"Nothing special. I was vexed at the gardener's cowardice, and I really
did not feel afraid, so I went just as I was. I well remember the dress:
it was muslin, with large open sleeves, so that my arms were bare. I did
not even wear a hat!

"Ann held the hive, and I shook the bees into it. We were both of us
covered with bees that settled on us, as they did on the gardener and
Bob this morning. We let them take their own time to fly off from us,
and neither of us was stung.

"Bees are very curious creatures; they seem to have their likes and
dislikes as well as other beings.

"My grandfather kept bees; but he was obliged to get rid of them, for
they would sting my grandmother whenever she went into the part of the
garden where they were kept. No one ever knew the reason of this."

Bees keep the inside of their hives very clean. If a bee dies, they turn
it out; or if anything like a snail, for instance, crawled in, which
would be too large for them to push out, they would completely cover it
over with wax.

Here grandpapa came into the room and said, "That was a strong swarm of
bees that we have just hived; first swarms generally are."

"How many bees do you think there were, grandpapa?" asked Jack.

"I should say about five thousand. A well-stocked hive will hold from
fifteen to twenty thousand bees. We may expect another swarm from that