Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1879-12-16
The Bundle Bee.

Children, did YOU ever stop to con-
slider the immense power possessed by q
bumble-bee? An insect weighing no
more than the eighth of an ounce Is
capable OF raising" man weighing
220 pounds from a bench in the public
park, aud then having lots OF lifting ma
terial left. Just stop and think OF 1t!
The singer of the bee is not near as
LARGE as the finest needle, but such is
the force behind it that it can be driven
through heavy pants cloth and into the
flesh about sixteen feet. Ii a man could
WELD a crowbar in comparison he could
drive it through seven saw mills at one
blow. Nature could not give the bee
teeth and claws without spelling his
beauty, and to compensate he gave him
this singer as a weapon oil attack ana
defence. II the bee had no weapon,
ants, beetles and bugs would cuff him
around as they pleased, but as it is he
is the boss of the walk, and won't take
a word from any of them.
The bumble-bee is not naturally OF a
ouarrelsome disposition, but he can't be
sat down on over hall an hour without
feeling as if some one was doing great
wrong. If left to himself he will crawl
M your coat sleeve, look around, and
crawl out and go about his business, bat
if welcomed with Il blow between the
ewes he is going to be revenged il he
breaks leg. He invariably closes his
ewes when he stings, and you have
only to lock a bee square in the lace to
discover when he is fooling around and
when he means fourteen per cent. per
annum.
The hav field is iavorite resort Of the
humble bee; YOU can find him almost
anywhere else if you try hard. Having
no pair of long hind legs, he cannot
build his nest in a marsh, like the frog,
and having no beak in which to carry
straws he cannot nest i'm tree like Il
bird. He therefore takes to the graces,
and under the roots of an old stump, or
amidst pile OF old rails, he rears his
gentle Young and gives them printed III
structions as to the difference between
singing six-inch StOvepipe andrunaway
bows. The knowledge OF The old bees Is
wonderful. They know where the
school house is They know when the
school is out. They can sail miles away
from home, get in their work on a farm
ers son wedding out corn, and return
home without missing fence corner or
i'm need of an afternoon nap. As a rule
they are early risers. BarefOOted boys
driving up the COWS at daylight will find
the bumble-bee out of bed and quite
ready to begin the arduOus labOrs OF the
dav. Along about shutdown he quits
GOD, 30 tho family
are all in and then slows himself away
for night OF calm and peaceful repose.
The legs OF Il humble bee are very
crooked. This seems too bad at first,
hut YOU will soon discover that nature
was level-headed' His legs were thus
shaped 10 enable him to hang to the
brim of a BOYS straw hat. Were his
legs strait he could not walk fence rail
i'm high wind, nor could he turn ar
ound after reaching the top of mullen
stock. The stripes on bee look like 4
waste of material, but such is not the
case. They furnish an extra covering
over his ribs TO keep the air of, and
they serve to stifIen his spinal column
in his flights through the air.
4 humble bee can fly ut the rate oil
twenty miles an hour, ifhe wants to, but
there is no cause for him to tlv any fast
er than boy can run. He sometimes
lives to be three years old, and is some
times stricken down before he travels at
all. His life his precarious one. He
NAV run a deacon ont OF hay field to-
dav and be the big bee OF the nest, and
tomorrow a country school ma am may
knock his head off with her umbrella.
Nothing in natural history weighs more
for his size than the bee, and nothing in
science works easier without cog-wheels
or rollers than his singer. 1t is always
ready, never out OF repair, and satisiac-
ton Ito the beel is guaranteed in every