“You didn’t? Who did?”
“The peddler boy!”
And then the story was told—about the bees and everything. Norah laughed when she heard how the bad boy had been sent howling into the woods by the stings of the honey insects, and she quickly put up another lunch for the children.
“But if you go back to the same place to eat it,” she said, “that same peddler boy may take it again.”
“No, he won’t!” cried Russ. “If he does—I’ll take a big club along this time.”
“And we’ll hide the lunch where he can’t find it,” added Laddie.
“I guess we’ll be so hungry we’ll eat it as soon as we get to the woods and then there won’t be anything left for him to take,” observed Violet. And this was voted the best idea of all.
“But maybe the bees might sting you,” said Norah. “Perhaps you had better stay around here and eat.”
“No, thank you,” answered Russ. “We’ll go just a little way into the woods—not as far as before, and then the bees won’t come. But did any swarm get away from here, Norah? It was a swarm of bees we saw in the woods chasing that peddler boy.”
“No, I didn’t hear of any swarm getting away from here,” said Norah. “But then I don’t know much about bees. Better ask Adam.”