“I appoint you an official member
Of the greatest group (not club, mind you,
For we are better than all that nonsense),”
He said with a proud sniffle, “My good sir,
You are now a Busy Bee of BV.”
He leaned in close to the wide-eyed new boy.
“That’s short for Bumbles Ville – our secret fort.”
He straightened his ratted baseball cap, “See,”
He said with a smack of gum. “It’s not ‘bout
Bees ‘t all.” At this the new boy giggled.
A secret! How clever! “But what’s it ‘bout?”
The little boy asked, his voice squeaking out.
They grabbed a paper scroll marked “OFFICIAL!”
                We keep all secrets
                We may take small bets—
“There’s more notes on that at the bottom of
The page, see, right next to our initials,
‘Cause we couldn’t agree at first, and Jim
Here didn’t know what a bet was, you know.”
He didn’t know, but nodded. Then, “Dinner,”
He said at once, scamp’ring down the tree limb.
“We didn’t tell him what we’s ‘bout,” Jim moaned,
“Took his dog, too.” He glumly bowed his head.