19 THE BEE-MASTER OF WARRILOW 
warmer they kept, and the less food they needed. 
And so, as the winters got longer and colder, the 
bee-colonies increased, until at last, from force of 
habit, they took to keeping together all the year 
round. So you see, like as not, tis experience as 
has brought ’em to build their cities of to-day, just 
as experience, or the One ye never mention, has put 
the same thing into the hearts o’ men.” 
A sudden flaw of wind struck the little cottage 
with a sound like thunder, and made the cut-glass 
lustres on the mantle tinkle and glitter in the 
yellow candle-glow. The old bee-man_ stopped, 
with his pipe half-way to his mouth, nodded gravely 
towards the window, in a kind of obeisance to the 
elements, and then resumed his theme. 
‘* But there’s a many things about bees,”’ he said, 
“that no man ’ull come to the rights of, until all 
airthly things is made clear in the Day o’ Days. 
The great trouble and hindrance to bee-keeping is 
the swarm, and a good bee-master nowadays tries 
all he can to circumvent it. But the old habit comes 
back again and again, and often with stocks of bees 
that haven’t had a fit o’ it for years. Now, did ye 
ever think what swarming must have been in the 
beginning? ”’ 
He suddenly levelled the pipe-stem straight at my 
head. 
“ Well, ’tis all speckilation, but here’s my idee 
o’ it, for what ’tis worth. Take the wapses: 
they’re thousands of years behind the honey-bee in 
development, and so they give ye a look, so to 
speak, into the past. The end of a wapse-colony 
comes when the females are ready in November; and 
hundreds of them go off to hide for the winter, each 
