Many, many years ago, the people of Germany lived in little towns surrounded by high walls.
They built walls around their towns because they had quarrels with other towns.
The walls protected them against their enemies.
Sometimes people kept beehives on the high walls.
The bees could fly away into the fields outside and gather honey.
There were not many flowers inside the town from which they could gather it.
One morning, two baker boys were hungry.
They had been obliged to get up very early.
Some fine rolls had just been taken from the oven.
The boys thought it would be pleasant to have some rolls and honey.
“Let us go up on the walls and get some honey from one of the hives,” said John.
“But the bees will sting us,” answered James.
“Besides, the watchman on the walls might see us.
Then we would be in trouble of another kind.”
John, however, persuaded James to go.
The two boys stole out of the shop and ran across the street.
In a few minutes, they were creeping up the stairs that led to the top of the wall.
There was no watchman to be seen.
He had probably grown sleepy and gone somewhere to rest.
But there was a noise coming from somewhere.
The boys listened, but all was quiet again.
They made their way silently along the wall until they came to the hives.
Then they covered their faces and prepared to rob the bees of their treasure.
John was just lifting the top from one of the hives when he heard another strange noise.
He hurriedly dropped the hive.
The noise seemed to come from outside the wall.
The boys looked over and saw a small army.
It was the people of Linz, who had come to attack the town.
Both boys were terribly frightened at first.
They saw, however, that something had to be done to save the town.
“James,” said John, “run over there and ring the bell.
I will tumble the beehives down upon their heads.”
James did as he was told.
John pushed a hive over the wall.
It fell upon the leader’s head and broke into pieces.
The bees were angry at being disturbed in this way.
They flew at the men and stung their hands and faces so fiercely that the attackers were glad to run away.
Another beehive came tumbling down, and then another.
The angry bees put the entire army to flight.
By this time, the bell had summoned the people to defend the town.
But the army had already departed.
The two boys and the bees had saved the town.
The boys were not punished.
Instead, the people praised them for their clever actions.
It was decided that a monument should be erected in their honor.
One of the boys afterward became mayor of the town.
The other was long known as the most famous baker of his time.
