ON BEES AND HONEY. 115 



works have become as common as " household words," one 

 Mrs. Goose, that " once on a time," a fearful son of Anak, 

 (afterwards, most happily for suffering humanity, immolated by 

 that illustrious Knight-errant, Mr. Jack, the giant-killer,) gave 

 utterance to the following Byronic effusion, 



" Fee, faw, fo, fum 

 I smell the blood of an English mun ! 

 Dead or alive I will have some !" — 



Now "mutatis mutandis" — which in the vernacular signi- 

 fieth "putting honey for raw Johnny Bull," — (and if it don't 

 mean that, ask the Chairman of the "Committee on Pigs," 

 what it does mean,) we may paraphrase this versicle thus, — 



Fum, faw, fo, fee ! 



I smell the sweets of the Honey-Bee! 



Sting or no sting, some shall go into me ! 



So said Giant-Public, and fingered, and felt, and tasted, to 

 the damage and detriment of the Chairman of the Committee 

 u'ho sat on bees, (that is, the committee, not the chairman,) 

 to the amount of one moiety of the value of said honey — said 

 value to have been determined, when the flavory and savory 

 sweets should have been duly delivered between the " high 

 contracting parties," each of whom stands " six feet in his 

 stockings," more or less, as the case may be ! 



Now the Committee had been authorized to bestow no pre- 

 miums — to assign no gratuities ! and could only have reward- 

 ed, if they rewarded at all, by inserting their hands into their 

 own crumenal pouches, and even as 



" Little Jacky Horner 

 Who sat in a corner — ■ 

 Did put in his thumb 

 And pull out a plum !" 



have drawn out the " wherewith," from the limited treasures 

 of their own personal purses, and so, without authority of the 

 society, have distributed largesses, and like the Pickwickian 

 associates, have paid their own expenses. Havmg, however, 

 a just regard for the authority of the society, in whose behalf 

 they acted, and not choosing to take the risk of encountering 

 its displeasure, if not its denunciations, by acting in the prem- 

 ises, " without bell or book," they merely add a report of what 



