On the Threshold of the Hive 
which produces a pain so characteristic that 
one knows not wherewith to compare it; 
a kind of destroying dryness, a flame of 
the desert rushing over the wounded limb, 
as though these daughters of the sun had 
distilled a dazzling poison from their 
father’s angry rays, in order more effec- 
tively to defend the treasure they gather 
from his beneficent hours. 
It is true that were some one who neither 
knows nor respects the customs and char- 
acter of the bee suddenly to fling open 
the hive, it would turn at once into a 
burning bush of heroism and anger ; but 
the slight amount of skill needed to 
handle it with impunity can be most 
readily acquired. Let but a little smoke 
be deftly applied, much coolness and 
gentleness be shown, and our well-armed 
workers will suffer themselves to be 
despoiled without dreaming of drawing 
their sting. It is not the fact, as some 
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