130 THE BEE-MASTER OF WARRILOW 
bees will be often as spiteful as cats, and as timid 
as squirrels. And there are times, just before a 
storm, when to touch some hives would mean 
bringing the whole population out upon you like a 
nest of hornets.” 
He stopped by one of the hives, and laid his great 
sunburnt hand down flat on the entrance-board. 
The bees took no account of the obstacle, but ran 
to and fro over his fingers with perfect unconcern. 
‘* And yet,’’ said he, ‘‘ there are bees that follow 
none of these general rules. Here is a stock which 
it is almost impossible to ruffle. You may turn 
their home inside out, and they will go on working 
just as if nothing had happened. They are famous 
honey-makers, while they keep to it; but, like all 
mild-tempered bees, they are too fond of swarming, 
and have to be put back into the hive two or three 
times before they settle down to the season’s 
work.”’ 
As he talked, he was looking about him carefully, 
and at last made a short cut towards a hive stand- 
ing a little apart from the rest. The bees of this 
hive were behaving in a very different fashion from 
those we had just inspected. They were running 
about the flight-board in an agitated way, and the 
whole hive gave out a note of deep unrest. The old 
bee-man puffed his ‘‘ smoker ”’ up into full draught, 
and set to work to open the hive. 
‘These are the honey thieves,’”’ he said, as he 
pulled off the coverings of the hive and laid bare its 
rumbling, seething interior to the searching sun- 
light, ‘‘ and when once bees have taken to robbing 
their neighbours there is only one way to cure them. 
You must exterminate the whole brood. In the old 
