Year: 1879

kitchen door one fine morning, and dis
covered that one of his beehives was
gone.


He kept q dozen swarms, or more,
nicely housed in a long row of hanging
hives at the back Of his garden. Last
night they we're all there. BE stood a
moment, gazing at the vacant place in
the row with surprise and indignation.
Then he called his son:


"Martin, somebody has been stealing
our bees!"


The family were soon out upon the
veranda. all staring at the plundered
apiary, and denouncing the unknown
robber. Who could he be?


Browsing forloraly about the place
where their little house had been, were
several stragglers from the missing
swarm, and Farmer Metcalf knew very
we'll what would calm the bewildered
insects and make their Intelligence serve
him to good purpose.
A new hive was promptly hung in the
place of the old one. and some sheets of
comb put into it. The bees very soon
took possession, and after waiting twenty
or thirty minutes, the farmer and his son
saw ''committee" of their number come
out and fly to neighboring cornfeld.
Of course they had expected some
thing like this. Once make robbed
and wandering bee feel at home again,
and it RECEIVERS its wits, and lets you
know at once where its companions In
misfortune are.


Farmer Metcalf and Martin followed
their little guides to the cornfeld, and
quickly found the evidences of last
nights work. The hive lay there broken
to pieces, and crawling over the scattered
fragments, and struggling on the ground,
and climbing the standing cornstalks,
were multitudes of soiled and honey
smeared bees.


Some were rubbing their legs and
wings to clean themselves, and now and
then one would rise in the air to fly back
| to the house. There were other bees
with legs gone, bees with wings gone,
and bees half buried, paving themselves
out of the earth, and bees that lay quite
still-bees everywhere, and in all con-
ditions, living and dead.


| Traces of broad shoes were seen, and
signs of hard scuffle in the soft soil and
|
tainly had not got his plunder without
paying something for it. It looked as if
the little captives had made gallant
fight, and taken part Of their revenge It
remained now for their master to COM
plete it when he found out the rest of
their story.


! The remaining testimony was soon
forthcoming. Poking about in the mel
low dirt with his foot, the farmers son


brought to light the paper in which the
thief had carried his sulphur to smoke
the bees and stupefy them, so that he
could take their honey. It was the back
of an old letter, with the name on it still
clear and plain-"Heman Treat"


A little further search revealed a


handkerchief, probably the one the un-


lucky honey-stealer had tried to tie over


his face, and it bore the same tell. tale


name! Such flat exposure of himself


was no doubt a consequence of his rather


excited state Of mind after the evident


blunder in managing the bees.


Heman Treat was one of Farmer Met


calf's neighbors, and the discovery Of


these traces of guilt against him was a


very disagreeable surprise. To go direct.


ly and accuse him would be still more


disagreeable. It was Sunday, too, and


that fact made delay more justifable.


The farmer and his son walked back


to the house, carefully concealed the


paper and the handkerchief, and agreed
to keep still about the matter till the
next morning.


In the course ofthe day Martin walked


past Heman Treats house, and noticed


bees flying in and out at one of the attic


windows.


r Other confirming evidence was dis
, covered that helped to fasten the crime


on the man who lived there; and wheH


Monday morning came, they called {
, constable and made neighbor Treat {
visit.


} He was in bed sick, his wife told them
, and could not see any one. But they re-
, piled that their business with him wa
urgent, and must not be put off, and she
was obliged to let them in.
They found the man sick enough, to b.


sure. His hands were swollen to twice
I their natural size, and his head and fac
7 were sight to behold -infamed lik
:. one great blister, and bloated so that h
!, could hardly see out of his eyes.
b "Got badly poisoned working in tn
,, swamp last Saturday." was the way h
i and his wife accounted for it. Twa
e likely he had handled poison elder c
y ivy; they always affected him so.
e The visitors showed deep interest il
Il the sufferers case, and one of them, re
it marking on the peculiar appearance {
d his face, applied his thumb and finger
y nail to pimple and pulled out BET
e sting!


IS ''That's the kind of poison you've bee
n handling" said Farmer Metcalf, san
e you'll make nothing by trying to lie OF
n of it,


: Upon that he produced the paper an
e the handkerchief, and the theft of th
b beehive was charged home to Hems
=. Treat then and there, without the troubl
st of many words.


e The culprit saw he was caught. an
If confessed his crime. He begged the of
II Ger not to put him under arrest, ar
d promised to settle at any price the own
n of the bees should demand.
r Farmer Metcalf did not wish to pros


cute his neighbor, and he readily allowe
IN | hin, fo oofflo ho oH,;r nv IL