The hive of The bee-hunter Author:Thomas Bangs Thorpe Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: TOM OWEN, THE BEE-HUNTER. As a country becomes cleared up and settled, bee-hunters disappear, consequently they are seldom or never noticed beyond the immedia... more »te vicinity of their homes. Among this backwoods fraternity, have flourished men of genius, in their way, who have died unwept and unnoticed, while the heroes of the turf, and of the chase, have been lauded to the skies for every trivial superiority, they may have displayed in their respective pursuits. To chronicle the exploits of sportsmen is commendable—the custom began as early as the days of the antediluvians, for we read, that " Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord." Familiar, however, as Nim- rod's name may be—or even Davy Crockett's—how unsatisfactory their records, when we reflect that Tom Owen, the bee-hunter, is comparatively unknown ? Yes, the mighty Tom Owen has " hunted." from thetime that he could stand alone until the present time, and not a pen has inked paper to record his exploits. " Solitary and alone" has he traced his game through the mazy labyrinth of air; marked, I hunted;—I found; —I conquered;—upon the carcasses of his victims, and then marched homeward with his spoils : quietly and satisfiedly, sweetening his path through life; and, by its very obscurity, adding the principal element of the sublime. It was on a beautiful southern October morning, at the hospitable mansion of a friend, where I was staying to drown dull care, that I first had the pleasure of seeing Tom Owen. He was, on this occasion, straggling up the rising ground that led to the hospitable mansion of mine host, and the difference between him and ordinary men was visible at a glance; perhaps it showed itself as much in the perfect contempt of fashion that he displayed in the adornment of his outward man, as it di...« less