A Farewell "Hike 



A little farther on some bumble bees 

 were on a thistle bloom, and sitting 

 down besides the humble plant that 

 seemed to have extracted honey by 

 some subtle process from a stiff clay 

 soil, I held the stems within my hand 

 and with a glass observed the searching 

 quest for food. The head of a bumble 

 bee is not in general shape unlike that 

 of an elephant's, and the comparison 

 does not altogether end with that, 

 for it has a proboscis of some sort 

 that finds its way deep down into the 

 minute recesses of each pink thistle 

 tube. No possible opening escapes 

 their probe. They did not mind me in 

 the least of course. When a boy I 

 used to kill them, and pulling their 

 bodies in half would extract the honey 

 sac and found it sweet. But I have 

 more respect now for life in any form, 

 and did not resume my tramp until 

 this industrious black-and-yellow trio 

 had lazily taken themselves off to 

 some other lingering way-side growth. 



[191] 



