AN IDYL OF THE HONEY-BEE 



work till it has made two or three trips home with 

 its booty. When other bees come, even if all from 

 the same swarm, they quarrel and dispute over the 

 box, and clip and dart at each other like bantam 

 cocks. Apparently the ill feeling which the sight 

 of the honey awakens is not one of jealousy or 

 rivalry, but wrath. 



A bee will usually make three or four trips from 

 the hunter's box before it brings back a companion. 

 I suspect the bee does not tell its fellows what it 

 has found, but that they smell out the secret; it 

 doubtless bears some evidence with it upon its feet 

 or proboscis that it has been upon honeycomb and 

 not upon flowers, and its companions take the hint 

 and follow, arriving always many seconds behind. 

 Then the quantity and quality of the booty would 

 also betray it. No doubt, also, there are plenty of 

 gossips about a hive that note and tell everything. 

 " Oh, did you see that ? Peggy Mel came in a few 

 moments ago in great haste, and one of the upstairs 

 packers says she was loaded till she groaned with 

 apple-blossom honey, which she deposited, and then 

 rushed off again like mad. Apple-blossom honey in 

 October! Fee, fi, fo, fum! I smell something ! Let's 

 after." 



In about half an hour we have three well-defined 



lines of bees established, two to farmhouses and 



one to the woods, and our box is being rapidly 



depleted of its honey. About every fourth bee goes 



67 



