THE HUMBLE BEE. 
91 
containing ten cocoons, but so uneven that it tot- . 
tered and would not stand firmly. The poor bees 
were greatly troubled at this, as it prevented them 
from clustering upon the young after their usual 
custom. At length, as if they had discovered a 
way to remedy the difficulty, several of them 
mounted the comb, and fixing their hind legs to its 
upper edge and their fore legs to the table, succeed- 
ed in steadying the mass. They continued in this 
position three days, by which time they had se- 
creted wax enough to build little pillars to support 
the comb. An accident displaced these waxen 
supports, and a second time the patient and in- 
genious creatures went to work as before. Mr. 
Huber, taking pity on them, and touched by their 
evident trouble, then aided them, and they had no 
more difficulty. 
The humble bee is generally seen near the 
ground, but sometimes he flies to a great height. 
When General Fremont ascended the highest peak 
of the Rocky Mountains, where probably no hu- 
man foot had ever been before, he said, in his re- 
port of his expedition, “ On the summit, where 
the stillness was absolutely unbroken by any sound 
