THE HISTORY OF A HU3IBLE-BEE. 183 



bottom of the basket. Around the edges of this plate 

 are placed rows of strong, thickly-set, long bristles, 

 which curve inward. These are the walls of the 

 basket, and there ! we have the structure quite com- 

 plete. Now take this pocket-lens and tell me if you 

 see the basket upon those specimens of bees." 



The ]\Iistress and Abby, the Doctor and Hugh — all 

 succeeded in making out the much talked of receptacle, 

 and the rest were contented with the rough drawing. 



" But how does the bee get her materials into her bas- 

 ket ?" asked the Doctor. 



"Ah, I was prepared to hear that. The material is 

 collected gradually with the mandibles, from which the 

 short fore-legs gather it. Hence it is passed backward 

 to the middle-legs by a series of multiplied scrapings 

 and twistings which I can't pretend to detail. In the 

 same way it is sent back once more to the hind-leg, and 

 is scraped and patted into the basket, where it is secured 

 from falling out by the walls of bristlef^ whose elasticity 

 will even allow the load to be heaped beyond their points 

 without letting it fall. When the busy harvester has 

 gathered as much as her basket will conveniently hold, 

 she flies away home and empties her load by a reversal 

 of the process which filled it. In this work, however, 

 she is often aided by her fellow-workers." 



"I believe," said the Doctor, " that I better under- 

 stand now the force of the vei'se concerning the bee 

 which has crept into the Septuagint version of Proverbs, 

 sixth chapter and eighth verse. This version was made 

 from the Hebrew for the Greek-speaking Jews of Alex- 



