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Page 6
"I think you 're real mean," said Betty, as he slowly recovered
himself; "I don't like folks to laugh at me, now!"
"I 'm not laughing at you _now_," explained the humble-bee, gravely; "I
was laughing at you _then_. Do you object to that?"
Betty disdained to reply, and began to pull a dry clover-blossom to
pieces.
"Tut, tut, child! Don't be so touchy! A body can laugh, can't he, and
no harm done? You 'd better be good-tempered and jolly, and then I 'll
tell you where I 'm going,--which, I believe, was what you wished to
know in the first place, was n't it?"
Betty nodded her head, but did not speak.
"Oho!" said the humble-bee, rising and preparing to take his departure.
And now Betty discovered, on seeing him more closely, that he was not a
humble-bee at all, but just a very corpulent old gentleman dressed in
quite an antique fashion, with black knee-breeches, black silk
stockings, black patent-leather pumps with large buckles, a most
elaborate black velvet waistcoat with yellow and orange stripes across,
and a coat of black velvet to correspond with the breeches; while in
his hand he carried a very elegant three-cornered hat, which, out of
respect to her, he had removed from his head at the first moment of
their meeting. "So we are sulky?" he went on. "Dear, dear! That is a
very disagreeable condition to allow one's self to relapse into. H'm,
h'm! very unpleasant, very! Under the circumstances I think I 'd
better be going; for if you 'll believe me, I 'm pressed for time, and
have none to waste, and only came back to converse with you because you
addressed a civil question to me, which, being a gentleman, I was bound
to answer. Good--"
He would have said "by;" but Betty sprang to her feet and cried:
"Please don't leave me. I 'll be good and pleasant, only please don't
go. _Please_ tell me where you 're going, and if--if you would be so
good, I 'd like ever and ever so much to go along. Don't--do--may I?"
The little gentleman looked her over from head to foot, and then
replied in a hesitating sort of way: "You may not be aware of it, but
you are extremely incautious. What would you do if I were to whisk you
off and never bring you back, eh?"
"You don't look like a kidnapper, sir," said Betty, respectfully.
"A what?" inquired the little gentleman.
"A kidnapper," repeated Betty.
"What's that?" questioned her companion.
"Oh, a person who steals little children. Don't you know?"
"But why _kidnapper_?" insisted the little old man.
"I suppose because he naps kids. My uncle Will calls Roger and me
'kids.' It is n't very nice of him, is it?" she asked, glad to air her
grievance.
"Child-stealer would be more to the point, I think, or
infant-abductor," remarked the old gentleman, who saw, perhaps, how
anxious Betty was for sympathy, and was determined not to give her
another opportunity of considering herself injured.
He seemed to be very busy considering the subject for a second or so,
and then he said suddenly: "But if you want to go, why, come along, for
I must be off. But don't make a practice of it, mind, when you get
back."
"You have n't told me where yet," suggested Betty.
"True; so I have n't," said the old gentleman, setting his
three-cornered hat firmly on his head and settling the fine laces at
his wrists. "It's to By-and-by. And now, if you 're ready, off we go!"
He took Betty's hand, and she suddenly found herself moving through the
air in a most remarkable manner,--not touching the ground with her
feet, but seeming to skim along quite easily and with no effort at all.
"If you please, Mr.--" She paused because she suddenly remembered that
she did not know the name of the gentleman who was conducting her on so
delightful a journey.
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