OCTOBER, 1 88 1. 71 



others, and when it was examined it proved to have about 

 nineteen pounds of honey in it, while, except a few 

 plunderers from other hives who had discovered the store, 

 not a bee remained therein. Why did not the other 

 hives quit, if the complaint was one of situation ; it could 

 not have been of starvation, or a bad year, and a special 

 objection should surely have been discovered earlier ? 

 A mouse or a toad would have annoyed all as well as 

 one. We suppose bees are as much troubled with 

 " fancies " as other living creatures, and such a dense 

 community will no doubt act as hurriedly under the 

 influence of unreasoning panic, or equally unaccountable 

 fancies, as the occupants of human hives ; indeed probably 

 more so, from the still closer communion, and greater 

 likelihood of " mesmeric" infection. 



What is it? We look at one another as the ghostly figure 

 looms above the bank in the dark night, and then 

 simultaneously we recognise a portion of an old white 

 horse, where no white horse should be. This portion 

 soon resolves itself into the whole animal, that had 

 dragged out its tethering pin, and wandered off into better 

 pasturage. We possess ourselves of the tether, and lead 

 it through the darkness to a stookless portion of stubble, 

 and on the way our friend informs us of a horse that 

 could roll itself up to the peg in the ground to which the 

 tether was attached, and then easily hoist it straight out of 

 the ground, a most intelligent performance ; while we are 

 equally interested to learn from our experienced companion, 

 that many horses can free themselves by steadily bringing 

 a strain to bear at the full stretch of the rope on the one 

 side, and then by a sudden rush to the opposite extremity, 

 sending the pin flying out with the recoil. And yet we 



