THE HONEY-FLOW 



WHERE do all the bees come from? Yesterday 

 they merely sauntered in and out the hive in ones 

 or twos, as though it was scarcely worth while going 

 out at all, for all the honey that was to be had. But 

 to-day there is one continuous line of bees coming 

 and going, the numerous dots flowing into a broad 

 smudge like smoke, broadening and thinning till it is 

 lost in the blue sky far out over the field. Yesterday 

 we found parties of bees at work on a patch of rose- 

 bay willow-herb, on purple rocket, and on the tall 

 spikes of erect veronica. Each blossom was tried 

 several times over, till it had yielded the last drop of 

 nectar, and many times a bee wasted time by licking 

 at an empty cup. But to-day every bee is off to the 

 same harvest-ground, where there are a thousand 

 blossoms for every tongue, and every bloom has honey. 

 They fill the crop in five minutes, or three, where 

 they took twenty or thirty yesterday. Each bee 

 leaves the hive six times as often in the hour as 

 yesterday, and so it seems as though there were six 

 times as many bees at work. Nor can we help 

 thinking that bees that stayed at home when honey- 

 searching was of little profit have joined the excited 

 throng now. Every one is for the harvest-field, now 

 that the honey-flow has begun. 

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