cked everything in sight. Howls began
to come from some of the hands that had failed to find shelter in time,
and Bo, peeping out between the weeds, saw half a dozen darkies
frantically trying to open the big door of the sugar house, which had
been hastily closed by those within, while the angry bees were pelting
furiously at the unfortunates.

[Illustration: THE BEAR DASHED PAST, SNORTING.]

As for Horatio, he was coated with bees that were trying to sting
through his thick fur. He did not mind them at first, but presently
they began to get near his eyes. With a snarl he dropped the hive and
began to paw and strike with both hands. Then they swarmed about him
worse than ever, and, half blinded, he began to run around and around
with no regard as to direction. Every darky in sight fled like the wind.
Some of them ran out of the gate and down the road, and without seeing
them, perhaps, the Bear suddenly leaped the fence and set out in the
same direction. Glancing back, they saw him coming and began to shriek
and scatter into the fields.

Bo waited some minutes; then, noticing that the maddened insects were no
longer buzzing viciously over him, he crept out and followed. He still
held the violin and was glad enough to get away from the plantation. The
bees had followed the fugitive, and the boy kept far enough behind to be
out of danger. By and by he met bees coming back, but perhaps they were
tired or thought he belonged to another crowd, for they did not molest
him. A mile further on he found Horatio sitting in the road rocking and
groaning and throwing dust on himself. His eyes and nose were swollen in
great knots, and his ears were each puffed up like little balloons. The
bees had left him, but his sorrow was at its height.

"Hello, Ratio! Having fun all alone?" asked Bo as he came up.

"Oh, Bo, this has been an awful day!" was the wailing reply. "First
those terrible oranges and then these millions and millions of murderous
bees. And now I am blind, Bo, and dying. Tell me, Bo, how do I look?"

"Oh, you look all right. Your nose looks like a big potato and your ears
like two little ones. I can't tell you how your eyes are, for they don't
show, but your whole skin looks as if it had been stuffed full of apples
and put on in a hurry."

"Bo," said Horatio meekly, "did you bring the fiddle?"

[Illustration: HE FOUND HORATIO SITTING IN THE ROAD, ROCKING AND
GROANING.]

"Well, yes; I thought it might happen that w