In the storeroom Alice was waiting to sort and grade the honey. The delicate sections were glued fast in the frames that held them, and had to be pried carefully out. The very finest sections, sealed white and smooth all over, were classed as “Fancy”; those of slightly rougher appearance ranked as “No. 1.” A certain number of the rest might be saleable at a low price; the honey was just as good as the “Fancy,” but their appearance was against them. But the larger part was worth nothing, except for the honey that could be obtained by the extractor.
From the first it became apparent that there was going to be more honey than they had expected, and their hopes began to go nervously upward. When the opening of a hive showed a good super, with all its combs smooth and white, the boys chuckled, and Bob exulted in its weight as he lugged it into the house. Some colonies had as many as three supers like this, but many had only one or two, and some, where the colony had swarmed, only a worthless and unfinished set of combs.
Beside these, there were the extracting supers, containing a good deal of honey, but they did not intend to extract at once. The comb honey came first.
The piles of supers accumulated in the little room faster than Alice could remove the sections. With rising hope, the boys worked feverishly, and shortly after noon they carried in the last super. Then they set to work to assist Alice at the sorting and grading.
Every section had to be looked at and estimated, the propolis and wax scraped from the wood, and then placed carefully in the shipping-cases. The emptied supers were put outdoors; the supers with unfinished sections were set by themselves. All three worked hard that afternoon, and much of the next day, but it was not till nearly supper-time that they emptied the last super, and filled the last shipping case.
There were 3840 sections. Of these, 1200 ranked as “Fancy,” and about 600 as “No. 1.” Nearly 2000 sections were unsaleable.
“These we can eat ourselves,” remarked Alice.
“We ought to get $2.50 a dozen for the best, and $2 for the ‘No. 1’,” Bob estimated. “That comes to—”
“$350,” said Carl, who was a lightning calculator. “Why, that’s not so bad! Then all those unsaleable sections must have at least a thousand pounds of honey in them that we can extract. Besides, there must be three or four hundred dollars’ worth of extracted honey on the hives which we’ll be able to sell later.”
“Hurrah!” shouted Bob. “We’ll pull through, after all.”