Buster
Bumblebee a stupid fellow. Many people paid little heed to him. Yet
strange to say, he often hit the nail on the head, so to speak. And this
time he made Mrs. Ladybug somewhat uncomfortable. She had had no
invitation to spend the winter in the fine, big house. But she didn't
care to have her neighbors know that.

"There's just one thing to do," Buster Bumblebee decided. "I'll ask the
Carpenter Bee if he's building a house for her."

So he went to the big poplar by the brook, where the Carpenter Bee
lived. And that mild person himself--sawdust-covered as usual--answered
Buster's knock at his door.

"Are you building a house for Mrs. Ladybug?" Buster Bumblebee inquired.

"No!" said the Carpenter. "We couldn't agree. She wanted me to work
twelve hours a day. And I wanted to work twenty-four. I told her I must
have _some_ time to rest. But she couldn't see things as I did."

Buster Bumblebee was puzzled.

"I don't understand," he said.

The Carpenter kindly made matters clear to him.

"I rest only when I'm working," he explained.

XXII

MRS. LADYBUG LEAVES

THE Carpenter Bee, who lived in the big poplar by the brook, wasn't
building a house for Mrs. Ladybug. That skillful woodworker hadn't been
able to agree with her--so he told Buster Bumblebee. Furthermore, he
knew nothing of Mrs. Ladybug's present plans as to where she was going
to spend the winter.

Nor did anybody else. It was all a great mystery. And Mrs. Ladybug
seemed to enjoy it far more than her neighbors did. She was the only
person that could have solved it for them. And she wouldn't.

At the same time she took delight in talking about her winter quarters,
as she called the place where she intended to live during cold weather.

"It will be cozy and warm there," she often remarked to her callers, of
whom she had huge numbers. For there was scarcely a person in the
orchard or the garden that didn't burn with curiosity to know more about
the fine, big house into which Mrs. Ladybug expected to move.

"My winter quarters will be wind-proof," Mrs. Ladybug told them. And
that speech set them all to guessing again.

Almost everybody said then that she was going to live underground.

"I shall not feel a drop of rain--not even during the January thaw,"
Mrs. Ladybug went on.

And then everybody had to begin guessing all over again; for rain drops
were sure to trickle into an underground house during a warm spell.

"You're going to liv