All the rabbits set up an exclamation of surprise and horror. “Oh! Oh! Run!” they shouted.
Of course, Bumper thought this was from fear that the ball might be thrown at them, and he smiled. But when they all scampered away to a great distance, and a queer humming sound came out of the ball he held in his paws, he began to wonder if he had made a mistake through ignorance.
It did not take him long to find out. The humming and buzzing inside the ball increased, and then out of one end appeared Mr. Yellow Jacket and his wife and all their children. The ball was a hornet’s nest, and the irate family were pouring out of their home pell-mell.
Bumper felt a sharp sting on the end of his ear, a sting like the pricking of a thousand needles, and another on the tip of his nose. With that he gave a squeal of pain, and threw the ball far from him. The next he scampered away after the others, pursued by a dozen angry Yellow Jackets.
It was not until they were at a safe distance that they stopped. Then Spotted Tail turned to Bumper, and said:
“What an idiot you were! Or didn’t you know it was Mr. Yellow Jacket’s home?”
Bumper was on the point of confessing his ignorance when he thought of the consequence. A king should know everything, and to admit he didn’t know a hornet’s nest from a ball would be a terrible blow to his pride. So he suppressed the groan that the pain on his ear and nose caused, and said indignantly:
“Know it was Mr. Yellow Jacket’s home! Why, what an idea! But somebody had to pull it down, or Fuzzy Wuzz and the children might get stung. It was better that I should suffer than they, wasn’t it?”
Which speech they all applauded, and said that Bumper was as brave as he was wise.