The Bee and the Flowers

Once upon a time there was a bee called Bobby. He lived in a hive in a tree and every day went out to gather nectar from the flowers around his home. Bobby loved yellow flowers. All summer long he buzzed from one flower to another, collecting nectar and taking it back to the hive where the other bees would use it to make honey.

"Bobby, I'm really proud of you," said the Queen bee one day, "you bring us more nectar than any of the other bees."

"Thanks," said Bobby, "but it's my pleasure. I love my job."

And so he did. There was nothing Bobby loved more than the scent of beautiful yellow flowers.

But one day autumn came. The leaves turned gold and red and brown and began to fall from the trees. The days grew cooler and shorter. And when Bobby went to his favorite field the yellow flowers were gone. He flew to the other fields where he'd had so much fun, only to find all the yellow flowers gone.

He flew around the park, and the people's gardens. There were pink flowers and red ones, orange ones and white ones, but no yellow ones. Bobby settled on the ground sad and exhausted, and started to cry.

After a while a wise old wasp landed next to him.

"What's wrong?" asked the wasp.

Bobby told him about the yellow flowers all being gone.

"Hmmmmmm," the wasp thought for a while, then he offered some advice.

"There are two things you can do. Firstly, if you really must have yellow flowers, there are some on the other side of the mountain. I went there once when I was a boy. But be warned, it's a long and difficult flight. It'll take two days at least to get to the other side."

Bobby listened carefully. He felt relieved that he could still find yellow flowers, but a little scared because he'd never stayed away from his hive overnight before.

"Or," continued the wasp, "you could try one of the other color flowers, pink ones or red or orange or white. If you don't like them, there's nothing lost, but perhaps you'll find them nearly as nice as yellow. It's your choice."

Bobby thought for a while then said, "perhaps I'll try red."

"Follow me," said the wasp, "I know some very good red flowers not far from here.

Together they flew to the red flowers. Bobby was nervous at first, but soon he found the red flowers just as good as the yellow. In fact they were even better, because they were different.

Next: The bear, the doggy and the rabbit