The Swarm 165 



" I heard of a youth in the neighborhood more lucky 

 than myself on a like occasion. It seems that he had got 

 well in advance of the swarm, whose route lay over a hill, 

 as in my case, and as he neared the summit, hat in hand, 

 the bees had just come up and were all about him. Pres- 

 ently he noticed them hovering about his straw hat and 

 alighting on his arm ; and in almost as brief a time as it 

 takes to relate it, the whole swarm had followed the queen 

 into his hat. Being near a stone wall, he coolly deposited 

 his prize upon it, quickly disengaged himself from the 

 accommodating bees, and returned for a hive. The ex- 

 planation of this singular circumstance no doubt is, that 

 the queen, unused to such long and heavy flights, was 

 obliged to alight from very exhaustion. It is not very 

 unusual for swarms to be thus found in remote fields, 

 collected upon a bush or branch of a tree." 



Who among us but can sympathize with Mr. Burroughs 

 when he exclaims : — 



" I love to see a swarm go off — if it is not mine ; and if 

 mine must go, I want to be on hand to see the fun." 



The first hive-bees brought to America had the New 

 World all to themselves for a long time. 



There were no rivals in the vast flowery plains but the 

 wild bees that eat but do not store up honey and the " burly 

 dozing humble-bee," that both eats and saves, albeit in 

 small quantities, the joyous nectar of the blossoms. 



The honey-bee under these favorable circumstances 

 prospered and increased amazingly until the forests of the 

 United States were well supplied with " bee-trees," to the 

 delectation alike of the Red Man and the bear, both of 

 whom were quick to appreciate the value of the remarkable 

 sweet supplied by the "white man's fly." 



The fondness of the bear for honey has been noted from 

 early times, and many amusing stories have been told of its 



