22 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[July 8, 1899. 
The Bee Tree* 
■ ©UR life was singularly pladid anfl uneVentful during 
the week we occupied the sheep herder's deserted cabin 
near the summit of Devil's Mountain, in northern Cali- 
fornia; it was, that is to say, until we found the bee tree. 
Every morning my chum and I tumble out of our 
rickety bunk a full hour before dawn, scrape together the 
embers in our cavernous fireplace, gulp down our coffee 
and bolt our bacon and damper, buckle on cartridge 
■belts, shoulder rifles, and with a hasty query "North i"" 
vanish into the darkness. Then for half an hour we 
stumble along through a forest of madrone and tan bark, 
noosing our necks with riatas of wild grape and snarling 
our feet in .tangles of bear vine, seeing nothing of course, 
but occasionally hearing a scraping of claws on a tree 
trunk and tfie weird cr-r-ooning whistle of a startled 
coon. Then the east begins to glow, the night wind 
dies away, the air grows perceptibly warmer, the hum oj 
a myriad insects rises and falls in gentle cadence, and 
the perfume of the woods at dawn— of all odors the most 
refreshing to the world-weary man — pervades our senses 
and wc pause. 
"What a marvelous mingling of sweet smells," I 
say to my friend; "there is honeysuckle and laurel and 
Mlac and wild azalea, or baj^ rose, as tliey call it here, and 
a hundred other flowers that arc nameless to me." 
"Yes," replies that utilitarian, "aixl we must get a move 
on us if Ave waJit meat this morning. So, trek!" We 
jog on again, presently to separate, he to the right, 
I to the left, picking our steps stealthily along the ridge, 
sweeping every glade with careful scrutiny, first the 
shadows cast by the tall timber around its edge, then 
each clump of poison oak in the open. Deer, like cattle, 
are passionately fond of this shrub, and in their browsings 
will frequently ensconce themselves in a thicket of it, so 
that onl}^ the flapping of an ear or a glint of sunlight on 
an antler's prong betrays the fat buck at breakfast. 
Thus the morning hours glide by unnoted, until per- 
haps from afar oft' across the mountain spur comes the 
spiteful "ping^' of my friend's .30. or sundry "pings" in 
quick succession, then an interval of silence, and tlien a 
faint halloo-o, which means "I've got him!" 
Whereupon I clamber over the hogback and help pack 
the quarry into camp. Occasionally, but more rarely, it 
is the bellow of my .40-65 which re-echoes down the 
cafion, and then sometimes it is Monty, who helps witli 
the packing. 
<It was Saturday, the hour 9 A. M.. and we were hasten- 
ing cabinward, for our hearts smote us at having neg- 
lected the third member of our party — a veritable son 
of Satan, otherwise a buckskin mule, on whose hurricane 
deck our camp kit had traveled sixteen miles over the 
mountains from the stage road. This bru<:e, doubtless, at 
that very moment was trying to eat his way out of the 
sheep corral and strike out for home, as he had suc- 
ceeded in doing twice before. 
We were empty-handed, to be sure, but then there was 
plenty of meat in camp, and excepting the mule there 
was nothing in the wide world to bother us: so as we 
jogged along we laid our plans for the evening's shoot- 
ing and then fell to discussing the owner of the mountain, 
one Roberts, whose ranch house peeped from the green 
of the long ridge across the canon. 
"It is an extraordinary thing," Monty was saying, 
"that, although there is any number of bees about this 
ranch, Roberts says in the twenty-two years he has been 
h&re he never found a . By Jupiter! there's a bee 
tree now!" . ^ 
Instinctively I dodged. Recollections of childhood s 
more or less "happy hours — some of them very tender 
recollections — surged in upon me. I bethought me of 
a freckled-faced urchin with sapling, hook and line, 
perched upon a granite abutment beneath a railway 
bridge jttst over a deep still pool in a far-off State 
across Cie Rockies; of the restful fragrance of the pines 
upon that drowsy afternoon; of the clinkity-dink of 
Hank Bemis' grist mill down stream; of a strange buzz- 
ing, growing louder and louder, until of a sudden a 
swarm of these pesky Httle miscreants swooped_ down 
upon that innocent child and roosted all over his frail 
anatomv. but mostly in his hair; of a squawk of in- 
fantile horror; of the flop of a small body into an ice- 
cold brook, ditto one can of hoppers, one fish pole and 
one string of trout; of the scramble ashore; the race 
homeward and the subsequent conversation in the wood- 
shed—all this came into my head, and also that other 
time when this same small boy sat down on the hollow 
log at the Sundaj'-school picnic and instanly became the 
animated — most animated— center of attraction of that 
festal gathering; the observed— too much observed— 
of all observers. 
