No. 9. 



The Cloud — Bees. 



289 



The Cloud* 



I bring fVesh showers for the thirsting flowers, 



From the seas, and from the streams ; 

 I bear light shade for the leaves when laid, 



In their noon-day dreams. 

 From my win^s are shaken the dews that waken 



The sweet buds every one, 

 When rocked to rest on their mother's breast, 



As she dances about in the sun. 

 I wield the flail of the lashing hail, 



And whiten the green plains under. 

 And then again I dissolve in rain. 



And laugh as I pass in thunder, 



I sift the snow on the hills below. 



And the pine trees groan aghast; 

 And all the night 'tis my pillow white, 



As I sleep in the arms of the blast. 

 Sublime on the towers of my skiey bovvers. 



Lightning, my pilot, sits; 

 In a cavern under, is fetter'd the thunder 



Which struggles and howls at fits. 

 Over the rills, the crags and the hills. 



Over the lakes and plains ; 

 I all the while bask in heaven's blue smile. 



While earth is dissolving in rains. 



The sanguine sunrise with his meteor eyes, 



And his burning plumes outspread. 

 Leaps on the back of my sailing rack. 



While the morning star shines dead. 

 As on the jag of a mountain crag. 



Which an earthquake rocks and swings, 

 An eagle alit, and a moment may sit 



In the light of its golden wings. 

 When the crimson pall of eve may fall 



From the depth of heaven above. 

 With wings folded I rest, on mine airy nest. 



As still as a brooding dove. 



That orbed maiden, with white fire laden. 



Whom mortals call the moon, 

 Glides, glimmering o'er my fleece like floor, 



By the midnight breezes strewn ; 

 And wherever the beat of her unseen feet, 



Which only the angels hear. 

 May have broken the woof of my tent's thin roof, 



The stars peep behind her and peer ; 

 And I laugh to see them whirl and flee 



Like a swarm of golden bees ; 

 When I widen the rent in my wind-built tent, 



Till the calm rivers, lakes and seas. 

 Like strips of the sky fallen through me on high. 



Are each paved with the moon and these- 



I blind the sun's throne with a burning zone, 



And the moon's with a girdle of pearl ; 

 The volcanoes are dim, and the stars reel and swim, 



When the whirlwinds my banner unfurl- 

 From cape to cape with a bridge like ihape. 



Over a torrent sea. 

 Sunbeam proof, I hang like a roof. 



The mountains its columns be. 



The triumphant arch through which I march 



With hurruaiif, lire aud snow. 

 When the powers of air are chain'd to my chair. 



Is the inillion-colour'd bow. 

 The sphere fire above its pure colours wove, 



While the moist earth was luughitig below. 



I am the daughter of earth and water, 



And the nursling of the sky ; 

 I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores, 



I change, but I never die ! 

 For after the rain, when with never a stain 



The pavilion of heaven is bare, 

 And the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleams. 



Build up the blue dome of air. 

 I silently laugh at my own cenotaph 



And out of the caverns of rain. 

 Like a child from a room, like a ghost from a tomb. 



I arise, and unbuild it again. 



Percy B. Shelley. 



Bees* 



Mr. Keith, of Maine, in a communication 

 to the Monthly Visiter, after describing 

 several modes of managing bees, and the iU 

 success that attended them, thus in substance 

 gives the result of an experiment made by 

 placing them in a garret. He finished a 

 room in his garret impervious to rats and 

 mice, to which was a door secured against 

 children and intruders. In this room was 

 placed a swarm of bees, the hive on a level 

 with and near the places made for their 

 egress and ingres.s. The young swarm soon 

 filled their hive, and then commenced build- 

 ing all araund it, filling in with tlie finest 

 comb, and without the support of slate or 

 bars, the space from the roof to the floor of 

 their room. Mr. Keith, by the aid of a can- 

 dle, was able at any time to inspect the pro- 

 gress of his apiary, and witness the forma- 

 tions of the column of comb. There was no 

 swarming, and of course the work had the 

 benefit of all their increase in numbers. Af- 

 ter the second year of their operations, Mr. 

 Keith commenced taking honey from the 

 room, doing it in the winter when the bees 

 were dormant, in the central parts of the 

 mass ; these external combs always compos- 

 ing the best and purest part of the store. For 

 many years Mr. Keith's table was abundant- 

 ly supplied in this way with the choicest of 

 sweets, until in 18—, his dwelling house was 

 destroyed by fire, and his bee-hive, " contain- 

 ing at the least eight hundred pounds of 

 honey, and of living beings a multitude which 

 no man could number," shared tlie common 

 fate. 



From what we have seen, and have been 

 able to learn on this subject, the mode of 

 treating bees as above described is superior 

 to most others, for the following reasons. It 

 prevents in most cases any swarming ; the 



