as quickly as possible, and then cut it through again
between the fire and the bees' nest.

"Should we have time for all this? The fire was already high up; and
the draught, since we had opened the holes below, whizzed up the cavity
as through a funnel.

"Seeing this, we closed them again; and Cudjo went to work with his axe,
cutting all around the tree. And the way he did ply that axe! he seemed
to have a wager against time. It was beautiful to see the style in
which the chips flew!

"At length the tree began to crack, and we all stood out from it, except
Cudjo, who understood which way it would fall, and was not afraid of
being crushed. Not he! for Cudjo could `lay' a tree wherever it was
wanted to the breadth of a hair.

"`Cr-r-r-ack!--cr-r-r-r-ash!' said the great sycamore, and down it came,
shivering its branches into an hundred sticks as it fell.

"It had scarcely touched the ground, when we saw Cudjo attack it at
another point with his axe, as though it were some great monster, and he
trying to cut off its head.

"In a few minutes more he had laid open the cavity, close to the combs;
and, to our great satisfaction, we saw that the fire had not yet reached
them. They were well smoked, however, and completely deserted by the
bees; so that we used neither our masks nor gloves in gathering the
honey. Bruin had been before us, but he had not been long at his meal
when we intruded upon him, as only one or two of the combs were missing.
Enough was left. It was evidently a very old hive, and there was honey
enough to fill all the vessels we had brought with us.

"We bundled the bear into the cart--as his hams and skin were worth the
trouble--and leaving the old sycamore to burn out, we turned our faces
homeward."

CHAPTER THIRTY SIX.

THE BATTLE OF THE BUCKS.

"The main object we had in view was not yet accomplished. With the
exception of our flock of turkeys, none of the pets we had tamed could
contribute to our support. We wished to capture some of the deer
species, and for this purpose we had thought of various expedients. We
had seen the fawns once or twice following their mothers; but we had
failed in coming up with them, although we had made several hunting
excursions for that purpose. At length, however, instead of a fawn, we
very unexpectedly captured a couple of old bucks, of the red-deer
species. The circumstances of this capture were somewhat singular; and
I shall detail them minu