Old Hughy hobbled down into the gully with his kettle and tried to
smother the bees by putting the brimstone close to the cleft in the tree
trunk and setting it afire; but, although the fumes rose so pungently
that I was obliged to hold my nose to keep from being smothered, the
effect on the bees was not noticeable. Old Hughy then tried throwing
water on them. The water was more efficacious than the brimstone, and
before Willis returned the old man was able to cut out a section of the
tree trunk and fill his two pails with the dripping combs--all of which
I viewed not any too happily from aloft.
Willis appeared at last with the coil of rope. With him came Addison and
Halstead, much out of breath, and a few minutes later the old Squire
himself arrived. They said that grandmother Ruth also was on the way.
Willis, it seems, had spread alarming reports of my predicament.
Willis and Addison tied numerous knots in the rope so that it should not
slip through my hands and knotted a flat stone into the end of it. Then
they took turns in throwing it up toward me until at length I caught it
and tied it firmly to the limb on which I was sitting.
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