"Better leave it alone," said I- "Thanks to these 
pestilential little humbugs, I have conspicuously dis- 
played upon my person many a time and oft the sign 
'Closed for Repairs.' We are having a vOya] good time 
as it is, without hunting up trouble." But he would 
not have, it that way. . , 
"Why, old man," satd he, "Roberts will be tickled 
most to death at this. I'll go over and tell him to-night. 
To-morrow's Sunday, We won't go shooting m the 
morning but will snooze away till 9 and then we'll tackle 
that beeVee. Great Scott! it is a big one! T shouldn't 
be a bit surprised if we got fifteen gallons of honey out 
of it!" .„ , . 
"More likely each of you will get stung m fifteen 
different places, and each new sting will be fifteen ttmes 
sorer than the last! Leave these diurnal vampires m 
their coop !" I ventured ; but he was obdurate, and hav- 
ing taken the bearings of the tree, a giant white oak, on 
a orecipitous bluff about a quarter of a mile from our 
cabin we went^home, watered and hobbled the mule, 
cooked and ate tenderloin of veniFon, did our chores anH 
in th« afternoon he struck out for the ranch, while T 
slid down hill a mile to the creek and captured enough 
trout for supper. 1 , , 
The following morning we were awakened by n mini- 
ature earthnnake in the cabin, and there was R'-be'-ts 
"nroiecting his 6ft. 2 of sturdy manhood through the 
floorwav, and at his heels the Kids— his half-brothers, 
aged twelve and fourteen respectively — and tagging after 
th em the most extraordinary specimen of mongrel quad- 
ruped ever seen outside of a menagerie. "That's the 
dasiest coon dorg in Humboldt county, you bet. Ain't 
you, Tige?" remarked the elder kid, as he threw down 
an axe and a lariat. "When he seed me take that axe 
he was bound to jine the percession." 
"Whac breed do you call him?" I asked of Roberts, 
who was unloading himself of three five-gallon coal oil 
cans fitted with rope handles, a roll of mosquito netting 
and a mysterious package, which we afterward learned 
contained sulphur. 
He looked puzzled. 'He's got some shep," he said, 
slowly,- "and some hound, and a little bull, and mebbe a 
mite of mastiff; and then there was that derned Austra- 
lian kangaroo dog that Toomj^ had down in the valley 
and— and— some others. He's Avhat you might call 
mix-breed; but then lie^s all-fired death on coons; he is 
that, for a fac'." 
During breakfast Roberts outlined his plan of cam- 
paign. "I ain't never had no experience with bees much 
hardly," he premised, "but from what I've heard, it's 
easy. You cut down the tree and light a fire near the 
hole Avhere the bees is, and put sulphur on it. The 
smoke makes 'em silly, and they won't bite, leastwise 
not to amount to nothing. Then you chop out the hole 
and lift out the honeycomb, and there you are. I reckon 
I've brung cans enough to hold the honey." 
It did sound easy, and after breakfast we gathered to- 
gether the impedimenta and started in single-file for 
the bee tree, marshaled by the coon dog. When in sight 
of the tree, Roberts divided the mosquito net into con- 
venient lengths, and each of the bee hunters enveloped 
his head, and hat in it, turning up his coat collar to 
hold it securely in place. Roberts next put on a pair of 
buckskin gloA^es. while my friend swathed his hands in 
a couple of hankerchiefs, while I found a coign of vantage 
about 50yds. above the trail, where my view was unob- 
structed. I had lost no bees and didn't propose to hunt 
any. The coal oil cans and other paraphernalia Avere 
deposited at the base of the tree, and the party slowly 
circled around it, viewing it from every point. The coon 
dog Avent too, Avagging his stumpy tail in anticipation 
of the good times coming. Then the bee hunters held 
a conclave a short distance from the tree, and the coon 
dog looked disgu.sted. 
"It's a tarnally all-fired big tree," remarked Roberts. 
"It's too blame big to cut and too blame big to climb 
[only he didn't say blame], and thet limb Avhere the 
bees is is thirty foot up." 
"Couldn't Ave nail slabs on the trunk, climb up and 
saw oft' the limb?" inquired Monty. 
"Ain't .got no saw," Roberts ansAvered. 
"Well, "cut it off then." 
"Ain't got no nails." 
They then filed back to the tree and tapped it Avith 
the axe as high as they could reach. It was solid. Next 
the younger kid mounted Roberts' shoulder and sounded 
it all around a second time. Still solid. Then the bee 
hunters Avithdrew for further conference, and the coon 
dog looked as if he had just receiA^ed a telegram that the 
last coon on earth had died of dropsy, "interment 
private." 
