58 THE BEE-MASTER OF WARRILOW 
invariably. ’Tis an old and threadbare saying 
amongst bee-keepers, but there’s nothing truer 
under the sun. Bees have exceptions to almost 
every rule. While all other creatures seem to keep 
blindly to one pre-ordained way in everything they 
do, you can never be certain at any time that bees 
will not reverse their ordinary course to meet circum- 
stances you may know nothing of. And that is all 
the more reason why the bee-master himself should 
allow no deviations in his own work about the 
hives: his ways must be as the ways of the Medes 
and Persians.”’ 
