222 FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 



with the other took out a frame of sections, then quickly 

 dropped the robber-cloth in its place, my wife keeping a 

 cloud of smoke in the way of any robbers which should 

 attempt to enter the pile while the cloth was raised. In- 

 stantly the frame was out of the super, the robbers made 

 for the frame of sections. I made for the wagon and 

 my wife made for me. Running in a zig-zag, circuitous 

 course, my wife followed me, puffing and switching at 

 every step, and by the time we got to the wagon the rob- 

 bers were lost, the frame was slipped quickly into the 

 super on the wagon, and the robber-cloth dropped over 

 it. The Scotch folks at the house had a good laugh over 

 the crazy couple chasing one another through the 

 orchard, but we beat the bees. Under ordinary circum- 

 stances it would be better to take an easier plan or wait 

 till dark. 



PROTECTION FROM STINGS. 



I have been a bee-keeper for forty-one years, during 

 the last twenty-four of which I have made the production 

 of honey my sole business, aside from writing about bees, 

 and yet I have not reached that point where I care noth- 

 ing for protection from stings. When I first commenced 

 keeping bees, a sting on my hand was a serious affair, 

 swelling to the shoulder, and troubling fully as much 

 the second day as the first. Now, if I receive a half-dozen 

 stings or more, I cannot tell an hour or two later where 

 I was stung, except as a matter of memory. Yet I think 

 that a sting gives me fully as much pain for the first 

 minute now, as it did forty years ago. Sometimes the 

 pain is so severe that it literally makes me groan, espe- 

 cially if no one is within hearing. I sometimes wonder 

 at those who scout at any sort of protection, and query 

 whether there mav not be just a little of a spirit of 

 bravado about it. I think I could go through a year 

 without any sort of protection, but I do not think I ever 



