thought of it I gave it up as a thing we could not do. But I now had a mind to try our skill at this kind of work. I knew that a swarm of bees had built their nest in the trunk of our tree, and this led me to think that there might be a void space in it some way up. "Should this prove to be the case," I said, "our work will be half done, for we shall then have but to fix the stairs in the tree round the trunk." As soon as I had thus spoke, the boys got up and went to the top of the root to tap the trunk, and to judge by the sound how far up the hole went. But they had to pay for their want of thought: the whole swarm of bees came out as soon as they heard the noise, stung their cheeks, stuck to their hair and clothes, and soon put them to flight.
It took my wife and I some time to drive off the bees, and to put fresh earth on the wounds to ease the pain the poor boys felt form the stings. We found that Jack, who was at all times rash, had struck the bees' nest with his axe, and was much more hurt by them than the rest; in fact, his face was so bad, that we had to swathe the whole of it in cloths. Ernest, who went to his work in his slow way, got up to it last, and was the first to run off when he saw the bees; thus he did not get more than a sting or two, but the rest wee some hours ere they could see
