Buster Bumblebee, who gasped at her blankly.
"I've really _two_ pairs of wings, because my polka dot wing covers are
actually wings too--only folks don't usually call them by that name."

Having spread her wings, Mrs. Ladybug decided to take a short flight.
And with Buster gazing dully after her she flitted off.

"I'll have to tell my mother, the Queen, about this," he muttered.

IV

RUSTY WREN HELPS

RUSTY WREN'S wife was getting very impatient. She was at home with her
fast-growing family of youngsters, at home in the cherry tree near
Farmer Green's chamber window.

"Dear me!" Mrs. Wren exclaimed. "I don't see what's keeping Rusty. It's
at least a quarter of an hour since he brought any food to these
children."

Mrs. Wren soon grew tired of waiting.

"I'll go and find him!" she said under her breath. And telling her
nestlings that she would be back in a few minutes, she hurried off
towards the orchard.

"I thought so!" Mrs. Wren muttered soon afterward, as she caught sight
of her husband. He was talking with Jolly Robin, in the old apple tree
where the Robin family lived. "I thought so!"

"Have you forgotten your duty as a parent?" Mrs. Wren asked her husband
in a tart voice, dropping down on a branch right behind him.

Rusty Wren jumped.

"I've been here only a second or two," he faltered. "Mr. Robin and I had
a little business together."

"So I see," said Mrs. Wren. "So I see. And now, if your business is
finished, allow me to remind you that you have six hungry sons and
daughters at home." Then Mrs. Wren twitched herself off her perch and
flew back to the cherry tree and her family.

"I declare," Rusty Wren remarked to his friend Jolly Robin, "I must
have stayed here, talking with you, longer than I thought. Those
children have enormous appetites. I'll have to work more spryly than
ever to get them fed before sunset."

"I know how that is," said Jolly Robin with a chuckle. Somehow he seemed
much more cheerful than his companion. "I was actually glad when our
last nestlings were big enough to leave home and hustle for themselves.
But, of course," he added, "I still keep an eye on them."

Rusty Wren had already begun to hunt for tidbits. Almost immediately he
found an ant, which he snatched up and carried away. Back and forth he
flew, making dozens of trips between his house and the orchard. Grubs
and caterpillars, grasshoppers and spiders--he seized them wherever he
could spy them and t