He walked up to a hive and boldly
caught one of the bees between his thumb and forefinger. Holding it
fast, he picked up a pea pod for it to sting, so that he could see how
long a stinger it had.
"Ah, but that is a cruel chap!" he said. "You'll have to use brimstone,
I guess, to get those Egyptians out of the meetinghouse."
In point of fact, brimstone was what two of the church stewards did use,
a few weeks later, before there were services at the chapel again; but
they did not find much honey left.
CHAPTER XXI
THAT MYSTERIOUS DAGUERREOTYPE SALOON
For two years our young neighbor Catherine had been carrying on a little
industry that had proved fairly lucrative--namely, gathering and curing
wild herbs and selling them to drug stores in Portland. Her grandmother
had taught her how to cure and press the herbs. One season she sold
seventy dollars' worth.
Catherine took many long jaunts to gather her herbs--thoroughwort,
goldthread, catnip, comfrey, skullcap, pennyroyal, lobelia, peppermint,
old-man's-root, snakehead and others of greater or less medicinal value.
She soon came to know where all those various wild plants grew for miles
round.
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