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"Mounsieur Cobweb; good mounsieur, get you your weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipp'd humble-bee on the top of a thistle, and, good mounsieur, bring me the honey-bag." This command might be executed in this country, for we have the "red-hipp'd humble-bee;" and we have the thistle, and there is no more likely place to look for the humblebee in midsummer than on a thistle-blossom.
Before fashioning her first honey-bag, the Bee blocks the passage with a strong barricade composed of the only materials used in the Leaf-cutter's guild. Fragments of leaves are piled up in no particular order, but in sufficient quantities to make a serious obstacle.
"Tell Master Hylton he need give himself not so much thought thereon as a bee should pack in his honey-bag," was the smiling reply. "I will warrant, so soon as it is known in the Court that I lack place for a newly-wedded cousin and her husband, there shall be so many warm nests laid afore me, that I shall have but to pick and choose.
"Because Robert is only thy father's servant, and John is thine own and ever waiting thy command," replied Mary demurely, and Priscilla's rich color mounted to her brow as she laughingly retorted, "Now, maid Mary, that quip was more like me than thee, and I'll have none of it. 'T is for thee to carry the honey-bag to mollify the stings my naughty tongue must aye inflict.
"Where's Peaseblossom?" asked the clown with the ass's head. He did not care much about the Queen's affection, but he was very proud of having fairies to wait on him. "Ready," said Peaseblossom. "Scratch my head, Peaseblossom," said the clown. "Where's Cobweb?" "Ready," said Cobweb. "Kill me," said the clown, "the red bumble-bee on the top of the thistle yonder, and bring me the honey-bag.
"Here, sir," said Cobweb. "Good Mr. Cobweb," said the foolish clown, "kill me the red humblebee on the top of that thistle yonder; and, good Mr. Cobweb, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret yourself too much in the action, Mr. Cobweb, and take care the honey-bag break not; I should be sorry to have you overflown with a honey-bag. Where is Mustard-seed?"
They would thus have the wind with them when they returned home heavily laden, and with these little navigators the difference is an important one. With a full cargo, a stiff head- wind is a great hindrance, but fresh and empty-handed, they can face it with more ease. Virgil says bees bear gravel-stones as ballast, but their only ballast is their honey-bag.
What will the grub do when, sated with blood and meat, it finds the Bee's honey-bag under its mandibles and especially when, nibbling at random, it rips open the crop and spoils its venison with syrup? Will it thrive on the mixture? Will the little ogre pass without repugnance from the gamy flavour of a carcase to the scent of flowers? A blunt statement or denial would serve no purpose.
He hath a voice as sweet and clear as if Puck had burst a honey-bag in his throat." "No doubt," replied the other, carelessly; "and all the birds will hide their heads when he begins to sing. But we don't want him, Carew not if he had a voice like Miriam the Jew. Henslowe has just bought little Jem Bristow of Will Augusten for eight pound sterling, and business is too bad to warrant any more."
Sprites of all looks and all hues of all "dimensions, shapes, and mettles," the dwarfish elf and the elegant fay Cobweb commissioned to kill a red-hipped humble-bee on the top of a thistle, that Bottom might have the honey-bag Pease-Blossom, who had the less agreeable employment of scratching the weaver's head and that individual fairy who could find the hoard of the squirrel and carry away his nuts with a score of equally merry companions are swarming everywhere and in full employment.
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