body else had
to stop up his ears.

Noticing a look of distress on Betsy Butterfly's face, Buster asked her
what the trouble was.

"You and your cousin Joseph are making a terrible racket," she told him.

"My cousin Joseph!" cried Buster Bumblebee. "And who is he, I should
like to know? Point him out to me, please! For I didn't know I had a
cousin at this party."

"There he is!" said Betsy Butterfly, nodding her head towards the
glowering Joseph.

"What! That unshaven stranger in the yellowish-brown suit?" cried Buster
Bumblebee. "I assure you he's no relation of mine."

"You must be mistaken," Betsy persisted. "He says he's your cousin, and
of royal blood himself."

"Nonsense!" cried Buster Bumblebee. "Just let me talk to him a moment,
and I'll soon prove that your friend is nothing but a fraud."

Accordingly Buster left her, and straightway perched himself upon a
daisy directly in front of Joseph Bumble.

"How-dy do!" said Buster. "I hear you've been talking about me."

Now, Joseph Bumble's only thought was that the noisy chap in the yellow
and black velvet must have overheard what he had said to Chirpy Cricket
about throwing him out of the party.

"I don't care to talk with you," Joseph announced in his grandest
manner. "I'm from such a fine family that I have to be very particular
about whom I'm seen with."

"Is that so?" said Buster. "I suppose if Buster Bumblebee were at this
party you'd be glad to talk with him?"

"I should say I would!" was the other's answer. "He's my cousin."

"What's your name, anyhow?" Buster Inquired.

"Joseph Bumble!"

"What's the rest of it?" Buster Bumblebee demanded, while the whole
company surged around him, so that they might hear.

"I refuse to answer!" said Joseph Bumble. And afterward Daddy Longlegs
declared that at that moment he saw the fellow's knees trembling.

"Come!" said Joseph Bumble, turning suddenly to Betsy Butterfly. "I see
that we've accidentally fallen in with some rough people; and we'd
better be moving on."

But Betsy Butterfly didn't even look at Joseph.

"What _is_ his full name?" she asked Buster.

"He's a Bumble Flower-Beetle," Buster said. "And as for his being
related to me, that's all humbug. This stranger is no kin either to the
Bumblebee or any other Bee family. But his voice is so much like ours
that he's taken part of our name, though our family has always claimed
that he has no right to it."

"Who are you?" Joseph Bumble dema