AN IDYL OF THE HONEY-BEE 



honey in their bosom beats," says Virgil. It is quick 

 to catch the scent of honey in the box, and as quick 

 to fall to filling itself. We now set the box down 

 upon the wall and gently remove the cover. The 

 bee is head and shoulders in one of the half-filled 

 cells, and is oblivious to everything else about it. 

 Come rack, come ruin, it will die at work. We step 

 back a few paces, and sit down upon the ground 

 so as to bring the box against the blue sky as a 

 background. In two or three minutes the bee is 

 seen rising slowly and 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 off 

 toward a farmhouse half a mile away where I know 

 bees are kept. Then we try another and another, 

 and the third bee, much to our satisfaction, goes 

 straight toward the woods. We can 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 

 'ormer, he says, being lighter. But there is no dif- 

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