“Oh, I’m stung! I’m stung! Take ’em away, somebody! Take ’em away! I’m stung!”
Then Rose cried:
“Bees! Bees! A lot of bees are after him!”
“Yes, and there are some buzzing around here!” said Russ quickly. “He must have run into a hornet’s nest or something, and some of ’em are flying around here. I heard ’em buzz!”
“So did I!” added Violet.
“But they aren’t hornets,” said Laddie. “Look! There’s one,” and he pointed to a yellow-banded insect lazily flying in the air above them. “That’s a honey bee, like those Farmer Joel has.”
“And look at the lot of ’em around that boy!” cried Rose. “Oh, what a lot of bees!”
She pointed to the woods where the rascally lad was still leaping about, slapping himself with his hands, and now and then lying down in the dried leaves to roll about.
“Come on! We’d better run!” advised Russ. “These are honey bees all right, but they sting as badly as hornets. A swarm must have gotten away from Farmer Joel’s and this boy ran right into ’em. Come on, we’ll go before they get after us.”
As yet only one or two bees had flown toward the six little Bunkers, but they started away, nevertheless, for there was no fun remaining at a picnic if they had no lunch to eat.