went into a small hole in the side of the tree and at other times they
entered their homes by a small knot-hole in a limb near the top of the
tree. I saw that a swarm which father once found went into the tree top
more than eighty feet from the ground. At that distance they did not
appear larger than house-flies.

The first thing that father did after finding a bee-tree was to mark it
by cutting the initials of his name on the bark with his pocket-knife.
This established his title to the bees. After that they had a legal
owner. The mark on the tree was one of the witnesses. I knew a man who
happened to find a bee tree, and said that he marked it close down to
the ground and covered the mark with leaves so that no one could find
it. That appeared more sly than wise, as it gave no notice to others,
who might find the tree, of his ownership, or of its having been
previously found.




CHAPTER XIV.

OUR ROAD AND HOW I WAS WOUNDED.


Father got our road laid out and districted for a mile and a half on the
north and south section line. One mile north of our place it struck the
Dearborn road. Father cut it out, cut all the timber on the road two rods
wide. After it was cut out I could get on the top of a stump in the road,
by the side of our place, and look north carefully among the stumps, for
a minute, and if there was any one coming, on the road, I could