In Winter Quarters 



songs of the air; and the rainbow 

 frames the picture of a world re-born. 

 You may trust the bees to find the 

 first pollen on the earliest willow's 

 tassels. They are tired of last year's 

 honey, and are keen for newer sweets. 

 They may be idiots about some things, 

 but they are wiser than Solomon in 

 others. There is one fool thing a bee 

 will do. Before we left Dumbiedykes 

 last fall we had to move a hive to a 

 more sheltered position; just across 

 the little lawn from the quince hedge 

 to an angle in the south wall of the 

 house,. It was an unseasonably warm 

 day in late October, following a cold 

 wet week. Some of the inmates had 

 evidently gone out foraging among the 

 few straggling remnants of the floral 

 year, for after their box had been 

 carried to a spot not more than forty 

 feet away from where it had stood all 

 summer they were utterly unable to 

 find it. They made no attempt to do 

 so. They just buzzed aimlessly around 

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