IT happened just as Chirpy Cricket had expected. Betsy b.u.t.terfly arrived at the party with her admirer, Joseph b.u.mble, buzzing close behind her.

Although he had not been invited, he did not feel the least bit shy about coming.

"Being of a royal family, I never wait to be asked to a place," he had explained loftily to Betsy. "And you'll see that everybody will be glad to see me at the party. People always consider it an honor to have me at their entertainments."

Joseph's words proved partly true, anyhow. Anyone could see that Joseph b.u.mble was more than welcome. Chirpy Cricket and Daddy Longlegs--as well good many others--rushed up to him and told him how pleased they were to see him.

And Joseph b.u.mble was having a very agreeable time talking in a loud voice about himself and his family when he suddenly stopped short. A look of displeasure crossed his face. And Daddy Longlegs asked him if he had eaten something that disagreed with him.

"No!" replied Joseph b.u.mble. "I've been interrupted. And it's hardly the sort of treatment a person of royal blood--like myself--expects to receive at a party."

"Who interrupted you?" Chirpy Cricket inquired.

"I don't know," Joseph b.u.mble answered. "But someone was talking in a loud voice."

"Are you sure it wasn't yourself that you heard?" Daddy Longlegs wanted to know.

"Certainly not!" cried Joseph. "Don't be silly! Don't you suppose I know my own voice when I hear it?"

"Perhaps it was your echo that you heard," Daddy ventured.

At that Joseph b.u.mble rudely turned his back on him and began whispering to Chirpy Cricket. He was actually suggesting that Daddy Longlegs should be thrown out of the party!

And then Mr. b.u.mble again paused abruptly and listened.

"There!" he said to Chirpy Cricket. "Don't you hear that buzzing? That's the person that interrupted me. And I'd like to have him put out of the party too, along with this queer old chap who insulted me a moment ago."

Chirpy Cricket looked around, until his eye rested on Buster b.u.mblebee, who had just arrived and who was at that moment talking with Betsy b.u.t.terfly.

"There's the young man you hear!" Chirpy told Joseph b.u.mble. "Don't you know him?"

"No!" replied Joseph, as his eyes followed Chirpy Cricket's. "And I don't want to know him, either. He looks to me to be a very ordinary person. And anybody can see that he's annoying Betsy b.u.t.terfly. I tell you, I want him chased away from here at once. For I'm of royal blood; and I'm not accustomed to go to parties with ragtags and bobtails. I'm a cousin of Buster b.u.mblebee, the Queen's son."

Well, Chirpy Cricket tried hard not to laugh right in Joseph b.u.mble's face.

"I'll see what I can do," Chirpy promised him. "And I will admit that _somebody_ ought to be barred out of this party."

"Good!" exclaimed Joseph b.u.mble. "I'm glad to know that you're so sensible."

Perhaps he would have spoken in a different fashion had he known exactly what Chirpy Cricket had in mind. But now he said nothing more, though he continued to stare angrily at Buster b.u.mblebee, who was glad to see Betsy b.u.t.terfly, and was telling her as much, too.

XVI

NOTHING BUT A FRAUD

AT last Joseph b.u.mble's displeasure pa.s.sed all control. He began to buzz as loud as he could, hoping to drown Buster b.u.mblebee's buzzing, so that Buster could no longer talk to Betsy b.u.t.terfly.

Naturally, Buster soon had to raise his own voice, in order to make himself heard. And soon the two made such a roar that everybody else had to stop up his ears.

Noticing a look of distress on Betsy b.u.t.terfly's face, Buster asked her what the trouble was.

"You and your cousin Joseph are making a terrible racket," she told him.

"My cousin Joseph!" cried Buster b.u.mblebee. "And who is he, I should like to know? Point him out to me, please! For I didn't know I had a cousin at this party."

"There he is!" said Betsy b.u.t.terfly, nodding her head towards the glowering Joseph.

"What! That unshaven stranger in the yellowish-brown suit?" cried Buster b.u.mblebee. "I a.s.sure you he's no relation of mine."

"You must be mistaken," Betsy persisted. "He says he's your cousin, and of royal blood himself."

"Nonsense!" cried Buster b.u.mblebee. "Just let me talk to him a moment, and I'll soon prove that your friend is nothing but a fraud."

Accordingly Buster left her, and straightway perched himself upon a daisy directly in front of Joseph b.u.mble.

"How-dy do!" said Buster. "I hear you've been talking about me."

Now, Joseph b.u.mble's only thought was that the noisy chap in the yellow and black velvet must have overheard what he had said to Chirpy Cricket about throwing him out of the party.

"I don't care to talk with you," Joseph announced in his grandest manner. "I'm from such a fine family that I have to be very particular about whom I'm seen with."

"Is that so?" said Buster. "I suppose if Buster b.u.mblebee were at this party you'd be glad to talk with him?"

"I should say I would!" was the other's answer. "He's my cousin."

"What's your name, anyhow?" Buster Inquired.

"Joseph b.u.mble!"

"What's the rest of it?" Buster b.u.mblebee demanded, while the whole company surged around him, so that they might hear.

"I refuse to answer!" said Joseph b.u.mble. And afterward Daddy Longlegs declared that at that moment he saw the fellow's knees trembling.

"Come!" said Joseph b.u.mble, turning suddenly to Betsy b.u.t.terfly. "I see that we've accidentally fallen in with some rough people; and we'd better be moving on."

But Betsy b.u.t.terfly didn't even look at Joseph.

"What _is_ his full name?" she asked Buster.

"He's a b.u.mble Flower-Beetle," Buster said. "And as for his being related to me, that's all humbug. This stranger is no kin either to the b.u.mblebee or any other Bee family. But his voice is so much like ours that he's taken part of our name, though our family has always claimed that he has no right to it."

"Who are you?" Joseph b.u.mble demanded of Buster quite fiercely. He was determined to put his enemy to rout if he could.

"I'm Buster b.u.mblebee!" was the reply. "Don't you know your cousin?"

When he heard that, Joseph b.u.mble knew at once that the game was up. His trickery was discovered beyond a doubt. So with one last lingering look at the beautiful Betsy he took to his wings. And no one ever saw him in those parts again.