68 AN IDYL OF THE HONEY-BEE. 



bee-hunter. The bees never suspect his game, else 

 by taking a circuitous route they could easily baffle 

 him. But the honey-bee has absolutely no wit or 

 cunning outside of her special gifts as a gatherer and 

 Btorer of honey. She is a simple-minded creature 

 and can be imposed upon by any novice. Yet it is 

 not every novice that can find a bee-tree. The 

 sportsman may track bis game to its retreat by the 

 aid of his dog, but in hunting the honey-bee one must 

 be his own dog, and track his game through an ele- 

 ment in which it leaves no trail. It is a task for a 

 sharp, quick eye, and may test the resources of the 

 best wood-craft. One autumn when I devoted much 

 time to this pursuit, as the best means of getting 

 at nature and the open-air exhilaration, my eye be- 

 came so trained that bees were nearly as easy to 

 it as birds. I saw and heard bees wherever I went. 

 One day, standing on a street corner in a great city, 

 I saw above the trucks and the traffic a line of bees 

 carrying off sweets from some grocery or confection- 

 ery shop. 



One looks upon the woods with a new interest 

 when he suspects they hold a colony of bees. What 

 a pleasing secret it is ; a tree with a heart of comb 

 honey, a decayed oak or maple with a bit of Sicily 

 or Mount Ilymettus stowed away in its trunk or 

 branches ; secret chambers where lies hidden the 

 wealth of ten thousand little freebooters, great nug- 

 gets and wedges of precious ore gathered with risk 

 and labor from every field and wood about. 



