The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1879-07-26
UNCLE srLAs HrvrNe BEES.

4
that of his eldest son is George; his Wife
name is Matilda, and his three pretty daugh
ters are named Helen, Alice and Susie
there is little Silas, too, and another boy
whose name is tooqueer to mention.
The bees had aiighted in great bunch, "a
large as half-bushel measure, on the liml
of peach tree in the yard. A table i
placed under the over-hanging limb, spread
with clean white cloth, and the hive placed
/ thereon.
| Then one Of the boys, one that is good fo
nothing else, is sent into the tree to sever th'
limb; the limb comes down slowly and easi
ly, and the old gent below, dressed in grea
coat, buckskin gloves, cowhide boots, and {
| bed quilt tied around his neck and face, sly.
ly manipulates twig from the tree, and il
two minutes time has safely coaxed every
bee into the hive, during all of which time
Matilda and Helen and Alice and Susie
pound the bottom out of just four tin pans
little Silas does his prettiest while yelling,
the boy with the queer name is just old
enough to slip behind the house and wait
for the thing to come to point THAT is the
way the thing should have come off; but
that isn't the way it did. Silas, the elder,
was very comfortably bundled up for so
warm day, and had his suit we'll arranged,
only he forgot TO tie the strings at the bottom
of his pants.
The bees had settled on the limb of a
peach tree, and Silas, when his table and
white cloth and hive were all ready, COM
manded
"Now George, grab that old rusty saw and
climb; guess you can cut that small branch
easy enough"
George was just homo from a six months
term of school, and he felt great tenderness
for his father and would have gone through
a patch of thistles to please the old gent, and
yet he had particular dread for the tebusi-
ness end'' of a bee, and particularly such a
crowd of them. But he obeyed, and began
to saw away cautiously upon the particular
limb. One little bunch Of bees dropped of
and were Gagged; another and another small
good, when suddenly an old honey maker
appeard, who had been in the business, and
SCARED upward. George shut up one eye
quick, gave one terrific surge on the old rus
ty saw, got out of that tree at one jump,
and his anxious mother caught a glimpse of
him as he few around the corner of the barn
twenty rods away.
But poor old Silasi The bees came down
and he thought the bunch was as big as a
hay-staek. They did not go into the hive,
but they went through his oYercoat and quilt
as if these had been only mosquito bars, and
they climed up the legs of his pants, and the
gent danced as he never danced before; and
he slapped his legs as he never allowed any
one else to slap them, and his voice lowered
high above the clatter of the tin pans and
the shrieks of little Silas, as he yelled;
"Throw water on me! throw water on me!
soak me, wet me down."
He rolled over in the grass three or four
lines, and sprang up shouting, 'islap me!
slap me! can't you slap me? In the midst
of which little Silas crept up behind his in
furiated papa and dealt him lively one with
the shingle; but poor little Silas landed the
next moment against the mlk-house, for his
pa took him and his siiingle for thousand
bees, and gently brushed them off.
oh, the agony Of that three minute jig
He appealed to his wife
:" Matilda, for mercy sake bring me ano-
ther pair Of pants, wont you?"
But these things don't last always nor any
other happiness, and after few minntes the
old gent came iimping out of the cellar with
the pants on that Matilda brought him, feel
ing much easier, but certainly much fatigued
just as George got back from the barn and
the boy with the queer name slipped around
the corner of the house. Both boys were
anxious to know how matters stood, and
asked:
''Did you get 'em hived, pa ?"
But the old man was too mad to answer,
or even look at his boys. He turned to little
Silas and said:
"Little one you meant all right, and Pm
sorry I cufed you SO; next time don't slap so
hard.n
Then to his wife, matilda to you 1 owe
everything. Accept my heartfelt gratitude.
Well take no more stock in bees. I have
made up my mind and it is settled. May
our quiet, peaceful farm home never be SO
stirred up again. Seems to me ] never had
SO much of life crowded into few short
minutes before. Run after the cows now,
boys; be of, for it's almost dark.'
OBSERVER.