16 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



structure. I think it cost ten dollars. It was large enough to 

 contain about four colonies and was raised about two feet higji 

 on four legs. On the top was a hole over which the box hive was 

 placed, with the expectation that the bees would build down and 

 occupy the entire space. The bottom was made very steep, so 

 that wax-worms falling upon it would, however unwillingly, be 

 obliged to roll out ! When a nice piece of honey was wanted for 

 the table, all that was necessary was to take a plate and knife 

 and cut it out, a door for that purpose being in one side of the 



Fig. 3 — Wide Frame 



palace. The plate and knife were never called into requisition, 

 the magnitude of the task of filling that palace being so great 

 that the bees concluded to die rather than to undertake it. 

 Many years after, I saw at the home of an intelligent farmer 

 near Marengo the exact counterpart of that bee-palace, which 

 an oily-tongued vender had just induced him to purchase. 



Notwithstanding my utter ignorance of bees, I began to feel 

 some immediate interest in tlie bees in that barrel. T put them 

 in the cellar, and at some time in llie winter I went to a bee- 

 keeping neighbor, James F. Lester, and with no litlle anxiety 



