312 
THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 
attempt should be made to act on the offensive ; for, if a 
single one is struck at, others will avenge the insult; and 
if resistance is continued, Iiundreds, and at last, thousands, 
will join them. The assailed party should quickly retreat 
to the protection of a building, or, if none is near, should 
hide in a clump of bushes, and lie perfectly still, with his 
head covered, until the bees leave him. When no bushes 
are at hand, they will generally give over the attack, if he 
lies still on the grass, with his face to the ground. 
Those who are alarmed if a bee enters the house, or 
ajiproaches them in the garden or fields, are ignorant of 
the important fact, that a bee at a distance from its hive, 
never volunteers an attach. Even if assaulted, they seek 
only to escape, and never sting, unless they are hurt. 
If they were as easily provoked away from home, as 
when called to defend those sacred precincts, a tithe of 
the merry gambols in which our domestic animals indulge, 
would speedily bring about them a swarm of infuriated 
enemies; we should no longer be safe in our quiet ram¬ 
bles among the green fields ; and no jocund mower could 
whet or swing his peaceful scythe, unless clad in a dress 
impervious to their stings. The bee, instead of being the 
friend of man, would, like savage wild beasts, provoke his 
utmost efforts for its extermination. 
Let none, however, take encouragement from the con¬ 
trast 'between the conduct of bees at home and abroad, to 
reserve all their pleasant ways for other places than the 
domestic roof; for, towards the members of its own fiimily 
the bee is all kindness and devotion ; and while, among 
human beings, a mother is often treated by her own chil¬ 
dren with disrespect or neglect, among bees she is always 
waited ujiou with reverence and .affection. 
It is true, that if any members of a colony become una¬ 
ble to perforin their share of laboi-, they are dragged from 
