the largest trees they can find--a baobab, perhaps, or a giant
fig--they simply eat these galleries out of the wood, taking care never
to disturb the outer bark. In this manner they will sometimes destroy
the whole inside of a vast fruit tree so completely, that it crumbles to
dust as soon as touched."

"Well, it is very wonderful," said Frank, "I wonder how it happens that
we have seen nothing of them during the two hours or so that we have
been here."

"That is because they work only by night. It is supposed, I believe,
that they are torpid by day."

"Well, then, I suppose we must shift our quarters," remarked Nick. "It
would not be pleasant to have the clothes eaten off one's back,
certainly. We had better start, hadn't we, or it will be late?"

"Stop a moment," said Lavie, who had been carefully noting one
particular ant-hill for some minutes. "Ay, I thought so," he added
presently, "there is a bees' nest in yonder mound, and most likely a
large accumulation of honey. If you are fond of honey, you may sup off
it without difficulty."

"I am very particularly fond of honey," answered Nick, "but I don't know
about there being no difficulty. The last time I assisted at the taking
of a hive, there was a very considerable `difficulty.' I was stung, in
fact, so badly, that I vowed never to go near bees again. However, if
_you_ don't mind--"

"None of us need mind," said the surgeon; "these bees are different from
our English bees. They never sting people. There isn't even any
necessity to smoke them."

"Really!" returned Nick. "Now that I call the height of amiability.
But are you sure, doctor? It seems too good to be possible."

"You'll soon see," said Lavie, walking up to the mound he had marked.
"Ay, there is the hole where the bee went in. Just hand me the knife,
Ernest." He cleared away the earth, avoiding, as much as possible, any
injury to the work of the bees, and presently laid bare a great mass of
comb, full of honey and pollen; of this he cut off several large pieces,
as much as they could conveniently carry; the bees, in complete
justification of his assurances, offering no kind of interference--a
fact which drew forth a second eulogium from Nick, who only deplored, he
said, that they couldn't be conveyed to England, to instruct their
brethren there.

They now resumed their journey, resolving to camp for the night at the
first spot where shade and water were to be found. But their que