The Cross_Time Engineer by Leo Frankowski

Author:Leo Frankowski [Frankowski, Leo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy Fiction, General
ISBN: 9780345327628
Publisher: Del Rey
Published: 1986-01-01T18:34:23+00:00

“Easy enough to get, Sir Conrad, once you find a honey tree. A full-time honey hunter finds one, maybe two trees a year.”

“Remarkable. What do you do then?”

“Why, you smoke the bees out and chop open the tree, of course.” “I begin to see your problem. You know, my lord, bees can’t hollow out a tree themselves. They have to find a suitable place to build a hive. If you chop up every hollow tree, there isn’t any place for them to live. No wonder honey is rare.”

“I see. You’re suggesting that we hollow out trees?” “It doesn’t have to be a whole tree. A simple wooden box will do. You know, bees are very remarkable creatures. I’ve read a few articles on them. Did you know that they have a language?”

“What! Insects talking?”

“Not exactly talking, but when a bee finds a field of flowers, she goes back to her hive and does a dance that tells the others where to go.” “Remarkable! You say ‘she.’ What of the male bees?” So I prattled on for an hour about bees. Friends have accused me of having a garbage pit mind. Things fall in there and sort of stay around, fermenting. The upshot was that I agreed to instruct Lambert’s carpenter on making beehives, a gross of them.

There would be nothing much to it, of course. Just a simple rectangular wooden box of about forty liters’ capacity would do. You drilled a hole of four square centimeters near the bottom, facing south, and mounted them on a pole at least three meters in the air.

“It’s been a pleasant and educational evening, Sir Conrad. Doubly so since you wouldn’t wager any money on your chess playing. But now we must rejoin the buffoonery below.”

The end point of the evening was the gift giving. Gift wrapping was unknown, but it wasn’t missed. The only awkward moment occurred when the priest and his wife gave me a wooden crucifix and a carved rosary-the priest’s own work-and I hadn’t realized that they were on my Christmas list. The best return gift that I could think of on short notice was some rose seeds.

I also got a new sword belt from Sir Miesko. The harem didn’t give; they just got. Well, maybe they did give. That night I was visited by Yawalda and Mary. They liked to work as a team.

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