That first bee is
filled, and begins to think of home. He'll soon be off for HONEY
Centre, and I must keep my eye on him. Now, stand a little aside,
friends, and give me room for my craft."
The men complied, and le Bourdon was now all intense attention to
his business. The bee first taken had, indeed, filled itself to
satiety, and at first seemed to be too heavy to rise on the wing.
After a few moments of preparation, however, up it went, circling
around the spot, as if uncertain what course to take. The eye of Ben
never left it, and when the insect darted off, as it soon did, in an
air-line, he saw it for fifty yards after the others had lost sight
of it. Ben took the range, and was silent fully a minute while he
did so.
"That bee may have lighted in the corner of yonder swamp," he said,
pointing, as he spoke, to a bit of low land that sustained a growth
of much larger trees than those which grew in the "opening," "or it
has crossed the point of the wood, and struck across the prairie
beyond, and made for a bit of thick forest that is to be found about
three miles further. In the last case, I shall have my trouble for
nothing."
"What t'other do?" demanded Elksfoot, with very obvious curiosity.
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