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of whites or Indians, on the other side 

 of the mountain. 



" Some of them have probably been 

 spying about and got their eyes on that 

 row of hives," was Franlv's thought. 



Whether the rogues would rest con- 

 tent with tlie honey of one hive, or 

 come back after more, was what no 

 one could guess. The brother, how- 

 ever, deemed it prudent to expect 

 them again, and would have gone up 

 and drawn the remaining hives down 

 to camp, if the two Indian girls had 

 not been sent down to the post-office — 

 a little settlement twelve miles away — 

 with the mules, to get the mail and a 

 stock of groceries. 



Roswell, therefore, proposed that, 

 after supper, they should take a little 

 shelter tent which they had, and go 

 up to the new rest, in order to pass the 

 night where they could guard the 

 hives. For bj^ this time the older 

 brother had so far recovered his health 

 as to be the stronger of the two. 



As Ellen did not like to be left en- 

 tirely alone, she proposed to accom- 

 pany them. They accordingly set oft', 

 taking along the tent, three blankets, 

 and a Wincester carbine. 



Arriving at the rest just at dusk, 

 they pitched their little shelter tent 

 near the trunk of one of the oaks 

 already referred to, and in such a 

 manner that the ends of the drooping 

 branches nearly or quite concealed the 

 tent from view. 



The night was warm, and the place 

 was quite dry. Accordingl}- they did 

 not kindle a fire, but made themselves 

 comfortable with their blankets under 

 cover"of the tent, and the sheltering 

 foliage of the tree. 



They had really no serious expecta- 

 tion that the thief would come back ; 

 and after a time all three of them fell 

 asleep, for Ellen Holden had become 

 .quite accustomed to this free, out-of- 

 door life. They slept thus for three or 

 four hours. 



During the early part of the night 

 there was a moon, but the moon set 

 about midnight ; the stars, however, 

 gave some light, though e^'erything 

 was rather misty and ' dim. The now 

 somnolent and quiet hives reposed on 

 their rest, a few yards from the tree 

 and the tent. 



At length the sleepers were suddenly 

 roused by a heavy thump, followed bj' 

 a grating noise and a deep humming 

 sound from the hives. 



Thej' all started up and listened in- 

 tentlj'. 



" Something's afoul of the bees,Ros," 

 whispered Frank. 



Roswell, starting up, took the Win- 

 chester and peeped out amongst the 

 oak branches. What looked like a 

 tall, "slouching" man was in the very 



act of taking one of the hives in his 

 arms, despite the loudly buzzing bees. 

 As Roswell stared in astonishment, the 

 sturdy pilferer did actually clasp his 

 arras about the hive, and raising it oft' 

 the rest, started to walk slowly off 

 with it. 



"It's some Indian, I guess, by the 

 looks of him," nuittered Roswell. " I 

 don't just like to tire at him ; he don't 

 seem to have any gun. But let's ' go ' 

 for him and give him a good thrash- 

 ing." 



Frank agreeing at once to his propo- 

 sition, snatched up two stakes which 

 they had cut for the tent, and handing 

 one of these to his brother, who laid 

 down the rifle, both young men ran 

 quickly, but stealthily after the heavily- 

 loaded thief, who was shambling awk- 

 wardly on across the open grcnmd, be- 

 yond the rest. 



The grass was thick and soft, and 

 they were not long closing in with the 

 marauder. 



"You scoundrel!" yelled Frank. 

 "Lug oft" our honey, will you?" and 

 drawing oft' with his stake, gave the 

 thief such a tremendous whack across 

 the back and shoulders as to knock 

 him half-forward over the hive. 

 "Take that!" 



Drawing ott' again, he was about to 

 repeat the dose, and Roswell on his 

 part was just getting in a blow, when 

 the supposed "Indian" suddenly came 

 around on ^11 fours, and give vent to a 

 growl which made the whole valley 

 re-echo. 



It was a grizzly ! and as he growled, 

 he rose on his hind legs and " lunged " 

 at Franli. 



Prodigiously astonished, Frank gave 

 a long jump backward — not so far, 

 however, but that one of the ugly 

 creature's paw raked along his right 

 side and sent him I'olling over and 

 over again on the grqund. 



Roswell, too, had executed an al- 

 most equally long leap backward, and 

 ran plump into Miss Holden, who, 

 with commendable foresight, had come 

 quietly after her brothers, with the 

 Winchester in her hands. 



" Here, quick, shoot !" she ex- 

 claimed, thrusting the loaded piece 

 into his hands. Turning on the in- 

 stant, Roswell fired one, two, three, 

 four shots into the bear, now in the 

 very act of lunging again at Frank, 

 and with such effect that the animal 

 fell, roaring and whining, unable' to 

 rise for another lunge. 



A few more shots finished it. 

 Frank, though considerably bruised 

 and shaken up, was not seriouslj' in- 

 jured. 



" Ellen," exclaimed Roswell, turning 

 to his sister, when the bear had been 

 fairly floored, and Frank had picked 

 himself up, "Ellen, you're a brick! 



You got around just in the nick o' 

 time !" 



"Well," said she, laughing, "when 

 two fellows go after a grizzly with a 

 couple of sticks, it's a good plan to 

 have a Winchester not far behind." 



"WINTERING BEES. 



An Experiment of Wintering 

 Bees Under a Stra^v-StacJk. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY ANDREVS'' UTZ. 



I have been thinking of wintering 

 bees under a staw-stack, for years, so 

 last fall I set up six posts 7 feet high, 

 and made a space 8x14 feet covered 

 with lumber. Then to make it perfect, 

 I made a "flue" of lumber, 3x4 feet 

 at the bottom, and 6x8 inches at the 

 top. Then I set this " flue " above the 

 posts which I thought would draw all 

 the dampness out, and then built a 

 narrow gangway to carry the bees in 

 and out. 



Then when I threshed I had five 

 men on the stack to have it well 

 packed ; when the stack was finished 

 it measured 28x50 feet, and 40 feet 

 high. The narrow sides were 10 feet 

 on each side, and the ends much 

 thicker. They all thought that it 

 would be just the thing to winter 

 bees in. 



On Dec. 20, 1887, I put 27 colonies 

 in the stack ; then I packed the gang- 

 waj' well with straw, and closed it 

 with a tight door on the out-side. 



On March 31 I took them out ; 14 

 colonies were alive, and 13 were dead. 

 But such hives and combs I never saw. 

 My poor pets had a hard time ; I sup- 

 pose they had the diarrhea nearly all 

 winter. It made, me sick. The combs 

 and hives were moldy and musty, so I 

 put them in clean hives and fed them 

 on syrup made from A sugar. They 

 all had plenty of honey, but I did not 

 think it was fit fen- them to eat. One 

 lost its queen, so I put two together, 

 and since then I have given each two 

 frames of brood, and yet they are 

 weak. Since then all but 9 have died. 

 1 would not have written this, but I 

 was at Columljus last winter on busi- 

 ness at the time of the Bee-Keepers' 

 Convention, but could only be at the 

 convention one-half day, so I asked 

 whether any one had ever wintered 

 bees under straw, but no one had. Mr. 

 Boardman said he would be afraid to 

 try it. His head was level on that. 

 Dr. A. B. Mason said I might do it 

 and report. 



By my doing so I hope that none of 

 my brethi-en will be so cruel to their 

 pets as I was. We cannot control the 

 temperature under straw. After Mr. 



