3^ 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



marched bravely forward. ( )h, could 

 there have been present some rustic poet 

 to sing-, bees to the right of him, bees to 

 the left of him, bees in front of him — 

 and so soon, so soon, bees to be behind 

 him. He brought that bean pole back 

 •over his shoulder, firmly grasped in both 



•"WITH ONE TREMENDOUS BLOW HE STRUCK 



THAT LIMB, BREAKING THE BEAN POLE IN 



TWO." 



hands, made careful estimate with his 

 skilled eye of the relative distance l)e- 

 tween sheet and hive and hanging clus- 

 ter on the apple tree limb so heavily sus- 

 pended. Possibly the long pause and 

 the feints of striking at the limb were all 

 needed to take sure, steady and effective 

 aim. But as I look back upon it now 

 after all those years, I am inclined to 

 think he was like some public men whom 

 I have known and wdio enjoy being the 

 center of attraction and are the willing 

 recipient of laudation for bravery, al- 

 tliough he was, as we have known other 

 public men, soon to be in ignominious 

 flight. 



With one tremendous blow he struck 

 that limb, breaking- the bean pole in two, 

 because white birch poles, although ap- 

 parently strong, are in reality only 

 whited sepulchres of deception. Down 

 came the black mass in a solid lump, but, 

 as if it had exploded when it touched the 

 white sheet and dashed against the slant- 

 ing side of the hive, its constituent par- 

 ticles of pungent possibility, scattered in 

 a humming cloud of wrath toward every 

 point of the compass. Then came a 

 tmanimous and synchronous signal to 

 run. No individual now ran for any 

 specific purpose, but everyone, old and 



}-oung, lithe and limber, or with creaking- 

 joints, ran in one ignominious skedaddle. 

 Grandfather seemed to have acquired 

 magical agility and no longer needed a 

 cane. Grandmother renewed her youth 

 and leaped on those slender ankles as if 

 she was only "sweet sixteen." There 

 comes a vision of the bare feet of Philip, 

 of Susie, and of Julia and even of tiny 

 "tow-head," who lived in a nearby tene- 

 ment house, as they disappeared sudden- 

 ly through the gate or over the stone 

 wall around the corner of the house. 

 Here was a case in which the slowest 

 was the bravest, and the rear more dan- 

 gerous than the van. In the rear I 

 stayed, not so much from innate courage, 

 but from eagerness to fire the gun of 

 which I was fond. Whether the bees 

 were going off or not, we delighted in 

 construing- their hovering in the air as 

 susceptible of that interpretation. 



Though he had not read books and 

 though he had never opened a hive con- 

 taining- live bees. Grandfather was pre- 

 sumed, as the outcome of long years of 

 observation and especially of punching 

 his cane into the ground, to have an ac- 

 quired knowledge of bees superior to 

 that of ordinary mortals. All eyes w^ere 

 turned toward him. How delightedly 

 we heard his decision, "The bees are go- 

 ing off', we must stop them." Joy of 



ADDED MY OUOTA OF NOISE TO 

 THE DIN." 



