e threw himself on the ground, drew his hat down over his head,
and began to kick and shriek.

"You're jest a tantalizin' 'em!" panted the farmer. Merriwell stopped
and laughed. The whole thing was too ridiculously funny for him to do
otherwise.

"They're swarmin'!" shouted the boy, rattling away with the bell as if
his life depended on it.

"Yes, I see they are!" howled Julian Ives. "They're swarming all over
me!"

"Don't hurt 'em!" the farmer begged. He was only a few feet away, and
panting on, almost breathless.

"Don't kill 'em!" whined the old woman. "They're my bees!"

Her words reached Lew Veazie. For a moment the kicking legs were
stilled, though the hat was not withdrawn.

"Take 'em away then, pleathe!" he begged, from under the hat. "I don't
want to hurt your beethe, but they're hurting me! Take 'em away,
pleathe!"

The boy stopped his jangling bell.

"They are honey bees!" he said. Then added, as if he feared this might
not be clear to the intellects of city-bred youths: "They make honey!"

"I'll tantalize them!" Skelding fiercely exclaimed, striking at the bees
that were hovering round his head. "I'll treat 'em gently! Oh, yes! I'll
pick them off very tenderly and put them in your lap, old lady! I don't
think! Keep your old bees at home!"

"But they're swarming!" the old farmer exclaimed. "They're going out to
hunt a new hive. We've been follerin' 'em."

Then Lew Veazie began to bellow again, more frantically than ever. A
large crowd was gathering, men hurrying from all directions, Merriwell
and his friends had arrived on the scene.

"Ow-wow!" Veazie shrieked. "They're worthe than ever!"

For a few seconds he had not been troubled except by the stings
previously given, which pained intensely. Merriwell looked down and saw
a big bunch of bees gathering along the top of Veazie's collar at the
back.

"They're killing me!" Veazie screeched, rubbing a hand into this mass
and leaping to his feet.

But the pile grew. The bees seemed to drop by scores right out of the
air upon him. He started to run. The old woman began to shriek, and the
boy commenced again to jangle the bell.

"You've got the queen!" howled the old man. "Jest keep still a minute!
You have got the queen!"

"Is this a card-game?" drawled Browning.

"Lew Veazie is the little joker this time!" droned Dismal.

"That's because he is so sweet!" declared Bink. "Don't you know the boy
said these are honey bees? They're going to c