CHAPTER IV.
The sad butterfly,
Waving his lackered wings, darts quickly on,
And, by his free flight, counsels us to speed
For better lodgings, and a scene more sweet,
Than these dear borders offer us to-night.
SIMMS.
It was noon before Ben and Gershom dared to commence the process of
cutting and splitting the tree, in order to obtain the honey. Until
then, the bees lingered around their fallen hive, and it would have
been dangerous to venture beyond the smoke and heat, in order to
accomplish the task. It is true, le Bourdon possessed several
secrets, of more or less virtue, to drive off the bees when disposed
to assault him, but no one that was as certain as a good fire,
backed by a dense column of vapor. Various plants are thought to be
so offensive to the insects, that they avoid even their odor; and
the bee-hunter had faith in one or two of them; but none of the
right sort happened now to be near, and he was obliged to trust,
first to a powerful heat, and next to the vapor of damp wood.
As there were axes, and wedges, and a beetle in the canoe, and
Gershom was as expert with these implements as a master of fencing
is with his foil, to say nothing of the skill of le Bourdon, the
tree was soon laid open, and its ample stores of sweets exposed.
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