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 “You mean that you want me to wise you up on all I know about bees, when there’s all the Bee Master’s books in there on the shelf to learn from?”

“But didn’t the Bee Master study out a world of things for himself? Didn’t he know enough to fill a book of things that he had figured out in a lifetime of experience with the bees? Maybe some of it was original with him. Maybe you know things that are not in the books.”

The little Scout chuckled.

“Well, there’s a good many things that are not in the books that we would like to know. Somebody’s got to do a lot more studying about bees before everybody knows everything there is to know.”

“Well,” said Jamie, “suppose you begin wherever your fancy strikes you and tell me what you think I should know about bees.”

The little Scout leaned forward, laid a pair of hands, not so clean as usual, palm to palm and dropped them between a pair of knees that gave evidence of active service in recent contact with the earth. Then suddenly an intent little face with eyes of deep introspection was turned to Jamie.

"Guess,” said the little Scout, “guess the first question I ever asked the Bee Master about bees?”

“Why do you keep bees?!” suggested Jamie.

Slowly the little tan and brown head moved in negation.

“Nope! You’re all wet!” said the little Scout. “You’re not even warm! First question I ever asked was, ‘Why is