Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1885-10-19
THE HORNETS CAME OUT.
The hornet is an interesting stud


The hornet is an interesting study
after he is dead. I. for one, want
no intercourse with the swift-soaring
warbler, commonly called the hornet,
until / am convinced that he is thor
oughly deceased.
| can recall the time when fan,i-
ly of hornets forced themselves into
my society without waiting for an in
PRODUCTION. and don't want it to oc-
cur again. The details of the affair
are quite indelibly fixed in my men,
ory's archives. | shall never forget
how 1t feels to be pierced to the heart
by the red-hot dagger of the bald
headed hornet until memory's page
is obliterated, and the congregation
has passed around my defunct re-
mains, and rendered an honest deci-
sion as to how / look when in CON-
plete repose.
l was but a sad-eyed, thoughtful
boy, with faxen hair and tired
cast of countenance, and | ordinarily |
moved about with considerable delib- |
Grafton, because deliberation seemed |
to agree with me. When | was sent |
to fetch anything ! sort of meander-
ed, and if | met anything by the way
that was alive, / would stop and
throw a stone at it. That is the man.
ner in which my young genius bud
ded, and drove the person who would |
send me on errands to evaporation
and profanity.
One beautiful summers day when
the reapers were in the field and the
golden grain was falling before the
flashing scythes, and the cat-bird was
warbling merrily in the hedges, and
| resting, oh, so restfully, under the
tree that bore the early harvest ap-
piles, summons came from the CON-
mander-in-c -chief of the department
that a friendless boy bearing my
name should go down through the Or
ohard to bubbling spring at the
foot of the hill, and fetch the har-
vesteIs bucket of water. | had
not meandered far when | saw beau
tiful hornets nest upon low limb
which hung almost over my path. 1t
challenged my admiration, for it was
as big as a peach-basket and as SYM
metrical as an old-fashioned jug.
/ wasn't in much of a hurry, so /
set my bucket down and put my
hands in my pockets and made a
careful and critical observation. At
the time there was Il strong love for
natural history in my ardent nature,
and when l saw something that [
didn't understand, / was prone to in
vestigate. Now that / am older
am not much that way,
noticed that there was an old
hornet sitting in the main door and
he wasn't asleep. He had black
eyes and yellow mustache, and he
looked mad. He was muc-a-muc pro
tem., OF something of that sort, !
suppose.
had never seen a hornet with
such an impudent countenance, and
thought [ would just pick up stone
and hit him between the eyes, and
then run before his friends and fell
low-citizens found out the cause of
the trouble. l was an impulslve boy
sometimes. and did not always stop
to reason out thing before [ did it.
Usually caught the conclusion sud-
denly by the slack of the trousers,
and then if found that it wasn't the
conclusion that | wanted l just let
it go.
There was nice, smooth stone
lying at my feet. | picked it up, and
with all the vigor of youth and an
impulsive arm, l threw it straight at
that old bald-headed doorkeeper.
1 do not think that hit him. 1t
is my impression that he saw me
stoop down for the stone and imme-
diately whistled for four millions of
his relations, who were holding fam
lily reunion OF ratification meeting,
or burbar, or something inside the
nest, to come out and help me go
away from there.
All that I distinctly remember
about the occurrence is that some
thing stabbed me in about nine hun
dred places at one and the same
time, and that l left the scene with
considerable impetuosity. 1 longed
for solitude in the midst of which |
could collect my scattered thoughts,
and went 10 search of solitude. But
every hornet in the congregation went
/ with me to the end. had never be-
fore had anything so much attached
to me. The warm desire of these
hornets to remain in my society for
an indefinite period was affecting to
my young and tender mind.
l went through the harvest-feId so
fast that the harvesters got only a
glimpse of my yellow hair as it fash
ed through space like a frolicsome
meteor on its mad career. When they
learned who it was that was going so
rapidly, they could hardly believe
that their eyes were not deceiving
them. They had never seen me in