“What t’other do?” demanded Elksfoot, with very obvious curiosity.

“Sure enough; the other gentleman must be nearly ready for a start, and we’ll see what road he travels.  ’Tis always an assistance to a bee-hunter to get one creature fairly off, as it helps him to line the next with greater sartainty.”

Ben would say acTYVE, and SARtain, though he was above saying creatoore, or creatur’.  This is the difference between a Pennsylvanian and a Yankee.  We shall not stop, however, to note all these little peculiarities in these individuals, but use the proper or the peculiar dialect, as may happen to be most convenient to ourselves.

But there was no time for disquisition, the second bee being now ready for a start.  Like his companion, this insect rose and encircled the stump several times, ere it darted away toward its hive, in an air-line.  So small was the object, and so rapid its movement, that no one but the bee-hunter saw the animal after it had begun its journey in earnest.  To his disappointment, instead of flying in the same direction as the bee first taken, this little fellow went buzzing off fairly at a right angle!  It was consequently clear that there were two hives, and that they lay in very different directions.

Without wasting his time in useless talk, le Bourdon now caught another bee, which was subjected to the same process as those first taken.  When this creature had filled it-self, it rose, circled the stump as usual, as if to note the spot for a second visit, and darted away, directly in a line with the bee first taken.  Ben noted its flight most accurately, and had his eye on it, until it was quite a hundred yards from the stump.  This he was enabled to do, by means of a quick sight and long practice.

“We’ll move our quarters, friends,” said Buzzing Ben, good-humoredly, as soon as satisfied with this last observation, and gathering together his traps for a start.  “I must angle for that hive, and I fear it will turn out to be across the prairie, and quite beyond my reach for to-day.”

The prairie alluded to was one of those small natural meadows, or pastures, that are to be found in Michigan, and may have contained four or five thousand acres of open land.  The heavy timber of the swamp mentioned, jutted into it, and the point to be determined was, to ascertain whether the bees had flown over these trees, toward which they had certainly gone in an air-line, or whether they had found their hive among them.  In order to settle this material question, a new process was necessary.

“I must ‘angle’ for them chaps,” repeated le Bourdon; “and if you will go with me, strangers, you shall soon see the nicest part of the business of bee-hunting.  Many a man who can ‘line’ a bee, can do nothing at an ’angle’.”