"I know of something you could do that would help," he persisted, in a much louder voice. "The honey-makers could work after dark if you'd only get the Firefly family to furnish lights for them."
A number of Buster's relations snickered when they heard his plan. It struck them as being too silly for anything. But his mother, the Queen, looked very thoughtful.
"I'm not sure but that this boy has a good idea," she observed, much to the surprise of the others. "For a long time I've been waiting for him to say something worth listening to. And now I do believe he has had a happy thought at last." She turned to Buster. "How did you chance upon this scheme?" she asked him.
"Oh, the notion just came to me. I didn't have to WORK, to think of it,"
Buster explained. And he wondered why everybody laughed.
You know, Buster Bumblebee was so lazy that he never would lift a finger to do a stroke of work. And now the word "work" had a very funny sound, coming from his mouth.
"How could we get the Firefly family to help us? Have you thought of a way to do that?" Buster's mother said to her son.
"N-no, I haven't," he admitted. "But I'd go straight to Freddie Firefly and tell him what's wanted."
"Suppose you do that, then," said the Queen.
"You wouldn't call that WORKING, would you?" Buster inquired anxiously. Having long since promised himself that he would never work, of course he didn't want to break his word.
His relations—that is, except his mother—couldn't help tittering when Buster said that. But to tell the truth, they were beginning to be the least bit jealous of Buster Bumblebee and his plan. When the Queen frowned at them severely, each of them tried to look as if it had been somebody else that laughed.