but I don't think you could manage it properly. You shall have
it if you like.' I wouldn't take it, however, for it looked
dangerous.

"I did the best I could with the dusters, and crawled up to the
top of the moon. But what a grand sight it was! The stars
were all over my head, so bright and so near that I could almost
have laid hold of them. The round ball to which I clung went
bobbing and floating away through the dark blue above and below
and on every side. It was so beautiful that all fear left me,
and I set to work diligently. I cleaned window after window.
At length I came to a very little one, in at which I peeped.
There was the room with the box of bees in it! I laid my ear
to the window, and heard the musical hum quite distinctly.
A great longing to see them came upon me, and I opened the window
and crept in. The little box had a door like a closet. I opened it--
the tiniest crack--when out came the light with such a sting that I
closed it again in terror--not, however, before three bees had shot
out into the room, where they darted about like flashes of lightning.
Terribly frightened, I tried to get out of the window again, but I
could not: there was no way to the outside of the moon but through
the door; and that was in the room where the lady sat. No sooner
had I reached the room, than the three bees, which had followed me,
flew at once to the lady, and settled upon her hair. Then first
I saw her move. She started, put up her hand, and caught them;
then rose and, having held them into the flame of the lamp one after
the other, turned to me. Her face was not so sad now as stern.
It frightened me much. `Nanny, you have got me into trouble,'
she said. `You have been letting out my bees, which it is all I can
do to manage. You have forced me to burn them. It is a great loss,