Welcome to my leaf. You are a fly, are you not?"

"What else do you take me for?" said the little one. "My name is
Puck. I am very busy. Do you want to drive me away?"

"Why, not at all. I am glad to make your acquaintance."

"I believe you," was all Puck said, and with that he tried to
pull his head off.

"Mercy!" cried Maya.

"I must do this. You don't understand. It's something you know
nothing about," Puck rejoined calmly, and slid his legs over his
wings till they curved round the tip of his body. "I'm more than
a fly," he added with some pride. "I'm a housefly. I flew out
here for the fresh air."

"How interesting!" exclaimed Maya gleefully. "Then you must know
all about human beings."

"As well as the pockets of my trousers," Puck threw out
disdainfully. "I sit on them every day. Didn't you know _that_?
I thought you bees were so _clever_. You pretend to be at any
rate."

"My name is Maya," said the little bee rather shyly. Where the
other insects got their self-assurance, to say nothing of their
insolence, she couldn't understand.

"Thanks for the information. Whatever your name, you're a
simpleton."

Puck sat there tilted like a cannon in position to be fired off,
his head and breast thrust upward, the hind tip of his body
resting on the leaf. Suddenly he ducked his head and squatted
down, so that he looked as if he had no legs.

"You've got to watch out and be careful," he said. "That's the
most important thing of all."

But an angry wave of resentment was surging in little Maya. The
insult Puck had offered her was too much. Without really knowing
what made her do it, she pounced on him quick as lightning,
caught him by the collar and held him tight.

"I will teach you to be polite to a bee," she cried.

Puck set up an awful howl.

"Don't sting me," he screamed. "It's the only thing you can do,
but it's killing. Please remove the back of your body. That's
where your sting is. And let me go, please let me go, if you
possibly can. I'll do anything you say. Can't you understand a
joke, a mere joke? Everybody knows that you bees are the most
respected of all insects, and the most powerful, and the most
numerous. Only don't kill me, please don't. There won't be any
bringing me back to life. Good God! No one appreciates my
humor!"

"Very well," said Maya with a touch of contempt in her heart,
"I'll let you live on condition that you tell me everything you
know about human beings."

"Gladly