Swiss Family Robinson

hour or more by reason of their pain they were unable to render me much assistance.
    In the meanwhile I made my arrangements. I first took a large calabash gourd, for I intended to make a beehive, that, when we had driven the insects from their present abode, we might not lose them entirely. The lower half of the gourd I flattened, I then cut an arched opening in the front for a doorway, made a straw roof as a protection from the rain and heat, and the little house was complete.
    Nothing more however could then be done, for the irritated bees were still angrily buzzing round the tree. I waited till dark, and then when all the bees had again returned to their trunk, with Fritz's assistance I carefully stopped up every hole in the tree with wet clay, that the bees might not issue forth next morning before we could begin operations.
    Very early were we up and at work. I first took a hollow cane, and inserted one end through the clay into the tree; down this tube with pipe and tobacco I smoked most furiously.
    The humming and buzzing that went on within was tremendous; the bees evidently could not understand what was going to happen. I finished my first pipeful , and putting my thumb over the end of the cane, I gave the pipe to Fritz to refill. He did so and I again smoked. The buzzing was now becoming less noisy, and was subsiding into a mere murmur. By the time I had finished this second pipe all was still; the bees were stupefied.
    `Now then, Fritz,' said I, `quick with a hammer and chisel, and stand here beside me.'
    He was up in a moment, and, together, we cut a small door by the side of the hole; this door however, we did not take out, but we left it attached by one corner that it might be removed at a moment's notice, then giving the bees a final dose of tobacco smoke, we opened it.
    Carefully but rapidly we removed the insects, as they clung in clusters to the sides of the tree, and placed them in the hive prepared for their reception. As rapidly I then took every atom of wax and honey from their storehouse, and put it in a cask I had made ready for the purpose.
    The bees were now safely removed from the trunk, but I could not tell whether, when they revived from their temporary stupor, they might not refuse to occupy the house with which I had presented them, and insist on returning to their old quarters. To prevent the possibility of this occurrence I took a quantity of tobacco, and, placing it upon a board nailed horizontally within the trunk, I lighted it and allowed it to burn slowly that the fumes might fill the cavity.
    It was well I did so, for, as the bees returned to consciousness, they left their pretty hive and buzzed away to the trunk of the tree. They seemed astonished at finding this uninhabitable, and an immense deal of noisy humming ensued. Round and round they flew, backwards and forwards between the gourd and tree, now settling here and now there, until, at length, after due consideration, they took possession of the hive and abandoned their former habitation to us the invaders of their territory. By the evening they were quite quiet, and we ventured to open the cask in which we had stored our plunder.
    We first separated the honey from the honeycomb and poured it off into jars and pots; the rest we then took and threw into a vessel of water placed over a slow fire. It soon boiled and the entire mass became fluid. This we placed in a clean canvas bag, and subjected to a heavy pressure. The honey was thus soon forced out, and we stored it in a cask, and, though not perhaps quite equal to the former batch in quality, it was yet capital. The wax that remained in the bag I also carefully stored, for I knew it would be of great use to me in the manufacture of candles. Then after a hard day's work we turned in.
    The internal architecture of the tree had now to be attended to, and early the following morning we prepared for the labourious task. A door had first to be made, so at the base of the trunk we cut away the bark and formed an opening just the size of the door we had brought from the captain's cabin, and which, hinges and all, was ready to be hung.
    The clearing of the rotten wood from the centre of the trunk occupied us some time, but at length we had the satisfaction of seeing it entirely accomplished, and, as we stood below, we could look up the trunk, which was like a great smooth funnel, and see the sky above.
    It was now ready for the staircase, and first we erected in the centre a stout