Startled, Poppy leaned closer to the ground and listened for the sound to repeat again. Sure enough. Another Burp! and another.

She tilted her head, and walked slowly back and forth. When the sound repeated again, she was standing right above the loudest point. “What is below the ground right here?” she wondered. She looked around and spotted a small mound of dirt. Gopher diggings! It must be Rocky the gopher’s burrow! Oh dear!

Rocky must be the thief that stole her seeds. And now he had eaten them. But surely he couldn’t have eaten them all!  Surely she could save some.

But how would she get him out of the burrow?

As she was pondering her problem, a large bumblebee flew by.

“That’s it, “she said to herself. “I’ll ask the bees to invade the burrow. Surely a swarm of bees buzzing around him would get him out.” She called out to the bee and quickly explained the problem.

“Hmmm,” the bee replied. “Mmm yes. I’ll go ask the queen. I’m sure she will help. After all, hmmm, we depend on the nectar from those flowers to make our honey.”

While Poppy waited for the bees’ answer, she hurried home and grabbed her seed-gathering bag. Then she returned to the burrow to wait.

She was surprised when a dark swarm of countless bees suddenly appeared.  They were  headed rapidly towards her.

“That was fast,” she thought.

The bees formed a loud, buzzing cloud. Even Poppy stepped back a little. A huge crowd of bees was an alarming sight, even though she was their friend.

“Down this way,” she called to them, pointing to the entrance to the tunnel.

One after another, the bees dove into the tunnel. All of a sudden there was a loud yell.

“Help!” Then the sound of racing feet. The gopher erupted from the tunnel’s back door, followed by the swarm of bees.

“Thank you,” Poppy called out, but the bees were already too far away to hear. That gopher was really moving!

Poppy flew down into the tunnel and found a wide cavern that was the gopher’s bedroom. Sure enough, right in the middle stood a pile of wildflower seeds.

“I wonder how they got here?” Poppy said aloud. “Gophers don’t climb trees.” Then she noticed the squirrel tracks on the dirt floor. Of course! Rocky the gopher and Boulder the squirrel were great friends. They must be in this together.  The squirrel stole the seeds, and the gopher hid them in his burrow.

Shaking her head at the naughty behavior of the rodents, Poppy opened her bag and filled it with the seeds that were left.

“At least there will be some wildflowers in the meadow,” she said to the empty room.