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First Flights — Narrow Escape. 17 



morning, and has never returned, because it was 

 really so much colder than it seemed that no bee 

 could stand it. The fact is, we can not endure cold 

 weather; we should like to be able to, but we can't, 

 and so there's an end of it." 



With these sagacious words the nurse took her 

 departure, and Buz and Hum, though they felt it 

 was a great trial to wait, agreed to do nothing fool- 

 ish. 



"At any rate," said the former, "we can stand out 

 on the board, and run in directly we feel cold." 



So out they went, and took a bee's-eye view of 

 the garden. 



It was certainly a lovely morning, and the sun 

 shone right into the mouth of the hive, which faced 

 east, or rather south-east, as a hive should. 



The garden in which it stood, had a high wall all 

 round it ; but, as the ground sloped away. Buz and 

 Hum could see the country beyond, and the end of 

 the beautiful lime-tree avenue which led from the 

 old house near at hand. 



Such a comfortable, old-fashioned country-house 

 it was, with many gable-ends, and queer bits of 

 building sticking out from it in all directions. It 

 didn't belong to any particular order of architecture, 

 and didn't want to. There was nothing at all cor- 



