CHAPTER X. 



THE PHYSICIAN IN THE HIVE. 



It was a strange procession coming- up the red-tiled path 

 of the bee-garden. The bee-master led the way in his Sunday 

 clothes, followed by a gorgeous footman, powdered and 

 cockaded, who carried an armful of wraps and cushions. 

 Behind him walked two more, supporting between them a 

 kind of carrying-chair, in which sat a florid old gentleman 

 in a Scotch plaid shawl; and behind these again strode a 

 silk-hatted, black-frocked man, carefully regulating the 

 progress of the cavalcade. Through the rain of autumn 

 leaves, on the brisk October morning, I could see, afar off, 

 a carriage waiting by the lane-side ; a big old-fashioned 

 family vehicle, with cockaded servants, a pair of champing 

 greys, and a glitter of gold and scarlet on the panel, where 

 the sunbeams struck on an elaborate coat-of-arms. 



The whole procession made for the extracting-house, 

 and all work stopped at its approach. The great centri- 

 fugal machine ceased its humming. The doors of the 

 packing-room were closed, shutting off the din of saw and 

 hammer. Over the stone floor in front of the furnace — 

 where a big caldron of metheglin was simmering — a carpet 

 was hastily unrolled, and a comfortable couch brought out 

 and set close to the cheery blaze. 



And now the strangest part of the proceedings com- 

 menced. The old gentleman was brought in, partially dis- 

 robed, and transferred to the couch by the fireside. He 

 seemed in great trepidation about something. He kept 

 his gold eyeglasses turned on the bee-master, watching him 

 with a sort of terrified wonder, as the old bee-man produced 

 a mysterious box, with a lid of perforated zinc, and laid it 

 on the table close by. From my corner the whole scene 

 was strongly reminiscent of the ogre's kitchen in the fairy- 

 tale; and the muffled sounds from the packing-room might 

 have been the voice of the ogre himself, complaining at the 

 lateness of his dinner. 



Now, at a word from the black-coated man, the bee- 

 master opened his box. A loud angry buzzing uprose, and 



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