40 THE BLESSED BEES. 



o'clock before we were ready to start for home. 

 Then Will drove at a good pace over the smooth 

 roads. The horses' well-corked shoes struck the 

 hard beaten snow with a clear triumphant crack, 

 most exhilarating to hear. A full moon lent its 

 bright light, sparkling on the snowy fields with rich 

 suggestions of oriental gems, and throwing ghostly 

 shadows across the road as we now and then went 

 through a stretch of pine or oak or maple forest. 

 We made the ten miles with our farm horses in less 

 than an hour and a half. 



It was agreed that Will would go to the saw mill 

 near us on the next Tuesday after school and get 

 the scantling and boards for bottom boards, then 

 take a half-holiday on Friday afternoon and get the 

 hive material from Howard. We should then be 

 ready for work in making and painting hives, and 

 could employ our Saturdays in so doing. 



But one thing further remained for me to do. 

 My bees were all black ones, the common bee of 

 the country. My study of bee literature had con- 

 vinced me that the Italian bee was much to be pre- 

 ferred because more industrious, and more easily 

 managed in consequence of its greater docility. 6 

 I had carefully studied the whole subject of Italian- 

 izing bees, and felt confident of my ability to do it. 

 The sooner my common stock was changed for 

 Italians, the larger would the honey harvest be 



