"The Ploughboy 



less honey, how gladly surprised they must 

 have been when they discovered that, in the 

 hollow trees where before they had found only 

 coons or squirrels, they found swarms of brown 

 flies with fifty or even a hundred pounds of 

 honey sealed up in beautiful cells. With their 

 keen hunting senses they of course were not 

 slow to learn the habits of the little brown 

 immigrants and the best methods of tracing 

 them to their sweet homes, however well hid- 

 den. During the first few years none were 

 seen on our farm, though we sometimes heard 

 father's hired men talking about "lining bees." 

 None of us boys ever found a bee tree, or tried 

 to find any until about ten years after our 

 arrival in the woods. On the Hickory Hill 

 farm there is a ridge of moraine material, rather 

 dry, but flowery with goldenrods and asters of 

 many species, upon which we saw bees feeding 

 in the late autumn just when their hives were 

 fullest of honey, and it occurred to me one 

 day after I was of age and my own master 

 that I must try to find a bee tree. I made a 

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