“It wouldn’t be very pleasant,” his mother answered. “Though I guess, with the veils, the men won’t get stung. But watch now, children, and see them hive the runaway bees.”
“Jason, are you all ready down there?” called Mr. Watson to his bee-man, when the farmer himself was up in the tree.
“All ready,” was the answer. “Shake ’em down!”
CHAPTER XX
THE PIRATE’S CAVE
While the Bobbsey twins and Sam, standing near Mrs. Bobbsey, watched, the peach-grower suddenly jarred the branch on which had gathered the runaway bees, clustered about their queen like faithful subjects. Down dropped the buzzing brown mass of honey-gatherers into the open hive box.
“You got most of ’em!” shouted Jason Stern, as, with a quick motion, he clapped the cover on the hive and started drawing the cart away.
“Won’t the bees get out the little front door?” asked Flossie, for she had noticed that the hive box had a slit at the bottom.
“I stopped that up before I put the hive on the cart,” said Mr. Stern. “The bees are safely caged now—that is all but a few that got away.”
The children could see a few of the insects, which had not fallen into the hive, flying around the tree and around the white box that now contained the queen and thousands of workers. Perhaps these stray bees were wondering where their monarch had disappeared to.