There is a very neat and excellent little library attached to the Willoughby-Bay school, where the works of “Abbott,” “Sherwood,” “Pike,” and various other pious authors, are open to the use of all, besides treatises upon geography, history, and experimental philosophy. The lighter works, such as Mrs. Sherwood’s pretty, and often affecting, little narratives, are read, Mrs. Thwaites informed me, with avidity by the negroes, to which intelligence their well-thumbed covers gave a tacit assent. Around the schoolroom were hung various cards, with texts of scripture printed upon them in large characters, that “such who run may read”—a practice I greatly admire, for turn whichever way you will, some goodly sentence meets your eye. In the neat little yard attached to Mr. Thwaites’ dwelling, we met with some old friends of mine—a small wooden hive of “busy bees.” A pane of glass inserted into the box gave us a view of the industrious little creatures building their waxen cells, in which to store their fragrant food; but the weather was against them—the long drought had withered the flowers, and thus curtailed their stock of honey. There are very few bee-hives to be met with in Antigua. This is rather strange, as all Creoles are noted for having a “sweet tooth,” and consequently honey is reckoned a luxury. It cannot be from want of proper food, that the labours of these little insects are discountenanced, for Nature has been most prodigal of her stores to Antigua, and clothed her every hill and dale with melliferous blossoms. I have heard of one gentleman, however, who was very anxious to establish an apiary upon his property in Antigua, and accordingly he obtained some choice hives, which in due time were safely deposited in his well-stocked garden. Soon after their arrival, however, business called him from the island, and he committed his valued bees to the care of his overseer, a true son of Hibernia, with an expressed hope, “that they would not wander from home.” The day after his departure, the overseer, wishful of obliging his employer, stole from his multitudinous duties a sufficient time to watch the movements of his buzzing charge. The bright sun drew them from their hives, and jocund in their little hearts, away they bounded on the balmy zephyr. Innumerable flowers dazzled their eyes, and courted their attention. Here the gorgeous _hybiscus_ spread out its glowing bosom—there the blushing _frangipanne_ loaded the air with its rich fragrance. At one moment they inserted their trunks into the sweet-scented cup of the jasmine; at the next, and they brushed the pearly dew from the brilliant radii of the passion-flower. Onward they flew, allured by flowerets of every colour, each one as “Fair as the fabulous Asphodels;”