34 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



to the tree, and there I clainietl them as 

 my own and was going" to gather them 

 in, when that thief would take them from 

 me." 



David without waiting for him to fin- 

 ish this long speech had been shouting 

 excitedly, "He's a liar, he's a liar, he's a 

 thief. He knows they came from my 

 skeps. He is trying to get away my 

 property." 



Meantime the calm, philosophic King 

 was the very personification of patience, 

 benignity and placid intelligence. As 

 David and Jonathan became almost ex- 

 hausted by their frantic argumentative 

 efforts, the good king raised his hand 

 and held it above his head, as a signal 

 for the agitated disputants to cease their 

 clamor. Silence reigned in that austere 

 court room. One could almost hear the 

 sands dropping through the hour-glass 

 and not a word broke the ominous si- 

 lence. The well-adjusted cell structure 

 of that great brain was formulating an 

 impartial judgment. Either David or 

 Jonathan, no one but that kingly brain 

 could know which, should go home with 

 full title to that colony of bees, while the 

 other would be ridiculed and reviled as 

 he passed along the street, because, "He 

 tried to steal his neighbor's bees." 



So the silence seemed to imply, but in 

 fact the royal wisdom was not only puz- 

 zled but completely dumfounded. There 

 seemed to be no facts in the case upon 

 which to base judgment. Solomon with 

 the baby and two clamoring mothers had 

 an easy job in comparison with this. At 

 last the silence was broken. The king- 

 decided that in so evenly a contested 

 matter, it seemed but right that each 

 should take one-half of the colony. But 

 tradition saith not who should take the 

 queen, but of what importance is one 

 queen when the wisdom of a king is in 

 ieopardy? Is this the onlv time that a 

 judge's decision has set individual rights 

 at naught? Then, as an amendment, he 

 said to the clerk who was ready with 

 quill pen and sand box, "You mav, sir, 

 DUt it on record that hereafter when a 

 bee-keeper has an absconding swarm he 

 shall immediately, upon his first know- 

 ledge of such absconding tendency, 

 forthwith take the dinner bell or the 

 fish horn, whichever in his own judg- 

 ment shall be the most convenient, and 

 proceed bv vigorous clan9"ing or sten- 

 torian tooting to oroclaim his ownership. 

 Then upon the whole village having been 

 notified bv the first clang or official toot. 



it will be readily seen by all the by- 

 standers and fellow neighbors that any 

 secondary clangings or intruding toots 

 shall become ridiculous in the sight and 

 hearing of the aforesaid neighbors and 

 shall thereby make it perfectly clear who 

 is the real owner of the colony. Thus 

 not necessitating the laborious workings 

 of a kingly brain which, on these hot, 

 May and June days, is more fittingly to 

 be indulging in peaceful slumber under 

 the shade of the widespreading beech 

 tree. Here endeth the edict." 



But time passed on and the loyal sub- 

 jects of good King Alfred, like the old 

 king himself, were laid to rest, and the 

 daisies bloomed above them, and their 

 bees were forgotten, and forgotten by 

 their successors was the original pur- 

 pose of the edict. They remembered 

 only the clanging and the tooting and 

 the consequent pandemonium. David and 

 Jonathan and King Alfred have been the 

 cause of more delirious, hilarious fun 

 for country boys and country girls than 

 ever they could in their wildest imagin- 

 ings have dreamed of. But there is one 

 farmer boy whose memory runs back to 

 the comedy and the pathos involved in 

 the running at swarming time, and he 

 now exclaims, "Decades have gone by, 

 participants of that old homesiead have, 

 like King Alfred and his disputing sub- 

 jects, laid aside kingly powers, clang- 

 ing bells, tooting fish horns, flashing mir- 

 rors and noisy guns, leaving only peace- 

 ful, pathetic memories of the running at 

 swarming time." 



Somewhere I have read that a traveler 

 in England saw a soldier walking 

 slowlv back and forth on guard in the 

 middle of a field. The curious American 

 went to the commandant and inquired 

 why a soldier was so uselessly on guard 

 in such a place. The reply was that it 

 was in accord with the time-honored cus- 

 tom, that his predecessor in office had 

 always kept an officer on guard in that 

 place and that his predecessor had done 

 so. Then why should he be so presump- 

 tuous as to violate the authority of prec- 

 edent? Our American visitor after fur- 

 ther investigating the matter by looking 

 up the records of that place found that 

 a few centuries ago the queen and her 

 attendants were walking in that particu- 

 lar soot and there found a beautiful 

 flo^ver. That it might surelv come into 

 its fullness of beautv the ciueen reonested 

 that a guard be placed by the flower. 

 Later on when the flower was fully ex- 



