The Swarm i6i 



tells in a very melodramatic manner how a swarm of bees 

 once settled upon the breast and neck of a young girl who 

 was helping him hive them. She, being afraid, had placed 

 a cloth over her head and shoulders, and it so happened 

 that the queen-bee crawled under this cloth and was tem- 

 pestuously followed by the whole swarm. 



" It is not in my power," says Thorley, " to tell the Con- 

 fusion and Distress of Mind I was in, from the awful Appre- 

 hensions it raised ; and her Dread and Terror in such 

 Circumstances may reasonably be supposed to be mucli 

 more. Every moment she was at the Point of retiring with 

 all the Bees about her. Vain Thought ! To escape by Flight. 

 She might have left the Place indeed, but could not the 

 Company ; and the Remedy would have been much worse 

 than the Disease. Had she enraged them, all Resistance 

 had been in Vain, and nothing less than her Life would 

 have atoned for the Offence. And now to have had that 

 Life (in so much Jeopardy) insured, what would I not have 

 given? " 



Her life was saved, however, by Thorley's finding and 

 removing the queen, when the swarm left their unwilling 

 hostess to follow their rightful sovereign. The girl's reward 

 was to become a local heroine and lose forever all fear of 

 bees ! 



Butler describes the coming forth of the queen from the 

 hive at the time of swarming with a pen more worthy of a 

 novelist than of a naturalist. He tells us that when two 

 thirds or three fourths of the swarm have departed, " the 

 music ceaseth and then cometh forth this stately dame : 

 who, walking a turn or two before the door (of purpose, 

 you would think, to be seen) she takes her k;ave ; leaving 

 but a small train to follow her, which hie them after as fast 

 as they can. 



" This decent order, the great lords of the earth seem to 



