Eye Spy: Afield with Nature Among Flowers and Animate ThingsGibson, W. Hamilton (William Hamilton)
History
Eye Spy: Afield with Nature Among Flowers and Animate Things
Gibson, W. Hamilton (William Hamilton)
Insects; Natural history; Natural history -- Outdoor books
higher and higher, miles high, over big oceans and mountains. I could
see them all beneath me as I clung to the underside of the bee. I
believe I must finally have got dizzy and faint, for I remember at
last finding myself at rest in a queer thicket of greenish poles with
big yellow balls at the top of them, and great giant leaves fringed
with long, glistening hairs. They told me afterwards it was a willow
blossom.
"It seemed a very good place to rest, so I dropped off from my bee and
remained. Everywhere about me, as I looked, the air was yellow with
these blossoms, and full of the wing-music of the bees. But, as I have
said, I was a restless baby, and having had a taste of travel I soon
tired of this idle life, and began to get ready for another ride. My
chance soon came. This time it was a honey-bee. She alighted in the
flower next to mine, but I quietly piled over and clutched upon her
leg, and was soon snugly tucked away under her body, with my flat head
between its segments. And now for the first time I began to feel
hungry; and what was more natural than to take a bite from the tender
flesh of this bee, so easily available? I did it, and liked it so well
that I adopted this bee for my mother for quite a long while, taking
many, many long rides every day, and always coming back to the
prettiest little house on a bench under the trees. This was a sort of
bee hotel, with many hundreds of guests. It was all partitioned off
inside into little six-sided rooms, and the walls were so thin that
you could see through them. Indeed, I soon came to like this little
home so well that one morning I decided that I would not leave it
again. I had begun to get tired of my roving life. I saw a lot of
little white fat babies tucked away in some of these little rooms, and
this very bee which I had adopted as my mother was engaged in bringing
food to some of these babies and sealing them up in their nests. This
was enough for me. I concluded to bring my roving habit to a close,
and become a bee baby in truth; so watching for my opportunity, I
loosened my clutch upon the mother bee, and dropped into one of the
little rooms.
"Then I became sleepy, and can tell you nothing more than that when I
woke up I didn't know who or what I was. My six spider legs had gone,
and I had a half-dozen little short feet instead; and instead of the
sprightly ideas of my baby days, the thought of such a thing as even
moving was a bore. But I was hungrier than ever, and the first thing I
did was to fall upon another fat youngster who disputed the room with
me, and make short work of him. That was breakfast. When dinner-time
came, I found it right at my mouth. That busy mother of mine had fully
supplied my wants, and packed my room full to the ceiling with the
most delicious, fragrant bread of flowers made of pollen and honey.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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