Battle With The Bees by Jesse Stuart, 1946
The magic trick:
Hilarious chaos but not basing it on mockery of the characters
It’s difficult to put into words just how special Jesse Stuart stories are, but I’ll give it a shot this week on the SSMT. His stories, usually set in rural Eastern Kentucky some time around the 1920s and centered on a farm boy (a Stuart stand-in named Shan) and his family, feel less like structured works of fiction than they do the transcripts of a friendly, funny old man telling you friendly, funny stories about his life.
“Battle With The Bees” is a great example. It works itself into a comic frenzy not unlike the James Thurber classic “The Night The Bed Fell.” And I’m not here to knock that story. I love “The Night The Bed Fell.” But whereas Thurber builds his comedy on a foundation of cynicism, “Battle With The Bees” is sweet. The characters aren’t mocked; they’re loved.
And that’s quite a trick on Stuart’s part.
The selection:
“Before I die,” Pa said, “I hope to have a thousand beehives around this house.”
“It’s dangerous now, Pa,” I said. “What would it be with a thousand beehives?”
“Afraid of a bee,” Pa said. “I’d be ashamed.”
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