In the instance referred to, a glass-bottomed box had been inverted over the feed-hole of a common hive, and had there remained forgotten. As the season progressed, the hive grew great with bees and honey, and it became imperative to build additional store-comb in the box overhead. But its slippery glass roof would give no foothold to the builders. Time and again they must have tried to get upon it, with their wax-hods filled and ready, and each time failed: the ordinary way of comb-building was clearly impossible. Then the engineers of the hive, inspired by the difficulty, got to work in another way. On the wooden surface below they laid out the plan of a garner-house, not after their usual method of parallel combs, but a regular, oblong house, with cellular storerooms, and communicating passages in between. Upon this they raised storey above storey of horizontal cells, until the glass roof was nearly reached. At this stage, apparently, the honey-flow came to an end in the fields, for the cells in the store-house were never sealed, though all were nearly full of honey; and later in the season it was found and carried away by the bee-master, who still preserves it as a curiosity. He bears a well-known name, {218} and his testimony as to the making of this unique little honey-house is beyond question; but, indeed, it carries in itself infallible evidence of its authenticity. All honey-cells made by bees have a slight upward inclination, which helps, as has been already explained, to retain their contents until they can be capped over. And every cell in the storehouse clearly showed this upward slant. CHAPTER XIII WHERE THE BEE SUCKS IT is characteristic of those unlettered in bee-craft that they are often afraid when there is no danger, and will venture with the intrepidity that is born of ignorance where old experienced bee-keepers fear to tread. Temper in bees is one of the most variable qualities in a creature made up of variabilities. There are times, when a summer storm is threatening and the air is charged with electricity, when to go among the bees is to court certain disaster; and there are other times, such as the full height of the honey-flow, when almost any liberties can be taken with bees, without fear of reprisals. And yet this is not always the rule. Much depends on their lineage and the purity of the strain, and, again, on the systems of the bee-master. Bees respond as readily as any other form of domestic stock to wise and considerate treatment. Handled in a firm, quiet, deliberate way, the most vicious colony can often be dealt with in perfect safety; while the mildest-natured bees will commonly meet fumbling indexterity with a prompt challenge to war.