an retraced his steps, and went to his hut.
Never before had he heard anything which had so troubled him.

"I wonder what I was transformed from?" he thought, seating himself on
his rough bench. "Could it have been a giant, or a powerful prince, or
some gorgeous being whom the magicians or the fairies wished to punish?
It may be that I was a dog or a horse, or perhaps a fiery dragon or a
horrid snake. I hope it was not one of these. But whatever it was,
everyone has certainly a right to his original form, and I am resolved
to find out mine. I will start early to-morrow morning; and I am sorry
now that I have not more pockets to my old doublet, so that I might
carry more bees and more honey for my journey."

He spent the rest of the day in making a hive of twigs and straw; and,
having transferred to this a number of honeycombs and a colony of bees
which had just swarmed, he rose before sunrise the next day, and having
put on his leathern doublet and having bound his new hive to his back,
he set forth on his quest, the bees who were to accompany him buzzing
around him like a cloud.

As the Bee-man pressed through the little village the people greatly
wondered at his queer appearance, with the hive upon his back. "The
Bee-man is going on a long journey this time," they said; but no one
imagined the strange business on which he was bent.

About noon he sat down under a tree, near a beautiful meadow covered
with blossoms, and ate a little honey. Then he untied his hive and
stretched himself out on the grass to rest. As he gazed upon his bees
hovering about him, some going out to the blossoms in the sunshine, and
some returning laden with the sweet pollen, he said to himself: "They
know just what they have to do, and they do it; but alas for me! I know
not what I may have to do. And yet, whatever it may be, I am determined
to do it. In some way or other I will find out what was my original
form, and then I will have myself changed back to it."

And now the thought came to him that perhaps his original form might
have been something very disagreeable, or even horrid.

"But it does not matter," he said sturdily. "Whatever I was that shall I
be again. It is not right for anyone to keep a form which does not
properly belong to him. I have no doubt I shall discover my original
form in the same way that I find the trees in which the wild bees hive.
When I first catch sight of a bee tree I am drawn toward it, I know not
how. S