30 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



well timed. She and Grandfather had 

 done their best ; 1 was the only negli- 

 gent spectator, remiss in running duties 

 at swarming tmie. "ijoy, why aon't you 

 run? Run, hurry up, get some walnut 

 leaves." I needed no second command. 

 I darted by the woodhouse, over the 

 stone wall into the cow pasture. Hur- 

 riedly I clambered to the top rail of the 

 fence under the branches of the walnut 

 tree. Just as I was reaching my best 

 and pulling down and cutting a bunch, 

 one of the stakes in the fence dropped 

 and down I went, hands full of branches 

 and jackknife, rails flying in every di- 

 rection, but somehow in the melee 1 

 closed the jackknife, grabbed the 

 branches, rubbed off the greater part of 

 the mud, and started on my homeward 

 run. But I could not arrive soon enough 

 to escape the storm of reprimands that 

 I knew was sure to follow if I kept them 

 waiting. The concoction from the pan- 

 try must be made, for, you know, the 

 hive must be scrubbed with the walnut 

 leaves, with the mixture of vinegar. 



'HE TOOK A POLE IN HASTE, AND WITH IT 

 MOST OF THE BEANS." 



water, salt, sugar, molasses. I know not 

 what mysterious things went into that 

 scouring preparation. Possibly there 

 was a dash of vanilla flavor. There must 

 have been for there seemed to be a dash 

 of ever\thing else in every direction. 

 Again there came a shout, "Run, why 

 don't you run?" In his frantic efl^orts, 

 John, the hired man, tore the g'arden 

 gate from its hinges, and made a wake 

 in the truck and the corn, such as a 

 swift yacht makes in the waves. His 

 destination was the rail fence. I could 

 have told him, if he had asked me, where 

 he could find plenty of rails spread in 

 delicious and extravagant profusion, for 

 had I not been there? But he heeded 

 me not, nor even thought to profit by 

 my experience. He wanted a rail, and 

 he wrecked the best part of a fence to 

 get it. 



Father also, courageous man, ran 

 through the garden, for he, like a brave 

 general, had reconnoitered the field and 

 prepared his plans for the battle. He 

 seemed calmer than the rest, as befitted 

 the high dignity of his position as gen- 

 eral in that saltatory army. Although 

 the bean poles had been set in the garden 

 and the beans had already begun to 

 climl) around them, what of that? What 

 ff he pulled ofif a few of the tendrils? 

 Beans can grow more tendrils and the 

 poles may sometimes be returned to 

 th.eir places. At any rate he stopped not 

 to reason why, his liut to do or die ; he 

 took a pole in haste, and with it most 

 of the beans. Back through the gate he 

 went, closely followed by John with the 

 rail on his shoulder. 



In the meantime Grandfather had 

 brought the hive and Grandmother the 

 sheet. Again I heard that shrill voice, 

 "Run, boy, run !" I was to get out of 

 the stone wall four cobbles, smooth and 

 round, "al^out as big as your two fists." 

 The sheet, in our frantic endeavors, was 

 almost torn in two, and I pulled so hard 

 that I almost Dulled the fatigued and 

 trembling old lady ofif her legs, and 

 worse than this, I started a rip in the 

 middle seam of the sheet. The sheet at 

 such times must be spread smooth, and 

 to make a sheet smooth you must oull it, 

 but no law in the land has ever said just 

 bow much you may pull, and vet esca'^e 

 the horrible calamit" of pulling it in two. 

 When it had been snapped and smoothe 1 

 and laid firmly on the ground, a cobble- 

 stone was placed on each of the corners. 



