Los Angeles herald., 1908-09-27
c9oyUs6< e9 sZ~~~s Asersa1

them Win savage warning Duzz
Mark was ready for him, however, and,
with swoop of one OF his bats, laid him
dead on the ground
! Then another of the guards" flew up, and
was as quickly and neatly disposed of by
Percy.
| Then a member of the family, who had
been out gathering honey, came up back of
I'd, and, before he could get into a position
| TO defend himself-he not expecting to be at
tackled from this quarter-lit on the back of
MS neck and gave him two hypodermic iniec-
tions IN that portion of his anatomy, which
caused HIM to dance a lively jig, and accom-
for help
But Mark and Percy had got their hands
too full by this time to offer assistance to
anybody, Eds yelling and his frantic motions
them.
Swish-swash; biff-bang! Whit flop! slash
smash went the bats, and at every blow one
or R,,f more tbor OF the bumblebees was laid out
bats to attend to them and before the lighting
had been going on half minute, Mark felt
the six sticky feet of monster bumble-bee on
the side OF his nose and moment later the
the flesh
"OuchIl .crickety-ginger!" he yelled, dropping
both OF his bats and grabbing his nose. GLOW
that at. does s hurt My goodnessl"
But ne quickly picked up his bats again and
kept bravely in the fight, whackpg to right
and left even more vigorously than before as
the angry bees flew about his head.
And soon Percy uttered a frightful veil
and placed hand on his forehead. indicating
that as the place where one of the bees had
| got in its work
1T isn't very funny, is it, PerceY said
MARI MARI as Percy performed sort of war-dance
/ "Christmasl l should say not. That fellow
Whewl"
But Percy did not give up, either, and as
he picked up his bats and went at it again.
Then Ed got another "jab," this time right
on the end of his fat nose, and he announced
the fact in the usual way. Still, he did not
give up, although he began to be little more
cautious in his movements.
Then one of the bees got up Marks sleeve,
and stung him twice before he could shake il
out; and he hit Ed terrible rap on the head
with one of his bats in blindly siapping at the
bees that flew about his head while trying to
get the one out of his sleeve; this nearly end
ing in scrap" between Ed and Mark
Then Percy gave another yell, and made
frantic efforts to brush big bee off the side
of his nose before it should dose" him with
its terrible poison. But he was not successful,
of course, and he made the bee so angry that
! it few right from him to Mark, and stung
| Mark right in the middle of the chin.
Jimmy ny-crickets" howled Mark, dancing
about. "How many more times am I going
to" (whack!) get stung, I'd" (smashi) like
/ to know?" (eracki bangD. This is the third
look out for that fellow, Ed!-time I've got
stung nowi"
| And he batted vigorously to right and left
as the bees still continued to charge at him.
| There were so many of the bees that it
seemed as though the winged army would
numbers began to decrease, slowly at first but
soon very perceptibly, and, fifteen minutes
from the time the attack was made on the
nest, the boys had the satisfaction of seeing
al |Io-l - - H. -.
ground-placed hors du combat.
| Then Mark, all eagerness to get at the
honey, got down on his knees and using one of
his bats as shovel, began digging away the
Will, as he did SO, to "come and get some of
the honey"
But he had no more than dug up three
shovelfuls of earth before another become
that had been left on guard, in the nest for
ths s' hole sS's and sfuns Mark above the left eye
''Ehl / thought you were getting little
previous" said Ed, as Mark jumped up and
began hopping about with his hand over his
eye "You ought to have waited until you
were sure they were lDout before you began
digging for the Great Scott listen to that!
There's whole nestful Of them in there yeti
Get your bats ready, Perce!
And Ed put himself on the defensive inn
Emediately in front of the hole leading to the
nest, sound of buzzing down in the ground
leading him to suppose that there still re-
mained more bees within the nest that would
have to be disposed of before the honey
could be taken out
It proved to be only one bee, however, and,
this being dispatched without any difficulty,
the digging was resAmed, but very cautiously
No more bees were encountered, and soon
the nest was unearthed. It proved to be
quite as large as Mark had anticipated, and
when the honey had all been scooped out and
nut into their hats, the three retired to the
side Of the field, where Will and Herb were
waiting for them, to refresh themselves with
The spoils of the conflict, and to dress their
wounds with mud.
The places that had been stung began to
swell now and the boys were soon very sorry
looking specimens Of humanity. Eds nose
uraa tniee ifs usual size andahe had a stiff