We immediately heard a deep humming sound overhead, and so many bees flew down through the cracks that Addison descended in haste.

We retreated toward the door.
"What are we going to do when Senator Hamlin and all the people come ?" I asked.
"I don't know!" Addison muttered, perplexed.

"That old loft is roaring full of bees.

We've got to do something with them, or there won't be any speaking here to-day." We thought of stopping up the cracks, but there were too many of them to make that practicable.

To dislodge the swarm from the loft, too, would be equally difficult, for the more we disturbed the bees the more furious they would become.
At last we thought of the old Squire's bee smoker with which he had sometimes subdued angry swarms that were bent on stinging.
"You drive home as fast as you can and get the smoker and a ladder," Addison said, "and I'll stay here to watch the fire in the stove." So I drove old Nance home at her best pace.