To me was given a fish-horn of portentous size and sound.
The 'skips,' which were the old fashioned straw hives that the bears so
often emptied for our forefathers, stood in a large door-yard, over which
the swarm was circling. As we arrived on the scene the women were coming
from the house with tin pans, and nearly all the family were out-of-doors.
It so happened that an old white horse was grazing in the yard, and at this
critical moment was near the end of the bench on which stood the hives.
Coming up behind him, I thoughtlessly let off a terrific blast from my
horn, at which he, terrified, kicked viciously. Over went a straw skip, and
in a moment we had another swarm of bees on hand that we had not bargained
for. Dropping my horn, I covered my face with my arm, and ran for life to
the house, but I must have been stung twenty times before I escaped. The
bees seemed everywhere, and as mad as hornets. Although half wild with
pain, I had to laugh as I saw the old man frantically trying to adjust his
veil, meanwhile almost dancing in his anguish. In half a minute he
succumbed, and tore into a wood-shed. Everybody went to cover instantly
except the white horse, and he had nowhere to go, but galloped around the
yard as if possessed. This only made matters worse, for innocent as he was,
the bees justly regarded him as the cause of all the trouble. At last, in
his uncontrollable agony, he floundered over a stone wall, and disappeared.
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