CHAPTER IV.
HAMLET FOLK.
It happened one Sunday morning in June that a swarm of bees issued from a hive in a cottage garden near Okebourne church.

The queen at first took up her position in an elm tree just outside the churchyard, where a large cluster of bees quickly depended from a bough.

Being at a great height the cottager could not take them, and, anxious not to lose the swarm, he resorted to the ancient expedient of rattling fire-tongs and shovel together in order to attract them by the clatter.

The discordant banging of the fire-irons resounded in the church, the doors being open to admit the summer air; and the noise became so uproarious that the clerk presently, at a sign from the rector, went out to stop it, for the congregation were in a grin.

He did stop it, the cottager desisting with much reluctance; but, as if to revenge the bee-master's wrongs, in the course of the day the swarm, quitting the elm, entered the church and occupied a post in the roof.
After a while it was found that the swarm had finally settled there, and were proceeding to build combs and lay in a store of honey.