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The Bee-Man
by
“Do you know of all the things I have met so far, I liked the baby best of all, so I think I must have been a baby once!”
“Right you are,” assented the fairy, “I knew it before, but, of course, I couldn’t tell. Now I shall change you into your former shape, but remember, you must try to be something better than a Bee-man.”
The Bee-man promised and was instantly changed into a baby. The fairy inoculated him from harm with a bee-sting, and gave him to the rescued infant’s mother.
Nearly a cycle passed by, and one day the fairy having business in the valley, thought she would make inquiries concerning her protege. In her way she happened to pass a little, low, curious hut, with many bee hives about it, and swarms of bees flying in and out. The fairy, tired as well as curious, peeped in and discovered an ancient man attending to the wants of his pets. Upon a closer inspection, she recognized her infant of years ago. He had become a bee-man again!
* * * * *
“It points a pretty little moral,” said the Fatalist, “for it certainly proves that do what we will, we cannot get away from our natures. It was inherent in that man’s nature to tend bees. Bee-ing was the occupation chosen for him by Fate, and had the beneficent Fairy changed him a dozen times, he would ultimately have gone to bee-ing in some form or other.”
The Fatalist was doubtless right, for it seems as though the inherent things in our nature must come out. But if we want to dig deep into the child’s story for metaphysical morals, does it not also uphold the theory of re-incarnation? the ancient bee-man, perhaps is but a type of humanity growing old, and settled in its mode of living, while the fairy is but thought, whispering into our souls things half dread half pleasant.
There are moments when the consciousness of a former life comes sharply upon us, in swift, lightning flashes, too sudden to be tangible, too dazzling to leave an impress, or mayhap, in troubled dreams that bewilder and confuse with vague remembrances. If only a burst of memory would come upon some mortal, that the tale might be fully told, and these theories established as facts. It would unfold great possibilities of historical lore; of literary life; of religious speculation.