278 
THE IIIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 
bees had commenced their depredations. On finding 
themselves excluded, they alighted on the wire by thou¬ 
sands, fairly squealing with vexation as they vainly tried 
to force a passage through the meshes. Baffled in every 
effort, they attempted to descend the chimney, reeking 
with sweet odors, even although most who entered it fell 
with scorched wings into the fire, and it became necessary 
to put wire-guaze over the top of the chimney also.* 
As I have seen thousands of bees destroyed in such 
places, thousands more hopelessly struggling in the delud¬ 
ing sweets, and yet increasing thousands, all unmindful 
of their danger, blindly hovering over and alighting on 
them, how often have they reminded me of the infatuation 
of those who abandon themselves to the intoxicating cup. 
Even although such persons see the miserable victims of 
this degrading vice falling all around them into premature 
graves, they still press madly on, trampling, as it were, 
over their dead bodies, that they too may sink into the 
same abyss, and their sun also go down in hopeless 
gloom. 
The avaricious bee that, despising the slow process of 
extracting nectar from “ every opening flower,” plunges 
recklessly into the tempting sweets, has ample time to 
bewail its folly. Even if it does not forfeit its life, it 
returns home with a woe-begone look, and sorrowful 
note, in marked contrast with the bright hues and merry 
sounds with which its industrious fellows come back from 
their happy rovings amid “ budding honey-flowers and 
sweetly-breathing fields.” 
* Manufacturers of candies and syrups will And It to tlielr interest to fit such 
guards to their premises; for, if only one boo in a hundred escapes with its load, 
» considerable loss will be 1 currod in the course of the season. 
