: Wilderness Honey by Pollock Frank Lillie Edwards H C Harry C Illustrator - Orphans Fiction; Canada Fiction; Siblings Fiction; Ontario Fiction; Teenagers Fiction; Bee culture Fiction

@FreeBooksThu 08 Jun, 2023

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and before the apiarists saw it, it was besieged by a cloud of bees. They carried it by assault, too, after half an hour's fighting, killed the defenders, tore down most of the combs, and carried every drop of the honey away to their own hive.

Then they turned their attention to the hive standing next in the row, but this was a powerful colony, and the raiders got more than they bargained for. In a moment the entrance was covered with knots of furiously-fighting bees. Every robber was pounced upon the moment it alighted. The attack was beaten off, and for a time quiet reigned in the yard.

Day by day the raspberry bloom vanished, and no fresh buds were opening now. The time came at last when it was entirely gone, and all the thickets were covered with fruit. The basswood trees were full of buds--but would they yield nectar?

It was the middle of July. In two weeks they must pay five hundred dollars, with interest, and they did not have the money. Unless they could make it, the bees would be taken from them.

"If the basswood only yields as it should we'll manage it, after all," said Bob, trying to be optimistic.

Alas! the basswood flowered in the midst of a hot wave, when the whole land lay baked and panting. The bloom lasted only a day or two, dried up, and withered. Scarcely a bee had touched the blossoms.

The Harmans felt unspeakably gloomy and discouraged. The failure of their hopes, after so much anticipation, labor, and experience, was hard to bear.

"We may as well look the thing square in the face, Allie," said Carl one morning, when he was alone with his sister in the cabin. "The season's over, and it's a failure. I don't know how we'll save the bees."

"Surely we'll have money enough to pay Mr. Farr. We must save the bees if we starve ourselves, for they mean everything to us. How much money have we left?"

"About two hundred dollars. It has just melted away, with all the expenses of fresh supplies and sugar and then the cost of establishing the new yard, besides our own living."

"Well, surely we can get three hundred dollars' worth of honey, to make up enough for our payment. We can manage to live some way and rub along till another season comes."

"Well, that's what I wanted to talk about," went on Carl, earnestly. "You see, Bob's university work mustn't be interrupted on any account. He'll want to drop it, I know, to save the money, but we mustn't let him. We've got to find the money somehow. Now, I've been thinking that you might go back to Harman's Corners, where you could live in our old house for little or nothing, and I might get some kind of a job in Toronto."

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