70 PEPACTON 



up slowly through the branches of the trees till 

 they have attained an altitude that enables them to 

 survey the scene, when they seem to say, "Why, 

 this is home," and down they come again; behold- 

 ing the wreck and ruins once more, they still think 

 there is some mistake, and get up a second or a third 

 time and then drop back pitifully as before. It is 

 the most pathetic sight of all, the surviving and 

 bewildered bees struggling to save a few drops of 

 their wasted treasures. 



Presently, if there is another swarm in the woods, 

 robber bees appear. You may know them by their 

 saucy, chiding, devil-may-care hum. It is an ill 

 wind that blows nobody good, and they make the 

 most of the misfortune of their neighbors, and 

 thereby pave the way for their own ruin. The 

 hunter marks their course and the next day looks 

 them up. On this occasion the day was hot and 

 the honey very fragrant, and a line of bees was soon 

 established S. S. W. Though there was much 

 refuse honey in the old stub, and though little 

 golden rills trickled down the hill from it, and the 

 near branches and saplings were besmeared with it 

 where we wiped our murderous hands, yet not a 

 drop was wasted. It was a feast to which not only 

 honey-bees came, but bumblebees, wasps, hornets, 

 flies, ants. The bumblebees, which at this season 

 are hungry vagrants with no fixed place of abode, 

 would gorge themselves, then creep beneath the bits 

 of empty comb or fragments of bark and pass the 

 night, and renew the feast next day. The bumble- 



