820 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



leave the mother to furnish more cubs, so 

 that the hunters could get the bounty for a 

 new litter year after year. Friend France, 

 however, told them to be patient, and have 

 a little more charity, assuring them that he 

 would have the mother in less than 24 hours. 

 Sure enough, when night shrouded her from 

 gaze she tracked them to the place where 

 her darlings were buried, and commenced 

 to dig them up, proposing, doubtless, to car- 

 ry them home and give them a decent buri- 

 al according to the customs and traditions 

 of wolf fathers and mothers ; but, alas ! 

 while she was showing her devotion to the 

 last remains of her loved ones, friend 

 France captured her also. This is one of 

 their tricks for getting the mother after 

 they have captured her cubs. 



Now, little friends, if you want any more 

 wolf-stories, you must ask our big friend 

 Mr. France to tell them himself. Uncle 

 Amos is now ready to give you some bear- 

 stories. 



Among other things that Prof. Cook said 

 I must see before we went away, was their 

 pet bear ; and the pet bear at the Agricul- 

 tural College is no exception to bears in 

 general, in the matter of his love for honey. 

 They do not let him take the honey out of 

 the hives as the California and Wisconsin 

 bears do ; but when they want him to show 

 off before visitors they just give him a bot- 

 tle full. I walked down to the place where 

 he is kept tied to a tree. He seemed quite 

 glad to see me, putting up his nose in a very 

 sociable manner, and licking my hand, and 

 blinking at me in quite a knowing way with 

 his queer little eyes. I did not discover the 

 secret of his being glad to meet visitors, and 

 scrape acquaintance, until I saw Charlie 

 coming with a Muth jar holding nearly a 

 pint of honey. The bear began at once 

 making all sorts of expressions of approval, 

 and reaching out for the honey ; but as the 

 programme was to take his picture with the 

 Kodak while he " drank " the honey, I told 

 Charlie that he must, if possible, get the 

 bear to come out under the full blaze of the 

 morning sun. According, Charlie unfasten- 

 ed the chain from the hickory-tree, and 

 pulled him along in order to get him to 

 climb over a pile of boards so as to get over 

 the top of the picket fence. The bear came 

 along quite cheerfully, keeping an eye on 

 the bottle of honey. I was pleased to see 

 the dexterity with which he climbed over 

 the pickets, so as to avoid being pricked by 

 their sharp points. Before he got out into 

 the sunshine, however, he began to set up 

 quite a whine, much like an urchin crying 

 for a piece of gingerbread. As soon as he 

 got the bottle between his paws, he stuck 

 his long tongue away down into the honey ; 

 and, oh what a smacking there was ! When 

 he had licked out the honey as far as his 

 tongue would go, he began to whine in real 

 distress. But Prof. Cook bade me have my 

 instrument ready, and just wait. Pretty 

 soon it popped into the bear's head, that, if 

 he could not coax the honey up to his 

 mouth, he would have to put his mouth low- 

 ermost, so the honey would run into it. 

 With a kind of grunt of satisfaction to 

 think that he remembered how it was done, 



he straightened himself up as you see in the 

 picture. 



BEAR TAKING HONEY OTJT OF A MUTH JAR. 



As he smacked his lips he tipped the bot- 

 tle a little too fast ; and it not only ran down 

 into his mouth, but some of it ran over his 

 eyes. That was of small consequence, how- 

 ever. He blinked with his eyes to get the 

 honey off, while he smacked his lips and 

 looked happy. Long after every drop was 

 drained from the bottle, he kept poking his 

 tongue around the inside and then outside, 

 along his furry cheeks, and as near his ejes 

 as his tongue would reach. Then he gave a 

 purr of satisfaction. By the way, I forgot 

 to mention that bears purr a good deal as 

 cats do. When I first met him.land patted 

 him on the head he commenced purring 

 right away, as much as to say, " Why, of 

 course we'are glad to see Urcle Amos here, 

 as well as the rest of the folks. 1 ' 



Now, I do not know how many bottles of 

 honey his bearship could take at one meal. 

 A pint bottle full did not seem to go a great 

 way ; and as it must be quite a little tax on 

 the good friends at the Agricultural College, 

 I do not know but we ought to pass the hat 

 around, to help Prof. Cook bear the expense. 

 His bearship ought really to attend our next 

 National Convention. He could sample 

 honey, any way. 



Well, the sun was rising higher up. It 

 would soon be train time, and there were 

 more things to see yet. So Charlie picked 

 up the chain, and told the bear he must go 

 back. By the way, Charlie is a son of Prof. 

 Cook's brother (who lives on the farm), and a 

 nice boy he is. The bear, however, cast 

 many lingering looks at the empty bottle, 

 and with some reluctance started back for 

 his inclosure. We were all in a hurry ; and 

 just as Charlie gave him a yank to make him 

 step quicker, as he climbed over the pickets 

 again, his appearance was so irresistibly 

 comical that I snapped the Kodak on him 

 once more. 



He was whining softly to himself because 

 he could not have any more honey. In the 

 meantime Charlie was tugging the bear's 



