POETRY.
"TELLING THE BEES."
[However naturalists may determine as to the sagacity of bees, the compliment they receive in several countries of being " told " when the master of the household dies, shows the common opinion held of their intelligence and sympathetic capacities. The follow- ing lines have reference to this custom] :— 'Tis certain that Love bath departed this life, Maugre nurse and physician ; Some say it was poison that killed him,—aome, strife,— And some, inanition.
While others more cautiously mumble a moan It was "something or other ;" Whatever his ailment, the Master is gone; But don't make a pother.
Let your prayers—if you're praying—be chiefly for pardon Then rise from your knees, And if you lack sympathy steal to the garden, Tell the news to the bees.
You need not be fearful of shorCning their lives By your whispered repining,
Or that darkness funereal will fall on the hives, With the summer-sun shining.
But perhaps at your tidings they'll fly to some waste, Or a bleak mountain stony, Where the bells of the heather shall give a slight taste Of gall to the honey.
Belfast.
J. S. D.
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