to make sure that none of the bees
remained, a great shout went up from the boys who surrounded the
deserted nest.

Children, have you ever seen a wild bees' nest--a real bumble-bees'
home?

They are nearly always built on the ground, and are made of little
pieces of grass piled and woven together into a little mound. At the
very top there is a small hole which is used as the doorway through
which the bees enter. The wall is not very thick, but is put together
tightly so the wind will not blow it away, and it is hollow.

It is in this mound that the bees store their honey for the winter.
During the warm summer days they work hard, carrying tiny drops of honey
which they gather from the flowers and storing it so they will have
something to eat during the cold weather.

When the cold winds come, in the fall and winter, and the flowers are
dead, the little workers stop their labor and gather together in the
home they have been preparing all summer. When the snow comes, the
little grass storehouse is buried snug and warm underneath the white
blanket.

It was just such a nest as this that Coonie watched the boys robbing of
its treasure. Poor little bees! All their hard work had been in vain,
and they had even lost their little lives in the brave effort to protect
their winter's food supply.

But even from his hiding place Coonie could see that the boys had not
won the battle without some losses. Big lumps were beginning to swell up
on their faces and arms, and the little boy who had tripped and fallen
could hardly see because his eyes were nearly swollen shut.

The boys tore away the mound and took out the honey, layer by layer, and
squeezed out the golden syrup. Just as they were licking the last drops
from their sticky fingers, Coonie saw a man walking towards them. When
he was near enough, he began talking to them in an angry way.

"Why, Mr. Jones," Coonie heard one boy say, "you don't use bumble-bees'
honey, do you?"

"No, boys, I don't use the honey myself, but I don't want you to kill
the bees or rob their nests so they will have to starve. Bees do a great
deal of good on the farm."

"What good are bumble-bees?" one of the boys asked.

"Why, they do a lot of good. They distribute the pollen from the heads
of the clover, and that makes the seed mature and develop."

This was news to Coonie, for he never knew before that bumble-bees were
of any use, but then he had never had much to do with them. One day w