CHAPTER XVI 
BEES AND THEIR MASTERS 
"THERE are three great tokens of the coming of 
spring in the country—the elm-blossom, the 
cry of the young lambs, and the first rich song of 
the awakening bees. 
All three come together about the end of February 
or beginning of March, and break into the winter 
dearth and silence in much the same _ sudden, 
unpremeditated way. You look at the woodlands, 
cowering under. the lash of the shrill north wind, 
and all seems bare and black and lifeless. But 
the wind dies down in a fiery sunset. With the 
darkness comes a warm breath out of the west. On 
the morrow the spring sunshine runs high through 
all the valleys like liquid gold; the elm-tops are 
ablaze with purple; from the lambing-pens far and 
near a new cry lifts into the still, warm air; and 
in the bee-gardens there is the unwonted, old- 
remembered symphony, prophetic of the coming 
summer days. 
The shepherd, the bee-man, the woodlander—these 
three live in the focus of the seasons, and feel their 
changes long before any other class of country folk. 
But the bee-man, if he would prosper, must take 
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