"If you talk that way I'll have to swear off on honey!" exclaimed Browning, with a wry face.
"Hold on! Jest hold on!" the farmer was begging.
Veazie started to run, and the farmer reached out a hand for the purpose of detaining him.
"They ain't stingin' you!" he insisted. "Jest keep your hands down and keep still an' they won't do a thing to you!"
"Oh, they won't do a thing to him!" howled Danny.
Veazie dropped flat to the ground.
"Jest hold on!" begged the farmer. "Jest hold on! They're lightin' round the queen!"
Then he dipped his big hand into the pail and began to ladle out the water and drench the bees with it, while the old woman flailed with the roll of cloth to keep them away from her, and the farmer's boy, dancing up and down in his excitement, jangled the bell like an alarm clock.
"Jest hold on!" the farmer urged, as Veazie showed signs of rolling over. "I'll git my fingers on that there queen in a minute, and then I'll have 'em. I wouldn't lost this swarm fer five dollars. Jest hold on a minute!"
"Veazie's queen!" some one sang out from the heart of the surging, talking, sensation-loving throng. "I always knew you were attractive, Veazie, but I didn't know females rushed at you in that warm way. Yes, jest hold on a little, Veazie. We don't have a circus like this every day, and we want to get the worth of our money."