Farbuzz Guesses Big

Farbuzz does everything big. He flies the highest loops, sings the loudest songs, and on guessing days he always guesses enormous numbers.

“How many bees are in the hive today?”

“A MILLION!”

“How many drops of dew on the spider web?”

“TEN THOUSAND!”

The other bees usually laughed, and Farbuzz laughed with them. But one evening, after Middling had shown everyone how to line up the guesses and find the middle, Farbuzz flew to the top of the oak and sat very still, which was not like him at all.

Comb found him there.

“I’ve been thinking,” said Farbuzz. “I always guess too big. Maybe I spoil it for everyone. Maybe I should stop guessing.”

“Let’s find out,” said Comb.

The next morning she asked the hive how many seeds were in a sunflower head. She collected every guess on a leaf, including Farbuzz’s, which was, of course, “Twenty thousand!”

Middling laid the leaves out in a row. Nine guesses: eight hundred, nine hundred, nine hundred and fifty, a thousand, a thousand and fifty, eleven hundred, twelve hundred, thirteen hundred, and Farbuzz’s twenty thousand right on the end.

“Nine leaves,” said Middling. “The middle one has four on each side. A thousand and fifty.”

“Now,” said Comb, “let’s take Farbuzz’s leaf away.”

Farbuzz watched, feeling his stomach sink. Here it came. Without him, the guess would be much better.

Middling counted again. Eight leaves now. With an even number, there were two leaves in the middle: a thousand and a thousand and fifty. Halfway between them was a thousand and twenty-five.

“A thousand and twenty-five,” Middling said.

Farbuzz blinked. “That’s almost the same.”

“Twenty-five seeds different,” said Comb. “Your twenty thousand is way out on the end. When we find the middle guess, a guess on the far end can only nudge it one little step.”

“So my wild guess didn’t break anything?”

“Not the middle guess,” said Comb. “It would have dragged an average up a long way, if we’d added everything and shared it out. That’s why the hive uses the middle.”

They counted the sunflower that afternoon: one thousand and eighty seeds.

Farbuzz did a small, careful loop, and then a big one, and then the biggest loop anyone had seen all summer.

But Comb wasn’t finished. “Here’s the other thing,” she said, when he landed. “Once in a while, something really is enormous. One day a swarm of hornets might be bigger than anyone thinks. The bee who isn’t afraid to say a huge number is the bee who notices first.”

Farbuzz thought about that for a long time.

He still guesses big. But now, before he shouts, he sometimes stops and does a quick count first, like Midge. And sometimes, when the count is huge, his huge guess is the right one.