306 THE BEE keeper's MANUAL. 



that some branches of morals in my little friends, need 

 very close watching, and that they too often make the low- 

 est sort of distinction, between " mine and thine." Still I 

 feel bound to show that when thus overcome by temptation, 

 it is almost always, under circumstances in which their 

 careless owner is by far the most to blame. 



In the Spring, as soon as the bees are able to fly abroad, 

 " innatus urget amor habendi," as Virgil has expressed it ; 

 that is, they begin to feel the force of an innate love of 

 honey-getting. They can find nothing in the fields, and they 

 begin at once, to see if they cannot appropiate the spoils 

 of some weaker hive. They are often impelled to this, by 

 the pressure of immediate want, or the salutary dread of 

 approaching famine : but truth obliges me to confess that 

 not unfrequently some of the strongest stocks, which have 

 more than they would be able to consume, even if Ihey gath- 

 ered nothing more for a whole year, are the most anxious to 

 prey upon the meager possessionsof some feeble colony. Just 

 like some rich men who have more money than they can 

 ever use, urged on by the insatiable love of gain, " oppress 

 the hireling in his wages, the widow and the fatherless," 

 and spin on all sides, their crafty webs to entrap their poorer 

 neighbors, who seldom escape from their toils, until every 

 dollar has been extracted from them, and as far as their 

 worldly goods are concerned, they resemble the skins and 

 skeletons which line the nest of some voracious old spider. 



When I have seen some powerful hive of the kind just 

 described, condemned by its owner, in the Fall, to the 

 sulphur pit, or deprived unexpectedly of its queen, its 

 stores plundered, and its combs eaten up by the worms, I have 

 often thought of the threatenings which God has denounced 

 against those who make dishonest gains " their hope, and 

 say unto the fine gold, Thou art my confidence." 



