"They'll see! They'll see!" she said. "I'm going to spend the winter in the biggest and finest house on this farm."
That was all she would tell. She wouldn't breathe another word about her plans. And naturally, every one became very curious. There wasn't a soul that wasn't agog to know what Mrs. Ladybug intended to do.
The neighbors asked her, begged her, teased her—some even threatened her. But she declined to answer. She said that if she told where she expected to pass the cold months everybody would want to go to the same place and maybe there wouldn't be any room left for her.
Perhaps some of her friends had intended to follow her into her winter quarters. Anyhow, many of them looked guilty when she made that remark. And a few of them looked angry, and declared that Mrs. Ladybug was selfish.
"If the house is as big as she claims it is, it ought to hold a few extra guests without being crowded," they grumbled.
"Guests—" said Mrs. Ladybug—"guests should always wait for an invitation."
"Have you had one?" Buster Bumblebee asked her.
Mrs. Ladybug did not answer his question. Most people thought 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.