66 Tenants. 



days watched the bees fly from the chimney. He had 

 placed a flagstone over the flue which they occupied, and 

 never disturbed them, for his father had kept bees in Ger- 

 many, and these flying from the chimney brought to his 

 mind the scenes of his boyhood. He delighted to tell me 

 how his father managed his straw hives, and how many 

 he had, and then, mayhap, we would inspect the large 

 paper nests that the spotted wasps were ever building some- 

 where about the deserted mansion. 



One year one of these structures was fastened to the 

 grape arbor by the house-side, and was protected by its 

 eaves. The entrance to the nest was about two inches 

 from the bottom, and the old man wished me to take it, 

 stop up the hole at night, when the wasps were in, and 

 take it away if I desired. Then he fell to telling me how 

 kind the wasps were, how they minded their own business, 

 and if people would only let them alone they would never 

 be stung. We drew close to the nest and watched the 

 workers busily engaged on its top in making it larger, for 

 they work most industriously as long as the warm weather 

 lasts, never dreaming, apparently, that Summer will not be 

 always, but die finally of the cold, leaving young in various 

 stages of growth in the cells within. 



The old man was particularly loquacious on the subject 

 of speculators ; he who lived so quietly wished to hear the 

 clangings of the outer world, but he was mistrustful, for, 

 like St. Pierre, he considered himself taught by calamity. 

 "Ah!" he would say, " wasn't I hit on the head by a fel- 

 low at Four Corners, and what a lot of trouble I had over 

 it. I went to the justice's twice and then to Richmond, 



