312 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



attempt should be made to act on the offensive ; for, if a 

 single one is struck at, others will avenge the insult ; and 

 if resistance is continued, hundreds, and at last, thousands, 

 will join them. The assailed party should quickly retreat 

 to the protection of a building, or, if none is near, should 

 hide in a clump of bushes, and He perfectly still, with his 

 head covered, until the bees leave him. When no bushes 

 are at hand, they will generally give over the attack, if he 

 lies still on the grass, with his face to the ground. 



Those who are alarmed if a bee enters the house, or 

 approaches them in the garden or fields, are ignorant of 

 the important fact, that a bee at a distance from its hive, 

 never volunteers an attack. Even if assaulted, they seek 

 only to escape, and never sting, unless they are hurt. 



If they were as easily provoked away from home, as 

 when called to defend those sacred precincts, a tithe of 

 the merry gambols in which our domestic animals indulge, 

 would speedily bring about them a swarm of infuriated 

 enemies ; we should no longer be safe in our quiet ram- 

 bles among the green fields ; and no jocund mower could 

 whet or swing his peaceful scythe, unless clad in a dress 

 impervious to their stings. The bee, instead of being the 

 friend of man, would, like savage wild beasts, provoke his 

 utmost efforts for its extermination. 



Let none, however, take encouragement from the con- 

 trast between the conduct of bees at home and abroad, to 

 reserve all their pleasant ways for other places than the 

 domestic roof; for, towards the members of its own family 

 the bee is all kindness and devotion ; and while, among 

 human beings, a mother is often treated by her own chil- 

 dren with disrespect or neglect, among bees she is always 

 waited upon with reverence and affection. 



It is true, that if any members of a colony become una- 

 ble to perform their share of labor, they are dragged from 



