48 BEES. 



means of getting at nature and the open-air exhilara> 

 tion, my eye became so trained that bees were nearly 

 as easy to it as birds. I saw and heard bees wherever 

 I v/ent. One day, standing on a street corner in a 

 oreat city, I saw above the trucks and the traffic a line 

 of bees carrying off sweets from some grocery or com 

 jlectionery shop. 



One looks upon the woods with a new interest wheB 

 lie suspects they hold a colony of bees. What a 

 pleasing secret it is ; a tree with a heart of comb- 

 honey, a decayed oak or maple with a bit of Sicily or 

 Mount Hymettus stowed away in its trunk or branches ; 

 secret chambers where lies hidden the wealth of ten 

 thousand little freebooters, great nuggets and wedges 

 of precious ore gathered with risk and labor from 

 . every field and wood about. 



But if you would know the delights of bee-hunt- 

 ing, and how many sweets such a trip yields beside* 

 honey, come with me some bright, warm, late Sep~ 

 tember or early October day. It is the golden season 

 of the year, and any errand or pursuit that takes us 

 abroad upon the hills or by the painted woods and 

 along the amber colored streams at such a time is 

 enough. So, with haversacks filled with grapes and 

 peaches and apples and a bottle of milk, — for we 

 shall not be home to dinner, — and armed with a 

 compass, a hatchet, a pail, and a box with a piece of 

 comb-honey neatly fitted into it — any box the size of 

 your hand with a lid will do nearly as well as the elab- 

 orate and ingenious contrivance of the regular bee- 

 hunter — we sally forth. Our course at first lies along 

 the highway, under great chestnut-trees whose nuts 

 are just dropping, then through an orchard and 

 across a little creek, thence gently rising through a 



