telling her as much, too.

XVI

NOTHING BUT A FRAUD

AT last Joseph Bumble's displeasure passed all control. He began to buzz
as loud as he could, hoping to drown Buster Bumblebee's buzzing, so that
Buster could no longer talk to Betsy Butterfly.

Naturally, Buster soon had to raise his own voice, in order to make
himself heard. And soon the two made such a roar that every