ON BEES AND HONEY. 173 



most pleasant company, so that a facetious neighbor once said 

 of us, 



" See him down upon liis knees, 

 Peeping at his hone^-becs !'' 



How often, on a sultry sunny day, have we stood close in 

 front of the door way of the hive, watching the comers and 

 goers, and the busy multitude as they thronged in, with their 

 Ideavy loads from the fields, and thronged out, to seek for oth- 

 er booty ! How often have we been covered with them, *'all 

 about the head and shoulders," all redolent as they were with 

 sweets, just corning home to " the tent royal of their emperor," 

 ivith pillage *^ from out of summer velvet buds," and " with 

 golden treasures on their little thighs," " small among the 

 foivls, yet with fruit passing in sweetness." ( Ecclesiastes, XI. 3. 

 Translation of 1650.) Harmless and grateful and liberal in gifts, 

 if well treated and gently handled, we thank you, O Bees, for 

 many useful lessons, for much profitable and pleasant recreation, 

 for a very abstemious application upon us, personally, of your 

 acnie powers of penetration^ and for many a largesse of your 

 richest and sweetest supplies. Earnestly do we commend you, 



"Nimble yellow bees, that brinj: soft blooming spring, 

 Whom the love of budding flowers is ever maddening,' — 



(^From the Greek of Aicias the Physician.) 



we commend you to the favor and protection of the wise 

 and good and thoughtful, who may be confirmed in all their good- 

 ness, by your wise example ; and to the unwise and the evil, 

 and the careless, who may learn from you, lessons of indus- 

 try, of economy, of forethought, of love of home and of 

 young, of attachment to law and order, and of instinctive 

 obedience to those well-established principles of government, 

 that constitute the peace and security of society, that so, by 

 yonr influence, they may become wiser, and better, and happier. 

 For the Committee, 



HENRY K. OLIVER, Chairman. 



MOODY ORDWAY'S STATEMENT. 

 The hive of bees which I present for inspection, is a speci- 



