ir.4 TKNANTH OF AN OfJ) FARM. 



being at least oiie-tliird smaller, IbllDwed tlic lead of 

 the queen. There were few of them left, but they 

 worked energetically. Then the big workers caught 

 the infection. With the pollen still clinging to their legs, 

 they laid heartily hold of the upholstery and dragged 

 away along with the rest. They burrowed under the 

 mass, and worked from beneath, pushing up the pliable 

 fibres, pulling and tugging, scratching and kicking, the 

 whole heap all the while gradually shifting toward and 

 gathering around the cells. 



" Look at that bee !" said Abby. " What is it doing 

 now?" 



A large worker had climbed upon the fresh cut edge 

 of the sods that filled one side of the box. It seized 

 bits of soil with its jaws and cast down pellets from the 

 slope ; it grasped the fine rootlets that everywhere in- 

 terlaced the sod and bit at them with great ftuy. 



" What can the creature mean ? Is it insane with 

 despair over the ruin of its home V Look ! there goes 

 another one. It, too, has been seized with the rabies." 



A second l)ee had mounted the sod wall, and seizing 

 upon the soil, cut out pellets with its mandibles until 

 its head was buried. In went the short fore-feet, with 

 which the insect dug like a dog in a rabbit-burrow. I 

 took out my watch to time the insect miner, and in less 

 than two minutes it had buried its entire body in the 

 hole. (Fig. 55.) 



"Dear me!" exclaimed the Mistress. "There is 

 energy for you ! That is certainly mining extraordinary. 

 A Lehiirh coal-digger or a Leadville .^silver-miner might 



