FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 



19 



getting in its work, for there were two colonies less than 

 there were three years before. 



Fig. 5.— T Super. 



There was certainly nothing brilliant in being able 

 after seven years of bee-keeping to be able to count only 

 two colonies more than the total number I had started 

 with, together with the four I had bought. But there 

 was a fascination in bee-keeping for me, and it is very 

 likely I should have kept right on, even if it necessitated 

 buying a fresh start each year. At any rate, my friends 

 could no longer accuse me of squandering money on my 

 bees, for there was that $10.40, and the time I had spent 

 with the bees was just as well spent in that way as in 

 some other form of amusement. Indeed, at that time 

 I am not sure that I had much thought that I was ever 

 to get any profit out of the business. Certainly I had 

 no thought that it would ever become a vocation instead 

 of an avocation. 



