The Life of the Bee 



day beholds the birth of thousands of 

 bees. The overgrown males now all sally 

 forth from their cells, and disport them- 

 selves on the combs ; and so crowded 

 does the too prosperous city become that 

 hundreds of belated workers, coming back 

 from the flowers towards evening, will 

 vainly seek shelter within, and will be 

 forced to spend the night on the threshold, 

 where they will be decimated by the cold. 

 Restlessness seizes the people, and the 

 old queen begins to stir. She feels 

 that a new destiny is being prepared. 

 She has religiously fulfilled her duty as a 

 good creatress ; and from this duty done 

 there result only tribulation and sorrow. 

 An invincible power menaces her tran- 

 quillity ; she will soon be forced to quit 

 this city of hers, where she has reigned. 

 But this city is her work, it is she, her- 

 self. She is not its queen in the sense in 

 which men use the word. She issues no 

 38 „ 



