Addison had eaten his share of the luncheon that we had brought, and
while I devoured mine he pottered with the smoker; neither of us
understood very well how it worked. There are now several kinds of bee
smokers on the market; but the old Squire had contrived this one by
making use of an old-fashioned bellows to puff the smoke from out of a
two-quart tin can in which the punk wood was fired by means of a live
coal. The nose of the bellows was inserted at one end of the can; and
into a hole at the other end the old gentleman had soldered a short tin
tube through which he could blow the smoke in any direction he desired.
In order not to burn his fingers he had inclosed both bellows and can in
supporting strips of wood; thus he could hold the contrivance in one
hand and squeeze the bellows with the other.
As we were unfamiliar with the contrivance, we both had to climb the
ladder--one to hold the can and the other to pump the bellows. We lost
so much time in getting started that when at last we were ready to begin
operations people had already begun to arrive. They asked us all sorts
of questions and bothered us a good deal, but we kept right on at our
task.
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