Bees and Buckwheat 201 



the surroundings, and not a tree, bush, or 

 wilted weed but was held to bear evidence 

 that the coming winter would be open" or 



hard," as the oldest man present saw fit to 

 predidl. No one disputed him, and no one 

 remembered a week later what he had said, 

 so the old man's reputation was safe. 



The buckwheat threshed, the rest is all a 

 matter of plain prose. Stay ! In the coming 

 Indian summer there was always a bee-hunt. 

 The old man whom we saw in the buckwheat- 

 field in Oftober was our dependence for wild 

 honey, which we fancied was better than that 

 from the hives. He always went alone, 

 carrying a wooden pail and a long, slender 

 oaken staff. How he found the bee-trees so 

 readily was a question much discussed. He 

 smells it," some one suggested ; He hears 

 *em a-buzzin'," others remarked. Knowing 

 when he was going, I once followed on the 

 sly and solved the mystery. He went with- 

 out hesitation or turning of the head to a 

 hollow beech, and straightway commenced 

 operations. I did not stay to witness this, but 

 came away recalling many a Sunday after- 

 noon's stroll with him in these same woods. 

 What he had seen in August he had remem- 



