TAKING REINS IN HAND. 49 



wonder indeed if she indulged in a little riotous 

 exultation at finding access to nooks which had been 

 hitherto cumbered with assemblages of firkins and 

 casks.. I have no faith in cats : they are a cold-blooded 

 race ; they are the politicians among domestic ani- 

 mals ; they care little who is master, or what are the 

 over-turnings, so their pickings are secure ; and what 

 are their midnight caucuses but primary meetings ? 



My Bees. 



A SHELF, on which rested five bee-hives with their 

 buzzing swarms, stood beside a clump of lilacs, 

 not far from one of the side doors of the farm house. 

 These the outgoing occupant was indisposed to sell ; 

 it was " unlucky," he said, to give up ownership of 

 an old-established colony. The idea was new to me, 

 and I was doubly anxious to buy, that I might give 

 his whimsey a fair test. So I overruled his scruples 

 at length, moved the bees only a distance of a few 

 yards, gave them a warm shelter of thatch, and 

 strange to say, they all died within a year. 



I restocked the thatched house several times after- 

 ward ; and there was plenty of marjoram and sweet 

 clover to delight them ; whether it was that the mis- 

 fortunes of the first colony haunted the place, I know 

 not, but they did not thrive. Sometimes, I was told, 

 8 



