Will's Wonder Book. Louisa May Alcott

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      Will's Wonder Book

      LOUISA MAY ALCOTT

      

      

      

      

      

       Will's Wonder Book, L. May Alcott

       Jazzybee Verlag Jürgen Beck

       86450 Altenmünster, Loschberg 9

       Deutschland

      

       ISBN: 9783849658946

      

       www.jazzybee-verlag.de

       [email protected]

      

      

      CONTENTS:

       I. 1

       II. 6

       III. 11

       IV. 16

       V. 20

       VI. 24

       VII. 28

       VIII. 32

      I.

      "I JUST wish I had another story as good as that," exclaimed Will, as he turned the last page of 'Gulliver's Travels.'

      " I dare say I can find you something as interesting, and more profitable, perhaps," said grandma, looking down at the young gentleman lying in the grass at her feet. " I know what you'll advise, — ' Sandford and Merton,' ' Harry and Lucy,' or the ' Sequel to Frank.' I'm tired to death of 'em all, 'specially that prig of a Harry, with his everlasting barometer. I like 'Robinson Crusoe,' 'Swiss Family,' and 'Gulliver,' — all about queer places, and people, and the way they live," answered Will, with his boots higher than his head.

      " I could tell you about places, and creatures as curious and interesting as the Lilliputians, whom you like so much, if you cared to hear of them," replied grandma, placidly.

      " Can you? Where are they? " asked Will, surprised.

      " You are lying on one of them; and there is another just behind Polly."

      " Hullo! " cried Will, rolling over to look, while Polly stared about her, with a wild expression.

      " Yes; there are two wonderful cities, full of busy, brave, and accomplished little people, about whom you know nothing; though you see them every day," added grandma, nodding wisely.

      " I know what she means! I see 'em!", cried Polly, who " sat on a tuffit, like Miss Muffit," — not eating curds and whey, but making a pepelum for her doll Seraphina.

      " An ant-hill and the beehive are all I see," said Will, following Polly's quick eyes. "We know about them, of course."

      " Do you? Tell me how much?"

      "Well, ants live in the ground, and get in sugar-buckets, and bite; and bees make wax and honey, and buzz, and sting like fury," replied Will, briskly.

      " And how do they make their houses, and live, and work, and raise their little ones? " asked grandma.

      " Oh, they — that is, I believe — well — really, I don't know," was Will's rather unsatisfactory answer.

      " Shall I tell you? "

      " If you please, grandma, " and, feeling somewhat abashed by his failure, Will. meekly composed himself to listen, chewing grass meantime, like a ruminating calf.

      " Tell about the bees first. I found out quickest; and I always liked bees, ever since I was a mite of a girl, and used to say about the ' Little biddy bee,' and ' How skittly she builds her cell,' said Polly, — sewing away like a matron of forty with a large family to provide for, instead of a ten-year-older, with only one doll, a cat, and canary, dependent upon her.

      " We'll try a bit, and see how you like it; " so, settling her knitting, grandma began. " If we could enter that little door, we should find a city full of busy inhabitants, — a kingdom which has been prettily described by a certain famous William, who knew more about them than our Will, though he uses the word 'king,' instead of queen, to suit the character who speaks: —

      " ' They have a king, and officers of sorts;

      Some, like magistrates, correct at home;

      Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad;

      Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings,

      Make raid upon the summer's velvet buds;

      Which pillage, they, with merry march,

      Bring home to the tent-royal of their emperor;

      Who, busied in his majesty, surveys

      The singing masons, building roofs of gold;

      The civil citizens kneading up the honey;

      The poor mechanic-porters crowding in

      Their heavy burdens at the narrow gate;

      The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum,

      Delivering o'er to executors pale,

      The lazy, yawning drone.' "

      " Why, do they do all those things really? " asked Will, looking at the hive, as if interested already.

      " Yes; there are workers of all kinds, and each does his part faithfully. When put into a new hive, the bees at once begin to lay the foundation of their combs, which they prepare with astonishing quickness. Then, they make the wonderful little cells; which, being six-sided, waste no room. They are of thin wax, polished and smoothed by the bees' jaws, and finished with a ring round the edge, for strength, like the threshold of a door. The combs are generally arranged with streets between, so the bees can go up and down: they are just wide enough for two bees to pass one another. They often have cross-streets, which are covered. They stop up all cracks in the hive with what is called bee-glue, which they collect from poplars, willows, and other trees. If a snail, or any creature too large for them to manage, gets in, they seal it up in a thick covering of glue, and so keep the air pure, and render the invader harmless.

      "You know how they get the honey, by running their long tongues into flowers. This honey goes into a little bag, or stomach, which they fill, and empty into the cells, the mouths of which are closed up with waxen lids. Some honey-pots art left without covers, for food in bad weather; but they never touch these when the weather is fine, and fresh food can be got."

      " Dear me! — think of living among hundreds of honey-pots, and not touching them! I shouldn't make a good bee," said Polly, thinking of the lumps of sugar that daily tempted her in the china-closet.

      "They are taught obedience, and are not gluttons," replied grandma, with a little shake of the head, which Polly understood perfectly well.

      "Please, go on, ma'am," said Seraphina's little mother, pricking her