198 EARLY RISERS. 



person of a married daughter, Madame Molin, waited on him 

 to the hour of his death, in the year 1831, at the age of 

 eighty-one.* 



From the bees' historian come we at last to bees themselves, 

 though not yet exactly to the bee-hive ; for if we began with 

 the beginning the birth that is, of our busy workers it 

 would carry us back to winds of March or frosts of February. 

 Let us take them, therefore, even as they are, humming about 

 us on this summer day. As we look around, it may perhaps, 

 however, strike us that our troop of winged labourers is not 

 mustering as strong as might have been expected on such a 

 glorious field-day as the present, when flowering sweets are 

 clustered "thick as autumnal leaves'' -"in Vallombrosa," 

 and when under the mid-day sunshine the flowers are 

 throwing out in abundance their honeyed perfumes, serving as 

 scented messengers betwixt them and their insect adorers. How 

 is it, in short, that, instead of many, the bees on wing are few y 

 Are the bulk of their labourers playing the part of drones ? 



Suspect it not ; but know that working bees, like all the 

 busy who would be "healthy, happy, and wise/' rose this 

 morning with the lark; and, while we were idle in our beds of 

 down, were here active in their beds of flowers. Having 

 tilled their bottles with honey and their baskets with pollen, 

 most of them have gone home two hours ago (supposing it 

 now high noon), and are at present under cover of their hive, 



* Huber died at Lausanne. 



