242 MEN I HAVE FISHED WITH. 



would be weakened to the proper point on the side he 

 wished it to fall before the other side was touched. An 

 expert axeman is a mechanic in a broad sense. I never 

 was an expert with the axe like Gladstone, Len Jewell, 

 Antoine and other great men. 



The great oak fell, and limbs which kept the trunk 

 from the ground were cut, and then the question was : Is 

 the store of honey above or below the small hole, which 

 was not large enough to admit a man's hand? A careful 

 examination of the hole showed that a dead limb had left 

 a place which woodpeckers had followed into the heart 

 of the tree, and the rains and the frosts had helped them 

 to enlarge their excavations in the decayed heart, but the 

 yearly growth of sap-wood had kept the outer hole small. 

 The bees had so closed the hole with wax that the rain 

 was shed outwardly, and when we cut off a section two 

 feet above and a like distance below the hole, and split it, 

 we found a store of honey that made us cut poles in order 

 to carry it home in a roll of bark. It not only helped us 

 out through the season of scant game, but we took some 

 honey home to Potosi. What's that? You want to 

 know what became of the poor bees which had laid up 

 this store to keep them through the winter? In the 

 name of man, what do you think? They simply died 

 from cold and hunger; what's that to us? You fellows 

 who think that because a bee had laid up a store for the 

 winter by hard work he is entitled to use it to preserve 

 his life make me tired. What is the suffering or death 

 of any animal to man, if he wants the product of its labor 

 to tickle his palate, or its fur to supply the demands of 

 fashion? What is the suffering of his fellow man to him 

 if he fills his coffers? Yet this spirit of selfishness exists 

 throughout all nature; the fox eats the rabbit, but there 

 are men who have sacrificed self for principle, a motive 



