136 My Bees 



from my investment ; they said nothing about 

 a vast number of stings. According to the 

 rosy picture which was drawn of my future, I 

 should merely have to buy my hives and hire a 

 convenient place in which to store the honey 

 as it was produced by the ton. I was told that 

 any neighborhood where vegetation throve was 

 good for bees, and that an able-bodied man 

 could take care of two hundred hives with ease 

 and live in comfort upon the products of his 

 little servants. The details of the business 

 were said to be easy to learn, and its prosecu- 

 tion one long delight. In support of this 

 story, I was presented with several works by 

 men who had kept bees and were impelled from 

 the enthusiasm which filled them to tell the 

 world how much money and joy might be 

 found in bee-keeping. One man went so far 

 as to give the actual amounts which he had 

 made in a few years, with fac-similes of the 

 checks he had received in payment for his 

 enormous shipments. According to his ac- 

 count, bee-keeping was the easiest, pleasantest, 

 and most profitable of all employments; all 

 the bee-keeper had to do was to take out the 



