lump of indigo in your bee house. Other people recommend the application of a drop of sweet oil, laudanum, or eau-de-luce ; you may try each and all of these, till you find the one best suited to your temperament. The strangest cure of all is that recommended by an old bee book, printed in the year 1792, by Robert Sydserf, who says, "If I am stung in the face, I generally swell almost blind. If on the back of the hand, the swelling ascends to the tops of my fingers ; but if I am stung by two bees near the same place, the swelling is not so much ; _and if I am stung by ten or more bees, the swelling is very little, or none at all. I would not of choice be stung by them, if it can be avoided ; but after I have been stung once, I have no objection against being stung twice ; and after I have been stung twice or three times, I do not mind if I am stung fifty or a hundred times._" He then gives several instances in which this strange mode of cure was effectual in his own person, which, if true, would be a curious addition to a list of homoeopathic remedies ; and adds as the result :-- "From these circumstances, I came to the conclusion _never to be stung by one bee alone, unless another is not to be had._" He speaks not a little contemptuously of one of his bee apprentices, because " sooner than take my advice, and make use of my infallible speedy remedy, he will be content to be swollen almost blind, and go blinking like an owl for near a week together." But, after all, prevention is better than eure. Listen to the words of an old writer, who lived two hundred years ago :--" If thou wilt have the favour of thy bees that they sting the not, thou must avoid some things which offend them ; thou must not be unchaste and uncleanly ; for impurity and slutiness (themselves being most chaste and neat) they utterly abhor : thou must not come among them smelling of sweat, or having a stinking breath, caused either through eating of leeks, onions, garlic, and the like, or by any other means, the noisomeness whereof is corrected with a cup of beer : thou must not be given to surfeiting or drunkenness ; thou must not come puffing and blowing unto them, neither hastily stir among them, nor resolutely defend thyself when they seem to threaten thee : but softly moving thy hand before thy face, gently put them by ; and, lastly, thou must be no stranger unto them. In a word, thou must be chaste, cleanly, sweet, sober, quiet, and familiar : so will they love thee, and know thee from all other." Above all, never blow on them ; they will try to siting directly, if you do. If they come all about you, making the noise which you will soon learn to know as a sign of anger, go quietly away, and put your head into a thick shrub, if any is near. This will brush them off. If you want to catch any of the bees, make a bold sweep at them with your hand, as though there was no such thing as a sting in the world ; the bee will be so astonished that she will not sting at first. Then hold her in your closed hand, without pressing her, and she will not sting. I have so caught three or four at a time. If you want to do anything to a single bee, catch her, " as if you loved her," between your finger and thumb, where the tail joins on to the body : she thus cannot sting you.