ees on the ground than there were in the air,
and we thought they would quit then and go to work, but they kept right
on until they were more than shoe-top deep on the ground and just about
ordinarily thick in the air, and still fighting.

"I don't know how long it was that Cousin Redfield and I stood there
watching those bees kill one another, but I know by sunset there were
not more than a dozen or two left, and they were roosting about on the
limbs and leaves, worn out or crippled, and not able to fight any more.

[Illustration: ALL DAY LONG CARRIED HONEY OUT OF THE BEE-TREE]

"Then Cousin Redfield said he thought it was time for us to interfere
and see what could be done, so we each broke off a little birch brush
and swept a path through that black bee moss, and looked into the hole
at the bottom of the tree, but couldn't hear anything. So we climbed up
a little ways and pretty soon came to honey--bushels of it. There were
no bees there except a few fat, lazy ones that couldn't sting, and were
probably kings or queens or something, and we didn't mind them. We ate
all the honey we could, and went home, and next morning got baskets and
all day long carried honey out of the bee-tree and had enough to last
our families for a whole year, the best honey I ever saw in the Big Deep
Woods, and the _most_ I ever expect to see.

[Illustration: VIOLET AND THAT BIG CREATURE HAD STARTED HOUSEKEEPING]

"We didn't get it quite all, though, for the second morning when we came
back we found the tree occupied. Violet and that big, rough creature
from the Jagged Bluffs had found it, and started housekeeping there,
with enough honey to last them at least a month. I heard later they
called it their honeymoon, and I believe people sometimes call the
first few weeks of being married by that name still.

"Cousin Redfield said he would help me drive them out, if I said so; but
I said no, that place had seen war enough, and with all the honey we had
at home I could get along without the present contents of the tree, so
we went away. I said that something would probably happen to those two
for the way they had done, and I was right. For about six weeks later
the honey smell of that tree brought another big, new, strong swarm of
bees to settle there, and they turned Violet and her thick-necked
partner out, in about two minutes, and took full possession. Cousin
Redfield Bear and I used to walk over that way every day, to observe
things, and