Nor were they much the wiser after
le Bourdon had taken his "angle"; it requiring a sort of induction
to which they were not accustomed, in order to put the several parts
of his proceedings together, and to draw the inference. As for
Gershom, he affected to be familiar with all that was going on,
though he was just as ignorant as the Indians themselves. This
little bit of hypocrisy was the homage he paid to his white blood:
it being very unseemly, according to his view of the matter, for a
pale-face not to know more than a redskin.
The bees were some little time in filling themselves. At length one
of them came out of his cell, and was evidently getting ready for
his flight. Ben beckoned to the spectators to stand farther back, in
order to give him a fair chance, and, just as he had done so, the
bee rose. After humming around the stump for an instant, away the
insect flew, taking a course almost at right angles to that in which
le Bourdon had expected to see it fly. It required half a minute for
him to recollect that this little creature had gone off in a line
nearly parallel to that which had been taken by the second of the
bees, which he had seen quit his original position.
Pages:
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50