FOLLOWING THE BEE LINE 
*4 
But beekeepers do not exaggerate the importance 
or the pain of stings. We get used to them and 
usually they are not very painful. It is all a part of 
the game. 
I first became interested in bees when I finished 
school. I lived on a farm and needed something 
to occupy my time and my mind, as I planned to 
be at home and had no heavy home duties to 
perform. My father was a firm believer in the 
Gospel of Work, and suggested many occupations, 
such as pigeons, mushrooms, violets—but none of 
them appealed to me. 
Finally, he said, half-jokingly, “Why don’t you 
take over George’s bees?” 
To his surprise, I answered quickly, “Perhaps I 
will!” 
My brother George had two hives of bees, which 
he had lately discarded for skunks, foxes, and other 
animal pets. They were down back of the ice-house 
and that was the extent of my knowledge of them, 
except that every fall we had honey and hot biscuits 
after George took off the honey. 
Once a year on some chilly autumn evening he 
used to get my mother to help rig him up, with 
black mosquito netting shrouding his head, rubber 
boots on his feet, and long gloves tied securely over 
