THE COTTAGE AND FARM BEE KEEPER. 61 



and it would be unnecessary to interfere, or in anywise to antioipate, 

 the gratifying spectacle of a natural swarm. But the vicissitudes of 

 our climate are so frequent, ever varying and ever changing still ; so 

 sudden, and sometimes so extraordinary ; smiling now, and now 

 frowning again, aye, as coquettish and uncertain as the youthful maid- 

 en ; that the bee master, in trusting to the processes of nature, more 

 frequently finds his best wishes annihilated, and the golden hours of 

 spring dwindled and frittered away, ere his swarms have come forth ; 

 and a few weeks of summer remaining, barely suffice for the gathering • 

 of honey, ere the cold nights of autumn, and the approaches of winter, 

 close in the scene." 



