CHAPTER XIX
BEE-KEEPERS AND BEE-KEEPING
Most business occupations lead to rivalry and all the selfish emotions incident to competition; not so is bee-keeping; quite the opposite, indeed, as there is a freemasonry that holds bee-keepers together and renders their attitude toward each other friendly and helpful. Bee-keeping is everywhere a bond of brotherhood and a sign of congenial tastes. One night at a dinner-party the gentleman on my right was a stranger, known to me only by reputation as a lawyer of high standing and great erudition. He was reserved and silent, and evidently bored by the trivialities of table-talk. Some one incidentally spoke of our bees, when the face of my neighbour became illumined with interest, and he said, "I am sure that by becoming a lawyer I spoiled a good bee-keeper. I have never found anything else so interesting as bee-keeping;" and thus was swept away the curtain of cold conventionalism which had hung between us, and we began, from that moment, to be friends.
Nowhere is this brotherly interest more noticeable than in the bee-books and the bee-journals. The former bear evidence, on every page, of kindness and courtesy to all; while the latter are like friendly cor-
