THE niSrORY OF A HUMBLE-BEE. 171 



"Oh, Mr. Maylicld!"' cried Abby, "You are surely 

 joking with us ! How could they bear — " 



"Come, come, my deai-. " interposed the Mistress, 

 who at ouce saw the point of my quizzing, "you quite 

 forget that the fur of our unsavory friend has been 

 lately much used for ladies' mufts." 



"I cry quarter!" exclaimed Abby, when the merri- 

 ment had subsided, "I Avas fairly trapped. And now, 

 as I am especially interested in changing the subject, 

 please tell me how the skunk manages to get at the 

 bees ? If the nests ai"e all hidden like this one just 

 dug out by us, with narrow approaches several feet 

 under ground, it would be a heavy task to burrow to 

 them." 



"I think I kin answer that question," Hugh res- 

 ponded, "fer down in the meadows, and in the tussocks 

 along the stream, you commonly find 'em right on top 

 uv the groun', in an old mouse nest, or a little hol- 

 low half's big as one's head. They build ther combs 

 in these hollows, and cover 'em with ther little straw 

 heaps, an' seem lo git along right well. Uv course, the 

 grass shelters 'em a good 'eal. I never seed a nest 

 like this un in the yard, dowai ther. I think, however, 

 them 's a diflert sort o' bees from these uns, ain't they ? 

 They 'pear bigger and yallerer. " 



"You have observed quite accurately, Hugh. My 

 friend, Mr. Ezra T. Cresson, tells me that there are 

 more than forty species of humble-bee known to inhabit 

 North America. I have heard countrymen call the 

 species of which you speak the swamp-bee ; its scientific 



