“No matter,” said Rollo; “it is just as good, and there is a little hole for the bees to go out and in at.”
There is always a little hole in the bottom of a flower-pot.
“So there is,” said Henry; “but do you think that the bees will make honey in an earthen pot?”
“O, yes,” said Rollo, “just as well as in any thing. The bees don’t care what they make the honey in. Sometimes they make it in old logs.”
“Well,” said Henry, “and we’ll call it a honey-pot. And where shall we put it?”
“We can keep it on this seat: it is as good a place as any; the bees will be right in the garden as soon as they come out of their hive.”
So saying, Rollo asked Henry to hold his bee a minute, while he got the honey-pot ready. Henry took the flower very carefully, so as not to let the bee escape, and then Rollo lifted up the flower-pot, and looked inside. It was pretty clean; but as Rollo knew that bees were very nice in their habits, he thought he would just take it to the pump, and wash it out a little.
In a few minutes, he brought it back, and replaced it, bottom upwards, upon the seat, and then prepared to put the bee in. He took the flower again from Henry’s hand, and then very carefully inserted the edges of it, which had been gathered together with his fingers, into the hole. He then began to knock and push the bottom of the flower, to make the bee go in. The bee, not knowing what to make of this treatment, kept up a great buzzing, but soon went in.
“There,” said Rollo. “Now, Henry, you be ready to clap your thumb over the hole, as soon as I take the flower away, or else he’ll come out.”