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Show Native Advice By STANLEY CORDELL Associated Newspapers. WNU Features. JEREMY was grubbing out a witch hobble bush from his side lawn when he felt a stabbing pain in his back. He straightened up, half expecting to see a man with a knife, or worse, standing behind him. But there was nothing; nothing, noth-ing, that is, except a dark, swirling mass of angry bees. Jeremy dropped his grubhoe and sprinted for the house. He reached it with one of the insects clinging to the back of his neck. Jeremy had never been bitten by a bee before, and the pain was excruciating. ex-cruciating. Ellen, his wife, came running from the bedroom at his cry of alarm. "Vinegar!" he yelled. "Get me some vinegar. I've been stabbed! By a bee," he added, because be-cause of the startled look that came into Ellen's face. He had read somewhere that vinegar vine-gar was a sure remedy for bee sting. Maybe it was, for some folks, but it seemed to encourage the pain in Jeremy's neck and back. After awhile, however, the pains subsided. Jeremy ceased his yelling and Ellen said: "Well, for heaven's sake!" "Yeah, for heaven's sake!" Jere-i Jere-i my repeated. "How was I to know I there was a beehive under that 1 bush?" He stared dolefully through the glass in the kitchen door. The bees were still whirling and sizzling about the bush. "How am I gonna get rid of 'em?" he asked; "Well, why get rid of them?" El-i El-i len wanted to know. I "Because I want to clean out that ! scrub stuff and have a lawn there j next spring. If I wait until spring the bees will still be there, only more of 'em." Since buying this place out in the country Jeremy had read many books on how to get the most out of your rural home, but exterminating bees hadn't been included and the natives had eyed strangers coldly. A small truck stopped in front of the house, then backed into the driveway. It was Asa Winslow, a local farmer, bringing the fireplace wood that Jeremy had ordered. Jeremy's Jer-emy's face brightened. Certainly , Asa Winslow, a native and a farmer, farm-er, would know about bees. Jeremy cleared his throat. "What do you know about bees?" he asked Asa. I "Bees?" Asa hesitated with a log of wood in his arms. He regarded i Jeremy speculatively a moment, j Then, as though he saw no profit in the situation, said: "Nothin'. Waste I of time." "I'm not going to raise them," Jeremy pointed out. "I want to get rid of some." j "Oh. Where be they?" Jeremy led the way to a point a safe distance from the witch hobble hob-ble bush and pointed. Asa ap- ' proached the bush, regarded it ! scornfully, grubbed around the earth i with his hands, and finally returned to Jeremy. i "Ain't many," he said. "You drop by my piace and get some cre-i cre-i osote. Pour it all around the bush an you won't have no more trou- ' b:e. " Jeremy was grateful to Asa. Any other native would have seen an c pportunity to make some money by go.ng through a long and unnecessary unnec-essary business of exterminating the bees. Asa had disposed of the matter by a single sentence and a magnanimous gesture. That afternoon Jeremy motored over to Asa's farm. The place was deserted but there was a can on the back porch marked "Creosote," and his name was scrawled beneath it Jeremy had never seen creosote before, didn't know of what use it was. He took the can, which was rather large, returned to his own place and poured the entire contents con-tents on and around the witch hobble bush. The results were amazing. Every bee in sight lay down and . died. Jeremy called Ellen. "Ellen, I'm ! beginning to think the trouble with the natives around here is us, not , them. Now, take Asa. He's really i net a bad chap, and he's got our interests at heart. Anyone else would have soaked us plenty for getting rid of those bees. Tomorrow, Tomor-row, when I go over town for the I mail, I'm going to drop by and get ! better acquainted with Asa; let him know I appreciate what he did." "We live and learn," said Ellen, and then, because she agreed with him about Asa, decided not to tell him that while he was away she had emptied a can of kerosene or, the bees, killing them all. V |