TOM OWEN, THE BEE-kUNTER. 49 



As is usual with great men, he had his followers, 

 who, with a courtier-like humility, depended upon the 

 expression of his face for all their hopes of success. 



The usual salutations of meeting were sufficient to 

 draw me within the circle of his influence, and I at once 

 became one of his most ready followers. 



" See yonder ! " said Tom, stretching his long arm 

 into infinite space, " see yonder — there's a bee." 



We all looked in the direction he pointed, but that 

 was the extent of our observation. 



'* It was a fine bee," continued Tom, " black body, 

 yellow legs, and went into that tree," — pointing to a tow- 

 ering oak, blue in the distance. " In a clear day I can 

 see a bee over a mile, easy ! " 



When did Coleridge ''talk" like that? And yet 

 Tom Owen uttered such a saying with perfect ease. 



After a variety of meanderings through the thick 

 woods, and clambering over fences, we came to our place 

 of destination, as pointed out by Tom, who selected a 

 mighty tree containing sweets, the possession of which 

 the poets have likened to other sweets that leave a sting 

 behind. 



The felling of a mighty tree is a sight that calls up 



a variety of emotions ; and Tom's game was lodged in 



one of the finest in the forest. But " the axe was laid 



at the root of the tree," which, in Tom's mind, was made 



expressly for bees to build their nests in, that he might 



cut thorn down, and obtain possession of their honeyed 

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