60 BEES. 
to fall to and fill themselves; this done, their next 
thought is to carry it home, so they rise up slowly 
through the branches of the trees till they have at- 
tained an altitude that enables them to survey the 
scene, when they seem to say, “ Why, this is home,” 
and down they come again; beholding the wreck and 
ruins once more they still think there is some mis- 
take, and get up a second or a third time and then 
drop back pitifully as before. It is the most pathetic 
sight of all, the surviving and bewildered bees strug- 
gling to save a few drops of their wasted treasures. 
Presently, if there is another swarm in the woods, 
robber-bees appear. You may know them by their 
saucy, chiding, devil-may-care hum. It is an ill wind 
that blows nobody good, and they make the most of 
the misfortune of their neighbors ; and thereby pave 
the way for their own ruin. The hunter marks their 
course and the next day looks them up. On this oc- 
casion the day was hot and the honey very fragrant, 
and a line of bees was soon established S. S. W. 
Though there was much refuse honey in the old stub, 
and though little golden rills trickled down the hill 
from it, and the near branches and saplings were be- 
smeared with it where we wiped our murderous hands, 
yet not a drop was wasted. It was a feast to which 
not only honey-bees came, but bumble-bees, wasps, 
hornets, flies, ants. The bumble-bees, which at this 
season are hungry vagrants with no fixed place of 
abode, would gorge themselves, then creep beneath 
the bits of empty comb or fragments of bark and 
pass the night, and renew the feast next day. The 
bumble-bee is an insect of which the bee-hunter sees 
much. There are all sorts and sizes of them. They 
are dull and clumsy compared with the honey-bee. 
