56 PEPACTON 



could easily baflSe him. But the honey-bee has 

 absolutely no wit or cunning outside of her special 

 gifts as a gatherer and storer of honey. She is a 

 simple-minded creature, and can be imposed upon 

 by any novice. Yet it is not every novice that can 

 find a bee-tree. The sportsman may track his game 

 to its retreat by the aid of his dog, but in hunt- 

 ing the honey-bee one must be his own dog, and 

 track his game through an element in which it 

 leaves no trail. It is a task for a sharp, quick 

 eye, and may test the resources of the best wood- 

 craft. One autumn, when I devoted much time to 

 this pursuit, as the best means of getting at nature 

 and the open-air exhilaration, my eye became so 

 trained that bees were nearly as easy to it as birds. 

 I saw and heard bees wherever I went. One day, 

 standing on a street corner in a great city, I saw 

 above the trucks and the traffic a line of bees carry- 

 ing off sweets from some grocery or confectionery 

 shop. 



One looks upon the woods with a new interest 

 when he suspects they hold a colony of bees. What 

 a pleasing secret it is, — a tree with a heart of comb 

 honey, a decayed oak or maple with a bit of Sicily 

 or Mount Hymettus stowed away in its trunk or 

 branches; secret chambers where lies hidden the 

 wealth of ten thousand little freebooters, great nug- 

 gets and wedges of precious ore gathered with risk 

 and labor from every field and wood about ! 



But if you would know the delights of bee-hunt- 

 ing, and how many sweets such a trip yields beside 



