WHITE-NOSED BUMBLE BEES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1892, 15 May 1890, Page 39

WHITE-NOSED BUMBLE BEES.

HOMER GREEN'S STORY OF WHAT A

JOKE WITH ONE LED TO.

It was 43 years ago last summer that the incident occurred which is now for the first time to be recorded, and it was on an afternoon in June.

The two persons who are the chief characters in this brief chronicle are still living. They are now sedate and grey-haired men. One of them was known in boyhood as 11 Dick, the Terror." He was agile, mischievous, and quick-witted. Joe, the other boy, was, on the contrary, slow of comprehension, awkward, and logy. If there was a atone in his path he was sure to etub his toe against it. His life was a chapter of acoidonts. The surface of his body waa covered with a rare and curious collection of Bears, sores, and bruises. The commendable things about Joe were that he was honest, and that whatever he undertook to do he persevered in until his task was accomplished, no matter at what cost of effort, of toil, or of physical pain. These boys lived in a little farming settlement surrounded by a Pennsylvania forest, and on the afternoon in question they were strolling through a meadow on the outskirts of a village in search of anything in the way of diversion that they might chance to find. Dick, going ahead, moved with agility and grace from stump to stump, from rock to rock, darting aside here and there to look for a woodchuck'B hole or a night-hawk's nest, keeping up a bright running comment on his conduct as ho went. Suddenly he stopped, and waiting until Joo reached his side ho pointed to a red clover blossom on which a bumble bee had just settled to draw out the Bweets.

"W'at'Jl you bet," he said, "'at I das3ont catch 'im?" " Oatch who? " inquired Joe. " That bumble bee." " Well, if you do catch him he'll sting you." "No, I mean 'thout stingin' me." "You can't do it." "W'at'llyoubet? W'at'U you bet ? Hurry up ; he'll be gone ! " " I'll bet— l'll bet— let me see— l'll bet my new jack knife ! "

" All right ; now watch I " Dick bbnt cautiously over the clover blossom, and with a dexterous sweep of hand, caught the bee and held it up before his companion's eyes. Joe was actually dumb with astonishment. When, at last, he was able to Bpeak, he inquired almost breathlessly, " Didn't— didn't he stins?" "Sting me? Naw. They can't sting you when you tako 'em this way. Look J " He was holding the bee daintily between bis thumb and forefinger, while the insect, no less astonished than Joe at the uuceremonious capture, was struggling to free itself, pausing occasionally to feel and test, by the sensitive organs of either extremity, the nature of its captivity. It was a small, white nosed male bee, and therefore without a sting and harmless. Now Dick knew that white-nosed bumble bees would not or could not sting, and he knew also that Joe was ignorant of that scientific fact. So his amusement-loving mind was made up to play a praotioal joke on his less enlightened companion. "You see," continued Diok, "you've got to catch 'em quick an' flop 'em over on their baoks 'fore they git a chance to sting you, an' git 'em 'tween your thumb an' finger, that way, so they can't handle theirselvea, an' then they won't hurt you. Try it ; its easy."

Joe had listened to the explanation with profound interest. It seemed to him that to catch a bumble bee in his hand and be saved harmless from its sting was a moßt extraordinary feat. He decided at once to add it to his own too brief list of accomplishments. " I'll let this one go now," said Dick, " an' we'll hunt for another ; see ! "

He held out his brown hand, opened his fingers with an airy toss, and the insect, released from imprisonment, sailed lightly away.

They were not long in finding another bee on which to make the experiment. This one was big and black, and was resting heavily on the blossom of a berry bush by the side of & burned stump.

"Sh ! " exclaimed Dick, in an awe-stricken whisper. "Bb 1 don't make no noise, you'll Bcare 'im. Git on this side of 'im ; there. Hold your hand so an' bresh 'im up quick, like that; now." Joe, bending carefully over the bush, his eye fixed on the unsuspecting bee, his lips set with determination, was holding his pudgy right hand out awkwardly, ready to make the sweep and catch.

