246 HUNTING THE HONEY-BEE 



the Indian's sharp eyes and woodcraft his, and the 

 white man improved on the primitive ways by the 

 invention of the bee-box and the science of cross- 

 lining. 



Bee-trees are sometimes found by accident, as 

 when the bees, having been beguiled untimely 

 forth by the warmth of the February or March 

 sunbeams, are benumbed on exposure to the chill 

 outer air and fall helpless and conspicuous on the 

 snow at the tree's foot; or when in more genial 

 days the in-going or out-coming of the busy in- 

 mates betrays then* home to some hunter of larger 

 game, or searcher for a particular kind or fashion 

 of a timber tree. Well do I remember how Uncle 

 Key, 1 veteran of our then last war, first master of 

 our post-office, and most obliging of station- 

 agents, discovered a great bee-tree on the side of 

 the "New Road" 2 as it truly was then, and as it 

 is and always will be called, I suppose, though its 

 venerable projectors have long been laid to rest. 

 Alert to profit by his discovery, Uncle Key called 

 to his aid a couple of stout fellows, and with axes 

 and vessels to hold a hundredweight or more of 

 honey, he went to reap his reward. The tree was a 

 monster; what an ocean of honey it might hold! 

 There was no way in which it could be felled but 

 right across the road, and there at last it lay, 



1 Uncle Key = Joshua Locke. 

 * New Road = Greenbush Road. 



