In a Bee-Camp. 



within. As we passed each hive, the old bee-man carefully 

 noted its streng^th and spirit, comparing- it with the con- 

 dition of its neighbours on either hand. At last he stopped 

 by one of the largest hives, and' pointed to it significantly. 



" Can ye see aught amiss?" he asked, hastily roUing 

 his shirt-sleeves up' to the armpit. 



I looked, but could detect nothing wrong. The multi- 

 tude round the entrance to this hive seemed larger and 

 busier than with any other, and the note within as deeply 

 resonant. 



" Ay! they're erpulous enough," said the bee-master, 

 as he lighted his tin-nozzled bellows-smoker and coaxed 

 it into full blast. " But hark to the din ! 'Tis not work 

 this time; 'tis mortal fear of something. Flying strong? 

 Ah, but only a yard or two up, and back again. There's 

 trouble at hand, and they've only just found it out. The 

 matter is, they have lost their queen." 



He was hurriedly removing the different parts of the 

 hive as he spoke. A few quick puffs from the smoker were 

 all that was needed at such a time. With no thought but lor 

 the tragedy that had come upon them, the bees were rush- 

 ing- madly to and fro in the hive, not paying the slightest 

 attention to the fact that their house was falling asunder 

 piecemeal, and the sudden sunshine riddling it through 

 and through, where had been nothing but Cimmerian dark- 

 ness before. Under the steady slow hand of the master, 

 the teeming section-racks came off one by one, until the 

 lowest chamber — the nursery of the hive — was reached, 

 and a note like imprisoned thunder in miniature burst 

 out upon lis. 



The old bee-keeper lifted out the brood-frames, and 

 subjected each to a lynx-eyed scrutiny. At last he dived 

 his bare hand down into the thick of the bees, and brought 

 up something to show me. It was the dead queen; twice 

 the size of all the rest, with short oval wings and a shining" 

 red-gold body, strangely conspicuous among the score or 

 so of dun-coloured workers which still crowded round her 

 on the palm of his hand. 



"In the old days," said the bee-master, ** before the 



movable-comb hive was invented, if the queen died like this, 



it would throw the whole colony out of gear for the rest 



of the season. Three weeks must elapse before a new 



D 49 



