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102 don't want the ladies and the girls to get stung. Head for the barn!"

His brothers understood, and they scampered at top speed for the nearest barn. In the mean time they could see poor Jack Ness slashing around wildly with a coat he was carrying.

"Git out o' here, you troublesome critters!" screamed the hired man. "Lemme alone, consarn ye! Oh, my nose! Oh, my eye!" And then he pelted for the vegetable garden. Here he fell over a hot-bed frame and went sprawling. But he soon picked himself up, and then he streaked it down the garden to a patch of corn, gradually outdistancing his little tormentors.

"Say, this is the worst yet!" groaned Tom, and he and his brothers watched the bees from a distance. "However did we happen to hit that hive?"

"I'mm sure I don't know," replied Dick, "unless you put something in the cannon. Did you use stones?"

"No. Did you, Sam?"

"Not a thing but that paper. But we rammed that down rather hard."

"I don't think paper would reach to the orchard. Maybe there was something in it. Did you look?"