e.

One morning the farmer heard a great noise in the hen-house. The hens
were kedacuting for dear life and he hastened to the scene of the
disturbance. What he discovered was both ludicrous and annoying, for
there by one of the nests was his small bear in the act of pawing out
an egg, while the empty shell of another upon the ground told only too
plainly that he had discovered the use of eggs.

After that the hen-house was never quite safe from him. Whenever he
was caught inside, he was punished, but hens' nests that he found
out-of-doors were considered his natural plunder.

June came, and the latter part of the month the bear-shadow followed
its master into the hayfield. Here it made a discovery that was much
to its liking.

The bear was sniffing about as usual, poking his nose into all the
holes and bushes, when a low humming in the grass near by caught his
ear.

It was a sound that has made bears smile ever since the first bear
licked up his first taste of honey. So Black Bruin crept cautiously
forward to investigate. As he advanced, the humming grew louder and
presently a small fury darted out at him.

It was not much larger than a fly, but it gave him such a pin-prick in
the nose that he was angry, and so struck it down into the grass, and
crushed the life out of it with his swift paw. Then he crept closer to
the humming and buzzing, which was now quite ominous. Soon more of the
little furies came buzzing out, all of which he killed as he had the
first.

When the bee-hunter had crushed the dozen bees comprising the nest, he
dug down to the secret hidden in the roots of the grass and found that
it was much sweeter than the maple syrup which they had given him at
the farmhouse. The nest was also full of white eggs or grubs which
were quite palatable. After that day, Black Bruin was a persistent
hunter for bumblebees' nests.

From the bumblebees' nest to the hives of the honeybees in the orchard
back of the house was a very natural step, but the farmer had not
dreamed that the bear would discover the secret of the small white
houses.

One afternoon he heard a great humming of the bees in the orchard, and,
thinking they were swarming, put on his bee-veil and went to
investigate. The sight that met his eyes filled him with both mirth
and wrath. There upon the ground was one of the hives overturned and
pulled apart. Many of the partly filled sections were thus exposed,
while others were empty