But Johnnie Green did not always do just exactly as he ought to have done.
XVI
THE TWINS IN THE CLOVER PATCH
The twins—Johnnie Green's guests—each with a honey box in his hand, began at once to hunt for bumblebees. And if Buster Bumblebee had been wiser he would have flown away at once.
But he had no idea that he would have any trouble dodging a boy—especially a city boy. So he lingered on the porch to see what happened. As soon as Johnnie Green should put the Carpenter back in his prison Buster intended to urge him once more to cut his way through the wood—and to freedom.
Soon Buster had his chance. Again he crowded close to the glass door of the Carpenter's cage. And then Johnnie Green's sharp eyes spied him.
"There's one!" said Johnnie Green to one of the twins. And at that the eager youngster pounced quickly on Buster, picked him up gingerly, and popped him quickly into a prison exactly like the one that held the Carpenter.
"He didn't sting me!" cried Buster's captor proudly, while Johnnie Green stared at him in astonishment and—it must be confessed—with some disappointment, too.
Now, Johnnie knew a good many things about the field and forest folk in Pleasant Valley. He knew that the Carpenter (or Whiteface, as Johnnie called him) couldn't sting anybody. But he had always supposed that all bumblebees stung fiercely. And that was where he was mistaken. It was true that Buster's mother, the Queen, could sting when she wanted to. And all those hot-tempered workers who lived with her had stings just as hot as their tempers. But Buster and his brothers (for he had brothers) were not armed with such weapons.