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 A steady hand was thrust at him.

“Shake!” said the little Scout. “All that goes for me. All what you said about me, I’ll say about you. I’ll come to you like I been goin’ to the Bee Master. We’ll be partners like him and me was. I’ll help you all I can. But, say, what’s going to become of the bees? What’s going to become of the garden? What’s going to become of that nice house?”

Jamie hesitated. Someone had to tell the child. They were there. It was his opportunity. He wanted a childish viewpoint. Why not?

So he said quietly: “Would you believe there was any one in all this world that the Bee Master loved any better than he did you?”

“I don’t have to waste any breath on explaining beliefs on that point,” said the little Scout. “I got acshal information, and I got it from the Great Mogul; I got it from the Man Higher Up; I got it right up against the Bee Master’s heart; I got it with a tight kiss and it’s a sekert I ain’t tellin’ anybody except the man that takes his place. Reckermember you’re under oath and this is the first one I’m goin’ to tell you because it was our sekert between us. There might have been folks that wouldn’t have liked it if they’d known it. There was folks that wouldn’t have liked it. Margaret Cameron wouldn’t have liked it, for one, ’cause I’ve got my doubts if she cared any more about Lolly than she did about the Bee Master. What I know about her, the way she cleaned after him and waited on him! I guess I seen Mother cottoning up to