"Never had he tasted, never had he dreamed of, anything so delicious!
What was the pain of his smarting muzzle to that ecstatic mouthful? He
snatched another, which took all the rest of the comb. Then he flung
the piece of wood to the ground.

"The bees, meanwhile--except those which had stung him and were now
crawling, stingless and soon to die, in his fur--had suddenly left him.
The whole interior of their hive was exposed to the glare of daylight,
and their one thought now was to save all they could. Teddy Bear's one
thought was to seize all he could. He clawed himself around boldly to
the front of the tree, plunged one greedy paw straight into the heart
of the hive, snatched forth a big, dripping, crawling comb, and fell to
munching it up as fast as possible--honey, bees, brood-comb, bee-bread,
all together indiscriminately. The distracted bees paid him no more
attention. They were too busy filling their honey sacks."

The Babe smacked his lips. He was beginning to get pretty hungry
himself.

"Well," continued Uncle Andy, "Teddy Bear chewed and chewed, finally
plunging his whole head into the sticky mess--getting a few stings, of
course, but never thinking of them--till he was just so gorged that he
couldn't hold another morsel. Then, very slowly and heavily, grunting
all the time, he climbed down the bee tree. He felt that he wanted to
go to sleep. When he reached the bottom he sat up on his haunches to
look around for some sort of a snug corner. His eyelids were swollen
with stings, but his little round stomach was swollen with honey, so he
didn't care a cent. His face was all daubed with honey, and earth, and
leaves, and dead bees. His whole body was a sight. And his claws were
so stuck up with honey and rotten wood and bark that he kept opening