On the Threshold of the Hive 



which produces a pain so characteristic that 

 one knows not wherewith to compare it ; 

 a kind of destroying dryness, a flame of 

 the desert rushing over the wounded limb, 

 as though these daughters of the sun had 

 distilled a dazzling poison from their 

 father's angry rays, in order more effec- 

 tively to defend the treasure they gather 

 from his beneficent hours. 



It is true that were some one who neither 

 knows nor respects the customs and char- 

 acter of the bee suddenly to fling open 

 the hive, it would turn at once into a 

 burning bush of heroism and anger ; but 

 the slight amount of skill needed to 

 handle it with impunity can be most 

 readily acquired. Let but a little smoke 

 be deftly applied, much coolness and 

 gentleness be shown, and our well-armed 

 workers will sufi^er themselves to be 

 despoiled without dreaming of drawing 

 their sting. It is not the fact, as some 



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