AN IDYL OF THE HONEY-BEE. 73 



Mid heavily from the box. It seems loath to leave so 

 much honey behind and it marks the place well. It 

 mounts aloft in a rapidly increasing spiral, surveying 

 the near and minute objects first, then the larger and 

 more distant, till having circled above the spot five 

 or six times and taken all its bearings it darts away 

 for home. It is a good eye that holds fast to the bee 

 till it is fairly off. Sometimes one's head will swim 

 following it, and often one's eyes are put out by the 

 sun. This bee gradually drifts down the hill, then 

 strikes away toward a farm-house half a mile away 

 where I know bees are kept. Then we try another 

 and another, and the third bee, much to our satisfac- 

 tion, goes straight toward the woods. We could see 

 the brown speck against the darker background for 

 many yards. The regular bee-hunter professes to be 

 able to tell a wild bee from a tame one by the color, 

 the former, he says, being lighter. 'But there is no 

 difference ; they are both alike in color and in man- ' 

 ner. Young bees are lighter than old, and that is all 

 there is of it. If a bee lived many years in the 

 woods it would doubtless come to have some distin- 

 guishing marks, but the life of a bee is only a few 

 months at the farthest, and no change is wrought in 

 this brief time. 



Our bees are all soon back, and more with them, 

 for we have touched the box here and there with the 

 ",ork of a bottle of anise oil, and this fragrant and 

 pungent oil will attract bees half a mile or more. 

 When no flowers can be found this is the quickest 

 *ay to obtain a bee. 



