Cricket is no more superstitious than anyone else in this region, but he is a reader, and an informal student of mythology and folklore. He remembers reading Bulfinch's Mythology, a story about bees building a hive in a sacrificial carcass. It struck him as a strange story. Wild bees in Franklin County are usually in trees or in the chimneys of abandoned shacks. Would honeybees build a nest inside a living body?

What would that do to the person?

Cricket's expression is gentle but troubled as Hugh wakes and scolds the bee. He only looks increasingly confused by the way they interact, as if they're actually communicating. Clearly he's not surprised by his own peculiarity.

Cricket is silent for a long moment after the confession, but at length he says slowly, "And they don't hurt you or nothin'? How do you eat?"

He can't see this child as any kind of threat to him. That's the bottom line. As strange as it all is, it seems pretty innocent to him.