nded of Buster quite fiercely. He was
determined to put his enemy to rout if he could.

"I'm Buster Bumblebee!" was the reply. "Don't you know your cousin?"

When he heard that, Joseph Bumble knew at once that the game was up. His
trickery was discovered beyond a doubt. So with one last lingering look
at the beautiful Betsy he took to his wings. And no one ever saw him in
those parts again.

As for Betsy Butterfly, she never could bear, after that, to hear the
name of Joseph Bumble so much as mentioned.

XVII

DUSTY'S DIFFICULTY

IT was to be expected that as time went on, Betsy Butterfly's fame would
spread far and wide. And long before the summer was over, half the
creatures that lived in Pleasant Valley knew her. They were the ones
that went about by daylight and rested at night.

As for the other half--the night-prowlers--many of them had heard about
the beautiful Betsy, though of course they had never seen her. That is,
none of them had set eyes on her except Freddie Firefly, who had flashed
his light upon Betsy all one night, because Mrs. Ladybug had a strange
notion that she was stealing butter from the farmhouse.

In fact, after that happened, Freddie Firefly had gone about telling all
his friends how beautiful Betsy Butterfly was, and saying what a pity it
was that she didn't like moonlight as well as sunshine.

He talked so much about her that at last a good many of the
night-prowling people said that they wished they might see Betsy
Butterfly just once, for they could scarcely believe that anybody
could be as dainty and bewitching as Freddie Firefly would have
them believe her.

And there was one dashing young chap of the Moth family who became
especially eager to make Betsy's acquaintance. Indeed, he began to
complain that he was losing his appetite, through thinking about Betsy
Butterfly. So he besought Freddie Firefly to help him out of his
difficulty.

Now, while he was talking with Freddie Firefly, this young Moth, who was
known as Dusty, never once stopped eating. Freddie Firefly noticed how
his fat sides stuck out.

And he wondered what the fellow's appetite could have been like before
he lost some of it.

"You don't act like one in delicate health," Freddie Firefly observed,
as he watched the greedy Dusty consume more food.

"Oh, but I am!" Dusty Moth protested feebly. "I'm so weak now that I can
hardly raise myself with my wings."

Freddie was sure that Dusty's trouble was