I Killed
Him And Immediately Opened His Craw, From Which I Took 171 Bees; I
Laid Them All On A
Blanket in the sun, and to my great surprise 54
returned to life, licked themselves clean, and joyfully went back
To
the hive; where they probably informed their companions of such an
adventure and escape, as I believe had never happened before to
American bees! I draw a great fund of pleasure from the quails which
inhabit my farm; they abundantly repay me, by their various notes
and peculiar tameness, for the inviolable hospitality I constantly
show them in the winter. Instead of perfidiously taking advantage of
their great and affecting distress, when nature offers nothing but a
barren universal bed of snow, when irresistible necessity forces
them to my barn doors, I permit them to feed unmolested; and it is
not the least agreeable spectacle which that dreary season presents,
when I see those beautiful birds, tamed by hunger, intermingling
with all my cattle and sheep, seeking in security for the poor
scanty grain which but for them would be useless and lost. Often in
the angles of the fences where the motion of the wind prevents the
snow from settling, I carry them both chaff and grain; the one to
feed them, the other to prevent their tender feet from freezing fast
to the earth as I have frequently observed them to do.
I do not know an instance in which the singular barbarity of man is
so strongly delineated, as in the catching and murthering those
harmless birds, at that cruel season of the year. Mr. - -, one of the
most famous and extraordinary farmers that has ever done honour to
the province of Connecticut, by his timely and humane assistance in
a hard winter, saved this species from being entirely destroyed.
They perished all over the country, none of their delightful
whistlings were heard the next spring, but upon this gentleman's
farm; and to his humanity we owe the continuation of their music.
When the severities of that season have dispirited all my cattle, no
farmer ever attends them with more pleasure than I do; it is one of
those duties which is sweetened with the most rational satisfaction.
I amuse myself in beholding their different tempers, actions, and
the various effects of their instinct now powerfully impelled by the
force of hunger. I trace their various inclinations, and the
different effects of their passions, which are exactly the same as
among men; the law is to us precisely what I am in my barn yard, a
bridle and check to prevent the strong and greedy from oppressing
the timid and weak. Conscious of superiority, they always strive to
encroach on their neighbours; unsatisfied with their portion, they
eagerly swallow it in order to have an opportunity of taking what is
given to others, except they are prevented. Some I chide, others,
unmindful of my admonitions, receive some blows. Could victuals thus
be given to men without the assistance of any language, I am sure
they would not behave better to one another, nor more
philosophically than my cattle do.
The same spirit prevails in the stable; but there I have to do with
more generous animals, there my well-known voice has immediate
influence, and soon restores peace and tranquillity. Thus by
superior knowledge I govern all my cattle as wise men are obliged to
govern fools and the ignorant. A variety of other thoughts crowd on
my mind at that peculiar instant, but they all vanish by the time I
return home. If in a cold night I swiftly travel in my sledge,
carried along at the rate of twelve miles an hour, many are the
reflections excited by surrounding circumstances. I ask myself what
sort of an agent is that which we call frost? Our minister compares
it to needles, the points of which enter our pores. What is become
of the heat of the summer; in what part of the world is it that the
N. W. keeps these grand magazines of nitre? when I see in the
morning a river over which I can travel, that in the evening before
was liquid, I am astonished indeed! What is become of those millions
of insects which played in our summer fields, and in our evening
meadows; they were so puny and so delicate, the period of their
existence was so short, that one cannot help wondering how they
could learn, in that short space, the sublime art to hide themselves
and their offspring in so perfect a manner as to baffle the rigour
of the season, and preserve that precious embryo of life, that small
portion of ethereal heat, which if once destroyed would destroy the
species! Whence that irresistible propensity to sleep so common in
all those who are severely attacked by the frost. Dreary as this
season appears, yet it has like all others its miracles, it presents
to man a variety of problems which he can never resolve; among the
rest, we have here a set of small birds which never appear until the
snow falls; contrary to all others, they dwell and appear to delight
in that element.
It is my bees, however, which afford me the most pleasing and
extensive themes; let me look at them when I will, their government,
their industry, their quarrels, their passions, always present me
with something new; for which reason, when weary with labour, my
common place of rest is under my locust-tree, close by my bee-house.
By their movements I can predict the weather, and can tell the day
of their swarming; but the most difficult point is, when on the
wing, to know whether they want to go to the woods or not. If they
have previously pitched in some hollow trees, it is not the
allurements of salt and water, of fennel, hickory leaves, etc., nor
the finest box, that can induce them to stay; they will prefer those
rude, rough habitations to the best polished mahogany hive.
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