" Now 1 " repeated Dick, his eyes sparkling with anticipation. " Quick 1 don't let 'im get away ! " There was a sudden, heavy movement of Joe's brown hand, and it closed on bee and blossom. But it opened again, almost immediately, to let the blossom fall, and the bee escape,

" Ouch ! " he exclaimed, under his breath, jerking his hand violently ; " ouch 1 " " Did 'c sting you ? " asked Diok. " Was 'c hot, eh ? " Then, bursting into a hearty peal of laughter, he lay down and rolled over to smother his merriment in the soft grasß.

" I don't oare," said Joe, picking the sting from his hand ; "if you can catch 'em, I can. Show me another bee ! "

The lad's pluck was up. With that stubborn perseverance characteristic of him he had determined tokeep on catching bumble bees till he could do it without being stung. " Good boy ! " exclaimed Diok, springing to his feet, and slapping his companion heartily on the Bhoulder; "good boyl That's right; stick to it ; it's awful easy when you know how."

On a big thistle blossom, over by the lane, they found another bee, a splendid uglylooking fellow, and without further ado repeated his experiment. The result was no lees disastrous than before.

But Dick wbb hardly to the bottom of his big laugh when someone just across the fence ex claimed ; " Dick Porfeer, you're a coward ! " Both boys turned quickly to look at the speaker. She was a young girl. She had paused at the bats and had been watching the movements of the boys unnoticed by them. With her quick instinct she had discovered the trick that was being played on Joe, and it made her indignant.

"You ought to be ashamed of yourself," she continued, vehemently, " to play a cruel joke like that on Joe. He never hurt you, I'm sure."

The viotim of Dick's deceit began slowly to realise that he had been duped.

" Tip," he said— Tip was the girl's nickname — "Tip, did he know I'd get stung?" "To be sure he did," she replied. "He caught the white-nosed bees and let you catch the black ones."

"And won't white-nosed ones sting?" inquired Joe.

"Of course they won't, you stupid 1 " exclaimed Tip, getting angry at Joe, too, for his slow wit.

The boy looked over at Dick, and it was apparent that at last his temper was aroused. He began awkwardly to pull off his jacket. "Then I'm going to fight him," he said, slowly.

Dick, who had been leaning against a barpost, humming a tune and trying to look unconcerned, sprang at once into an erect position and began to strip himself of his jacket also,

" If you want to fight," he exclaimed, " come on ? I'm your man I " Oh, boys," cried Tip, her anger changing suddenly to alarm, " boys, don't fight ! Joe, you musn't. Dick, you'll both get hurt ! " "Well, it's your fault!" shouted Dick. " You put 'im up to it. Now, I'm goin' to fight 'irn anyway." Tip looked hastily back' towards the village, as though seeking for holp ; then, as the two boys advanced towards each other in true prizo- fighter style, she put her hands over her eyes and turned away in dreadful anticipation. In the next moment the first blow would have been given and returned, but in that moment a shout from the direction of the nearest farmhouse broke upon the ears of the combatants and induced them to pause and look around. The shout was followed by the ringing of a loud dinner-bell, and in turn by the discordant noise made by the beating upon tin pans. " Bees ! " exclaimed Dick.

" Bees ! " shouted Joe.

Each boy turned and caught up his jacket and struggled into it as he ran. Tip drew her hands down from her eyes and noted with glee the cessation of hostilities. Suddenly she was aware of a rasping, humming, noise overhead, and looking up she saw a brown cloud between her and the clear June sky. It was a swarm of honey bees that had left the home hive and wore on their way to the tree in the woods, already selected by their leaders for a future residence. Now, it was an unwritten law in the neighbourhood that whoever found a bee tree owned it and its contents by right of original discovery. Therefore, among the boyß of the community, no more interesting occupation was known than that of hunting bee trees, and no more exciting sport than that of chasing these flying colonies to their new homes in the forest.

The swarm passed over with almost incredible rapidity, and the boys stood still for a moment to watch it and note the direction it wao taking. Then, without further words, they started to follow it. But before Joe was half way across the field, Diok had reached the edge of the woods.

(To be concluded next week)