"Bees!" exclaimed his grandmother. "What in the world do you want with bees? Isn't it bad enough around the farm already with yellow-jackets and bumble-bees, without bringing any more here? I should think you would get stung enough by the wild bees without wanting to bring a lot of honey bees to the farm." "Yes, grandmother, but you forget that the wild bees don't make any honey, or earn anything for us, and honey bees would be earning money all the time. I've been reading in one of the farmers' bulletins that a good colony of bees would make 30 pounds of honey in a season, which at 20 cents per pound would be worth $6.00, and the only thing we would have to do would be to look them over carefully and smoke them once in a while when they swarmed," he replied. "Say, Bob, did John White put these bees in your bonnet?" asked his uncle suddenly. [Illustration with caption: BEES ARE A PROFITABLE SIDE LINE THAT PAY IN INCREASED CROPS OF FRUIT AS WELL AS HONEY AND REQUIRE LITTLE CARE] "No, it was an idea I got out of one of the farm bulletins," he replied. "Well, I think you had better give up reading those bulletins for a while, and keep your mind on your plowing," said his uncle. "Why, didn't I do lots of work this morning, Uncle Joe?" asked Bob surprised. "Yes, of course; but I mean you can't work and think both," said his uncle. "Why not, Uncle Joe? Don't you remember what Mr. Dow, the insurance man, said about the farmers that didn't think?" "Well, anyhow, I draw the line at buying bees," replied his uncle firmly. "Yes," added his grandmother. "I don't want any bees around here, spoiling the fruit." "But, grandmother, you haven't waited to find out what I'm going to do with them," said Bob. "I don't want to put them around the house. I want to put them between the clover meadow and the young orchard, and, besides, they don't spoil the fruit. It's the other insects that do that. A honey bee couldn't do that if it wanted to." "Bob," asked his uncle, showing an interest for the first time, "why do you want to put them away over there?" "Because I've been reading in the farm bulletins that the reason orchards have such poor crops of fruit is because they don't have enough bees to pollinate the blossoms. The bulletin said that every orchard should have a number of colonies of bees. Of course, the nearer the bees are to the blossoms the more honey they'll make, because the distance is short; besides, if we put them at the edge of the orchard next to the meadow when the clover is in bloom, they could work on the clover, too, just as easy as the orchard blossoms, and they'd make a lot of honey," he declared. "Well, Bob, you certainly have been reading those books," said his grandfather, glancing up from his paper. "Between your own work, Joe, your new wife and your chore boy," he said, "you're going to lead a pretty busy life this summer, if I don't miss my guess." "Well, why not, grandfather?" demanded Bob.