238 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Old Silas Hiving Bees. 



what he expected, and what he 

 didn't. 



The old gentleman's name is Silas, and 

 that of his eldest son is George; his wife's 

 name is Matilda, and his three pretty 

 daughters are named Helen, Alice and 

 Susie; there is a little Silas, too, and an 

 other boy whose name is too queer to men- 

 tion. 



The bees had alighted in a great bunch, 

 as large as a half-bushel measure, on the 

 limb of a peach tree in the yard. A table is 

 placed under the overhanging limb, spread 

 with a clean white cloth, and the hive plac- 

 ed thereon. 



Then one of the boys, one that is good for 

 nothing else, is sent into the tree to sever 

 the limb; the limb comes down slowly and 

 easily, and the old gent below, dressed in a 

 great coat, buckskin gloves, cowhide boots, 

 and a bed quilt tied around his neck and 

 face, slyly manipulates a twig from the 

 tree, and in two minutes has safely coaxed 

 every bee into the hive, during all of which 

 time Matilda and Helen and Alice and Susie 

 pound the bottoms out of just four tin pans; 

 little Silas does his prettiest yelling, while 

 the boy with the queer name is just old 

 enough to slip behind the house and wait 

 for the thing to come to a point. That is 

 the way the thing ought to have gone off; 

 but that isn't the way it did. Silas, the 

 elder, was very comfortably bundled up for 

 so warm a day, and he had his suit well ar- 

 ranged, only he forgot to tie the strings 

 around the bottom of his pants. 



The bees had settled on the limb of a 

 peach tree, and Silas, when his table and 

 white cloth and his hive was all ready, com- 

 manded: 



"Now, George, grab that old rusty saw 

 and climb; I guess you can cut that small 

 limb off easy enough." 



George was just home from a six month's 

 term of school, and he felt a gi-eat tender- 

 ness for his father, and would have gone 

 through a patch of thistles bare foot to 

 please the old gent, and yet he had a parti- 

 cular dread for the "business end" of a bee, 

 and particularly of such a crowd of them. 

 But he obeyed, and began to tiddle away 

 cautiously upon the particular limb. One 

 little bunch of bees dropped off and were 

 caged; another, and another small bunch 

 dropped, and the prospect seemed good, 

 when suddenly an old honey-maker appear- 

 ed, who had been in the business, and soared 

 upward. George shut up one eye quick, 

 gave one terrific surge on the old rusty saw, 

 got out of that tree at one jump and his 

 anxious motheT caught a glimpse of him as 

 he flew round the corner of the barn twenty 

 rods away. 



But poor old Silas! Tiie bees came down 

 and he thought the bunch was as big as a 

 hay-stack now. They did not go into the 

 hive, but they went tbrough his overcoat 

 and bed-quilt as if these had been only 

 mosquito bars, and tliey climbed up his 

 pants legs, and the old gent danced as he 

 had never danced before; and lie slapped 

 his legs, as he had never allowed any one 

 else to slap them, and his voice towered 

 high above the clatter of the tin pans and 

 the shrieks of little Silas as he yelled: 



"Throw water on me! throw water on 

 me! soak me, wet me down!" 



He rolled three or four times over in the 

 grass, and sprang up, shouting, "slap me! 

 slap me! can't j^ou slap me?" in the midst 

 of which little Silas crept up behind his in- 

 furiated papa and dealt him a lively one 

 with a shingle; but poor little Silas landed 

 the next second against the milk-house, for 

 his pa took him and his shingle for a 

 thousand bees, and gently brushed them off. 



Oh, the agony of that three minutes jig! 

 He appealed to his wife. 



"Matilda, for lieaven sake, bring me 

 another pair of pants, won't you!" 



But these things don't last always, any 

 more than any other happiness, and after a 

 few minutes the old gent came limping out 

 of the cellar with the pants on that Matilda 

 brought him, feeling much easier, but cer- 

 tainly much fatigued, just as George got 

 back from the barn and the boy with trie 

 queer name slipped around the corner of the 

 house. Both boys were anxious to know 

 how matters stood, and asked: 



"Did you get 'em hived, pa?" 



But tlie old man was too mad to answer, 

 or even look at his boys. He turned to 

 Silas and said: 



"Little one: you meant all right, and I'm 

 sorry I cuffed you so; next time don't slap 

 so hard." 



Then to his wife, " Matilda, to you I owe 

 everything. Accept my heartfelt gratitude. 

 We'll take no more stock in bees. I have 

 made up niy mind, and its settled. May 

 our quiet, peaceful farm home never be so 

 stirred up again. Seems to me I never had 

 so much of life crowded into a few short 

 minutes before. Eun after the cows now, 

 boys; be off, for its almost dark." 



Observer. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Comb Foundation. 



We have given the comb foundation a 

 pretty thorough trial, and I must say it 

 pleases us highly. Have 4 lbs. of it in our 

 hives now, and it makes just as pretty, 

 stright worker as ever gladdened the eyes 

 of a bee-keeper. At first we put . in too 

 much of it, filled the frame too full, and the 

 weight of the bees sagged it so that it would 

 roll up an inch or more on the bottom bar, 

 and the cells towards the top were all twice 

 as long as wide. That was in the strongest 

 stocks, but in the lighter ones and less bees 

 they built it out straight as a board. The 

 only fault we find witli it is there isn't 

 enough of it. We want more but can hard- 

 ly spare "ye stamps." I think we shall 

 want a good many pounds another season. 



Last year I got ten four-frame nuclei with 

 dollar queens from .1. Oatman & Co., Dun- 

 dee, 111. They built up into ten good 

 strong stocks; wintered tip top, two lost 

 their (lueens in the spring. Two of them 

 have now increased to three swarms each, 

 two otliers into two swarms each, and the 

 rest have helped hugely by brood and bees 

 I to build up new stocks. Have just got 

 another dollar queen from the same gentle- 

 men, and I must say without any exception, 

 they are the (luitest, prettiest bees I ever 

 handled, and every (lueen a pure one. 1 

 raise all my (pieens from my "Dundee No. 

 4;" $2.5 would not buy her. 



Wm. M. Kellogg. 



Oneida, 111, .July 25, 187(i. 



