Oak Openings | Page 6

was applied to him in this form quite as often as in the
other--next turned his attention to the velvet-like covering of the grassy
glade. Fire had run over the whole region late that spring, and the grass
was now as fresh, and sweet and short, as if the place were pastured.
The white clover, in particular, abounded, and was then just bursting
forth into the blossom. Various other flowers had also appeared, and
around them were buzzing thousands of bees. These industrious little
animals were hard at work, loading themselves with sweets; little
foreseeing the robbery contemplated by the craft of man. As le
Bourdon moved stealthily among the flowers and their humming
visitors, the eyes of the two red men followed his smallest movement,
as the cat watches the mouse; but Gershom was less attentive, thinking
the whole curious enough, but preferring whiskey to all the honey on
earth.
At length le Bourdon found a bee to his mind, and watching the
moment when the animal was sipping sweets from a head of white
clover, he cautiously placed his blurred and green-looking tumbler over
it, and made it his prisoner. The moment the bee found itself encircled
with the glass, it took wing and attempted to rise. This carried it to the
upper part of its prison, when Ben carefully introduced the unoccupied
hand beneath the glass, and returned to the stump. Here he set the
tumbler down on the platter in a way to bring the piece of honeycomb
within its circle.

So much done successfully, and with very little trouble, Buzzing Ben
examined his captive for a moment, to make sure that all was right.
Then he took off his cap and placed it over tumbler, platter, honeycomb,
and bee. He now waited half a minute, when cautiously raising the cap
again, it was seen that the bee, the moment a darkness like that of its
hive came over it, had lighted on the comb, and commenced filling
itself with the honey. When Ben took away the cap altogether, the head
and half of the body of the bee was in one of the cells, its whole
attention being bestowed on this unlooked-for hoard of treasure. As this
was just what its captor wished, he considered that part of his work
accomplished. It now became apparent why a glass was used to take the
bee, instead of a vessel of wood or of bark. Transparency was
necessary in order to watch the movements of the captive, as darkness
was necessary in order to induce it to cease its efforts to escape, and to
settle on the comb.
As the bee was now intently occupied in filling itself, Buzzing Ben, or
le Bourdon, did not hesitate about removing the glass. He even
ventured to look around him, and to make another captive, which he
placed over the comb, and managed as he had done with the first. In a
minute, the second bee was also buried in a cell, and the glass was
again removed. Le Bourdon now signed for his companions to draw
near.
"There they are, hard at work with the honey," he said, speaking in
English, and pointing at the bees. "Little do they think, as they
undermine that comb, how near they are to the undermining of their
own hive! But so it is with us all! When we think we are in the highest
prosperity we may be nearest to a fall, and when we are poorest and
hum-blest, we may be about to be exalted. I often think of these things,
out here in the wilderness, when I'm alone, and my thoughts are
acTYVE."
Ben used a very pure English, when his condition in life is remembered;
but now and then, he encountered a word which pretty plainly proved
he was not exactly a scholar. A false emphasis has sometimes an
influence on a man's fortune, when one lives in the world; but it

mattered little to one like Buzzing Ben, who seldom saw more than half
a dozen human faces in the course of a whole summer's hunting. We
remember an Englishman, however, who would never concede talents
to Burr, because the latter said, a L'AmEricaine, EurOpean, instead of
EuropEan.
"How hive in danger?" demanded Elksfoot, who was very much of a
matter-of-fact person. "No see him, no hear him--else get some honey."
"Honey you can have for asking, for I've plenty of it already in my
cabin, though it's somewhat 'arly in the season to begin to break in
upon the store. In general, the bee-hunters keep back till August, for
they think it better to commence work when the creatures"--this word
Ben pronounced as accurately as if brought up at St. James's, making it
neither "creatur'" nor "creatOOre"--"to commence work