ed. I had some
thought of proposing to Westbury a partnership in general paper-hanging
and farming, with possibly an annex of antiques.

III

_There is nothing I wouldn't do for a bee--a reasonable bee_

Matters did not go so well in the living-room. It was not because the
old walls were more irregular there than elsewhere--I could negotiate
that--it was those pesky bees. Reshingling the sides of the house had
closed their outlets, and they had now found a crevice somewhere around
the big chimney and were pouring in and out, whizzing and buzzing around
the room by the hundred, clinging to the windows in droves, a maddening
distraction on a hot afternoon to a man with his head tipped back, in
the act of laying a long, flimsy strip of wall-paper on a wavy, billowy
old ceiling. They were no longer vicious and dangerous--they were only
disorganized and panic-stricken. A hundred times a day I swept
quantities of them from the windows and released them to the open air.
It was no use to shut the doors, for there still were pecks of them
between the floor and ceiling, and these came pouring out steadily,
while those that I had dismissed hurried back again as soon as they
could get their breath. I began to think we had met disaster in this
unexpected quarter--that those persistent little colonists were going to
dispossess us altogether.

Old Nat and I had tried smoking them with sulphur, which had quieted
them temporarily while the men were shingling, but it had in no way
discouraged them. In fact, I think there is nothing that will discourage
a bee but sudden death, and that seems a pity, for in his proper sphere
he is one of our most useful citizens.

He is so wise, so wonderfully skilled and patient. I have read
Maeterlinck's life of him, and there is nothing I would t do for a
bee--a reasonable bee--one that would appreciate a little sound advice.
That's just the trouble--a bee isn't built that way. He is so smart and
capable, and such a wonder in most things, that he won't discuss any
matter quietly and see where he is wrong and go his way in peace. Those
bees thought that, just because they had found a hole in the outside of
an old house, it was their house, and if anybody had to move it wouldn't
be they. I explained the situation over and over and begged them to go
away while the weather was still warm and the going good, but they just
whizzed and raged around the rooms and sickened me with their noise and
obstina