The Bee-Master of Warrilow. 



just that delicacy and deftness of touch that only a woman 

 can bring- to it. It is profitable. Above all, there is nothing 

 about it, from first to last, of an objectionable character, de- 

 manding masculine interference. In poultry-farming, 

 good as it is for women, there must always be a stony- 

 hearted man about the place to do unnameable necessary 

 things in a fluffy back-shed. But bee-keeping is clean, 

 clever, humanising, open-air work — essentially women's 

 work all through." 



She had led the way through the scented old-world gar- 

 den, towards a gate in the farther wall, talking as she went. 

 Now she paused, with her hand on the latch. 



"This," she said, "we call the Transition Gate. It 

 divides our work from our play. On this side of it we have 

 the tennis-court and the croquet, and other games that 

 women love, young or old. But it is all serious business 

 on the other side. And now you shall see our latter-day 

 Eden, with its one unimportant omission." 



As the door swung back to her touch, the murmur that 

 was upon the air grew suddenly in force and volume. Look- 

 ing through, I saw an old orchard, spacious, sun-riddled, 

 carpeted with green; and, stretching away under the ancient 

 apple-boughs, long, neat rows of hives, a hundred or more, 

 all alive with bees, winnowing the March sunshine with 

 their myriad wings. 



Here and there in the shade-dappled pleasance figures 

 were moving about, busily at work among the hives, figures 

 of women clad in trim holland blouses, and wearing bee- 

 veils, through which only a dim guess at the face beneath 

 could be hazarded. Laughter and talk went to and fro in 

 the sun-steeped quiet of the place; and one of the fair bee- 

 gardeners near at hand — young and pretty, I could have 

 sworn, although her blue gauze veil disclosed provokingly 

 little — was singing to herself, as she stooped over an open 

 hive, and lifted the crowded brood-frames one by one up 

 into the light of day. 



" The great work of the year is just beginning with 

 us," explained the bee-mistress. " In these first warm 

 days of spring every hive must be opened and its condition 

 ascertained. Those that are short of stores must be fed; 

 backward colonies must be quickened to a sense of their 

 responsibilities. Clean hives must be substituted for the 



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