But my chum Avas a man of resources. "That limb 
is not more than i8in. thick," said he, "and it is nothing 
but a shell. We can shoot it oft' with my .30 and soft- 
nosed bullets. We'll get the honey in the limb to-day 
and to-morroAv Ave'll bring along some nails and boards, 
tap the trunk and corral the rest of it." Unanimously 
carried. The rifle Avas fetched from the cabin; the elder 
kid threw his lariat and caught the holloAV limb; Roberts 
kindled a fire and had his sulphur and coal oil cans in 
readiness, also the axe; Monty began blazing away at 
the bee tree, ripping great slivers of deaa Avood off at 
every shot; the angry insects buzzed about the doorway 
of their domicile, while the coon dog and the younger 
kid danced around the bole, the former emitting short, 
paroxysmal yelps of delight, and the latter shouting en- 
couragement to the workers. 
At the tenth shot the limb Avobbled. At the eleventh 
it drooped, and then Avith a lusty pull from Monty, who 
had thrown aside his rifle, and the kids, doAvn it crashed, 
nearly flattening the coon dog, AA^ho had jumped for it as 
soon as he saAV it coming. 
Roberts rushed forward with his fire and sulphur; 
Monty Avith the axe; the kids Avith the tiuAvare. EA^ery- 
body had something to say and everybody said it at 
once: "Durn that dorg!" "Get out of the Avay!" "Gee, 
AA-^hew! I'm stung!" "Blame that sulphur!" "Cut that 
hole bigger!" "PheA\', I'm suffocating!" "Jiminny 
Crickets! they're all over me!" "Oh! ouch!" and lastly, 
above the turmoil, Roberts' voice: "They're yaller 
jackets! They're yaller jackets! Run for it!" 
And they did run for it. Down the trail they streamed, 
helter-skelter, shedding hats and headgear, expletives 
and clothing, as they ran, but not the coon dog! He 
Avas clear grit, clean through. Once accorded a fair field, 
he asked no faA^or, but sailed into that holloAV hmb 
and bit and scratched and growled and snapped until 
eA'ery square inch of his ebon epidermis Avas tawny with 
clustering wasps. 
All at once a look of pained surprise OA^erspread^ his 
homely face. He let out one long piercing howl, "ki- 
yi-id!" and started for the river, slumbering in cooling 
greenery a mile below the bluff. He fairly sailed down 
that steep descent. At his first mad bound he took a 
poison oak bush toft. high. Next came a precipice of 
shelving gravel, AA'here every time his feet touched he 
loosened half a ton of stones and boulders. These rattled 
and rumbled in his wake, like small arms and artillery, 
and now and then impinged upon his miserable but 
aureoled carcase. Did he mind it? Not a Avhit; it Avas a 
Avelcome change. 
On he Avent. Right ahead lay a mass of Avild oats, 
breast high. He saw it as he shot doAAmward. riding 
on the avalanche, and the "ki-yi" that soared up to me 
Avas surcharged Avith exultation. He cleaved that un- 
dulating sea like an ocean liner chasing a record. Then 
came a patch of scrubby oak and chaparral, and the 
mm dog still kept moving. Another field of oats, 
more brush, a stonv piece of ground where thistles grew, 
then timber and the river. He scorched the Avhole 
course, and AA'hen I could not see him T heard him. He 
wasn't one of those Avho believed in suffering in silence. 
He liked folks to know about it. I saw him mow the 
thistles right and left; I saw him vanish in the timber; 
a wailing "ki-yi," pianissimo, floated out from the tree 
tops. Then silence. He had got there. 
To resolve myself into an ambulance corps and Red 
Cross auxiliary Avas the work of an instant. I reached 
the cabin on a run, and noted the casualties. Roberts 
had been stung seven times, Monty fiA^e, while the kids 
had two apiece. To the adult sufferers I administered 
without delay three fingers of whisky, neat, in the bot- 
tom of a pint pannikin. I did this to check their flow 
of language, which was copious, while I collected my 
humble store of medicaments, to- wit; flour, vinegar, gun 
grease, brown paper and clay from our spring. 
By dinner time all my patients were convalescent. 
* * * * * * . 
But the coon dog? A letter from one of the kids has 
this to say: "But you fellows spoiled the cutest cooil 
dog in Humboldt county with that bee tree funny busi- 
ness of yours. If I look at an axe or pick up a bit of 
rope, that coon dog crawls 'Avay under the barn and 
can't be coaxed out even at meal times. Reckon he 
Avonders mighty often what in thunder wc wanted to 
get that dern limb down for anyhoAV." 
Reckon he does. Marin. 
