Inquisitive Jack.
CHAPTER X.
Something worth knowing.
I have already told my readers that our little hero, whom we call Inquisitive Jack, was of a very investigating turn of mind. I do not mean to say that he was curious and inquisitive about improper things. He had not that unpleasant trait of character, which belongs to some people and some children—a constant disposition to be curious and inquisitive about other people’s affairs. If he was a kind of Paul Pry, his curiosity only led him to pry into the works of nature and art, and not to be meddlesome in the affairs of other people.
I believe I have also said that, when Jack became interested in a subject, he did not like to leave it till he knew all about it. He did not, like some little people, proceed from one object to another, amusing himself for a moment, and laying up no permanent stores of knowledge. He was more like the little insect of which we have told so long a story—the bee—which, when it alights upon a blossom, scrapes out all the honey, and then stores it away in cells for future use. So it was with Jack. He studied one subject at a time, made himself master of the knowledge it afforded, packed it away in the cells of his memory, and then was ready to set about something else.
Well, on account of this trait of character, he would not leave the subject of bees until he had extracted from Aunt Betsey all she knew of the subject—all the learning she had got. I have already told you many things which he learned, but there are many others which I have not related. I must now tell you a few of these, and then we will proceed to something else.
Jack had an idea, which is common to children, that all domestic animals were naturally tame; and he was greatly surprised to learn that dogs, cats, cows, hens, pigs, horses, and even bees, were originally wild, and had been brought into their present state by the arts of man. In the course of his conversations with Aunt Betsey, he acquired these new ideas, and he was then very curious to hear about wild bees and bee-hunters. Accordingly, his kind-hearted relative proceeded to satisfy his inquiries upon this subject. The substance of what she told him was as follows:
In nearly all countries there are swarms of wild bees, which have their abode in the forest. Their hive is the hollow trunk of some aged tree. Here they build their cells and store their honey. The native flowers of the forest, of the valley, and the mountain, of the hill-side and the lawn, afford them a supply of their delicious food, not only for the daily meal, during the warm season, but for the stores of winter.
It is a part of the plan of the benevolent Creator, that every portion of the universe shall be filled with life, so that happiness may everywhere abound. Even where man has not yet made his way in the wilderness and the solitary place, there are the flowers, with their honey, and there, amid other insects, is the busy, happy bee, to gather it. How vast must be the field of enjoyment which the omniscient eye surveys, if even the study of insects unfolds such a view as is here suggested.
The habits of the wild bees are nearly the same as those of the domestic ones. They live in large communities, build their cells in hexagons, are subject to the government of a queen, and have their periodical swarms, as we have related.