The Bee-Master of Warrilow. 



just that delicacy and deftness of touch that only a woman 

 can bring- to it. It is profitable. Above all, there is nothing 

 about it, from first to last, of an objectionable character, de- 

 manding masculine interference. In poultry-farming, 

 good as it is for women, there must always be a stony- 

 hearted man about the place to do unnameable necessary 

 things in a fluffy back-shed. But bee-keeping is clean, 

 clever, humanising, open-air work — essentially women's 

 work all through." 



She had led the way through the scented old-world gar- 

 den, towards a gate in the farther wall, talking as she went. 

 Now she paused, with her hand on the latch. 



" This," she said, " we call the Transition Gate. It 

 divides our work from our play. On this side of it we have 

 the tennis-court and the croquet, and other games that 

 women love, young or old. But it is all serious business 

 on the other side. And now you shall see our latter-day 

 Eden, with its one unimportant omission." 



As the door swung back to her touch, the murmur that 

 was upon the air grew suddenly in force and volume. Look- 

 ing through, I savv an old orchard, spacious, sun-riddled, 

 carpeted with green; and, stretching away under the ancient 

 apple-boug-hs, long, neat rows of hives, a hundred or more, 

 all alive with bees, winnowing the March sunshine with 

 their myriad wings. 



Here and there in the shade-dappled pleasance figures 

 were moving about, busily at work among the hives, figures 

 of women clad in trim holland blouses, and wearing bee- 

 Aeils, through which only a dim guess at the face beneath 

 could be hazarded. Laughter and talk went to and fro in 

 the sun-steeped quiet of the place; and one of the fair bee- 

 gardeners near at hand — young and pretty, I could have 

 sworn, although her blue gauze veil disclosed provokingly 

 little — was singing- to herself, as she stooped over an open 

 hive, and lifted the crowded brood-frames one by one up 

 into the light of day. 



" The great work of the year is just beginning with 

 us," explained the bee-mistress. " In these first warm 

 days of spring every hive must be opened and its condition 

 ascertained. Those that are short of stores must be fed; 

 backward colonies must be quickened to a sense of their 

 responsibilities. Clean hives must be substituted for the 



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