Miss Apis’s Sting. 81 
You remember her sting is barbed like 
a fish-hook; and if you have gone fishing 
much, you know how hard it is to pull a 
fish-hook out of anything into which it 
happens to get fastened. 
Well, when Miss Apis recklessly plunges 
ten pairs of barbs into the tough skin of 
your finger, she cannot pull them out again; 
and in her efforts to do so, out comes sting, 
poison-bag and all, and off she goes, hurt 
much worse than you are, for she will 
surely die as a result of her loss. 
She has left her poor savage little sting 
in your finger, much against her will, how- 
ever; and your first care should be to extract 
it so as not to press out any more poison 
from the poison bag. 
This you can do by pressing the flat 
edge of a penknife against your skin 
close to the sting, but not touching it, 
and then drawing out the sting, just as 
you might take out a tack with a tack- 
hammer. : 
