THE PASTORAL BEES. 79 



and if mine must go I want to be on hand to see the 

 fun. It is a return to first principles again by a very 

 direct route The past season I witnessed two such 

 escapes. One swarm had come out the day before. 

 aad s without alighting, had returned to the parent 

 hive — some hitch in the plan, perhaps, or may be 

 the queen had found her wings too weak'. The next 

 day they came out again, and were hived. But 

 something offended them, or else the tree in the 

 woods — perhaps some royal old maple or birch, 

 holding its head high above all others, with snug, 

 spacious, irregular chambers and galleries — had too 

 many attractions ; for they were presently discovered 

 filling the air over the garden, and whirling excitedly 

 around. Gradually they began to drift over the 

 street ; a moment more, and they had become sepa- 

 rated from the other bees, and, drawing together in a 

 more compact mass or cloud, away they went, a hum- 

 ming, flying vortex of bees, the queen in the centre, 

 and the swarm revolving around her as a pivot, — 

 over meadows, across creeks and swamps, straight 

 for the heart of the mountain, about a mile distant, 

 ■ — slow at first, so that the youth who gave chase 

 kept up with them, but increasing their speed tiD 

 only a fox hound could have kept them in sight. I 

 saw their pursuer laboring up the side of the moun- 

 tain ; saw his white shirt-sleeves gleam as he enterec 

 the woods; but he returned a few hours afterward 

 without any clew as to the particular tree in which 

 they had taken refuge out of the ten thousand that 

 covered the side of the mountain. 



The other swarm came out about one o'clock of a 

 hot July day, and at once showed symptom- that 

 alarmed the keeper, who, however, threw neither 



