Whimpering and pawing at his face, he crunched a great mouthful of the comb, bees and all.
"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.