In Filibuster Days.— L 
A Story of the Walker Expedition, 
Whe^T on a lovely evening of the early spring of the 
jxar 1856 the stanch schooner Minnie Schifter was 
cast loose from the puthng tug oft' the mouth of the 
Mississippi River at the beginning of her voyage from 
New Orleans to Greytown, Nicaragua, a motley crowd 
Avas gathered upon her swarming deck. A band of re- 
cruits, 150 in number, under command of Col. Jacques, 
a French soldier of fortune, en route to join the army 
of filibusters commanded by William Walker (the "Little 
Gray-Eyed Man of Destiny," then engaged in the attempt 
to conquer the small Central American State of Nica- 
ragua), sAvarmed upon the forward part of the A'essel, 
Avhile a little company of thirty emigrants, men, wonteii 
and children, most of whom were farmers from western 
loAva, Avere grouped on the quarter-deck; and as the 
noisy little tug steamed back toward the mouth of the 
great river on its return trip to Ncav Orleans, and the 
sun Avas sinking in a halo of glory that filled all the west- 
ern sky, Avhile the hoisted sails flapped idly in the motion- 
less air as the uneasy ocean heaved and sank beneath 
the A'essel's keel, the colonel of the filibusters called 
the attention of his troops to the sight of the Stars and 
Stripes sloA\dy unfolding in the evening breeze over the 
little GoA'ernment station of the Balize, just distinguish- 
able in the distance, and told them to take a good look 
at the flag and at the land over Avhich it waved in beauty, 
adding that in all probability some of them Avere then 
looking at their native country for the last time. 
What a strange thing is this feeling of patriotism, so 
common to all mankind, Avhich, like a hidden magnet, at- ■ 
tracts so irresistibly toward the land of one's birth. 
In the group of emigrants stood an imaginative boy 
of sixteen, whose head has since vAdtitened in the frosts 
of time, and Avho Avas then beginning the first important 
journej' of a subsequentlj'- Avandering life who, as the 
full significance of the French colonel's Avords was 
grasped by his all too heedless mind, felt a strange swell- 
ing of the heart and the rush of unbidden tears to his 
eyes; and turning aside to hide his emotion was sur- 
prised and consoled to note that among the grim and 
liardened faces of the filibuster recruits gathered from 
the floating population of the Mississippi River towns — 
"Avharf rats" in their own A'ernacular — Avere many pairs 
of eyes misty and wet as his own. 
"Breathes there the man with soul so dead 
AVho never to himself hath said. 
This is my own, ray native land!" 
Down in the rosy west sank the sun, buried and lost 
in the fiery glow of its OAvn creating; the stars shone 
down upon the glassy deep, and the boy who was 
launched upon the first voyage of a lifetime Avent to bed 
Avondering if he Avould still be able to see the land 
Avhen he should rise in the morning. 
But, alas! when he came on deck next morning and 
found nothing in sight bej^ond the little vessel saA^e 
frowning sky and angry sea, and when the heretofore 
level deck was..found to be steep as a house roof, \vhile 
occasional waves washed the lee scuppers, and a strange 
upheaval of all his inner anatomy beginning to assert 
itself, which promptly demanded a most unwilling tribute 
to Neptune, he found himself confronted by one of the 
most unpleasant facts of a lifetime, and one Avhich but 
few are called upon to face — that in his case, as in that 
of a fcAV other unfortunates of the race, mal de mer Avas a 
foe Avhich no amount of seagoing experience could 
propitiate, and Avhich six subsequent voyages, covering 
many thousands of miles, has utterly failed to disarm, 
but which upon subsequent occasions has assailed him 
so savagely that a sentence to an ocean voyage to China 
on a sailing vessel on a ttirbulent sea would to-day be 
regarded by him as almost, if not quite, a death sentence. 
During the tAventy-three days of the voyage, as the 
laggard schooner crawled across the Gulf of Mexico, 
the Caribbean Sea and the Bay of Honduras, during 
only the times when the sea Was comparatively calm came 
moments at all enjoyable to the vigorously healthy boy, 
fascinated with every strange incident of his first sea- 
going experience. 
The purpose of the emigrants, of whom my father and 
tAvo of us boys Avere members, was to settle in the 
mountainous portion of Nicaragua.^ which country we 
fondly imagined would, by annexation, soon become a 
part of the United States. 
On our journey doAvn the Mississippi my father had 
bought a mill in St Louis, for grinding the corn of the 
natives, and all were jubilant over the prospect of form- 
ing the first American settlement in the soon-to-be-an- 
nexed State of Nicaragua. 
The filibusters Avere a motlev crew of many national- 
ities, mostly Americans, and their arms Avere a curious 
lot. ' Most of them Avere armed Avith muskets, but the 
medley of revolvers, derringers, bowie-knives, swords 
