The Swarm 



time of great heat, to congregate and to 

 gossip. 



To-day this is all changed. A certain 

 number of workers, it is true, will peace- 

 fully go to the fields, as though nothing 

 were happening ; will come back, clean 

 the hive, attend to the brood-cells, and 

 hold altogether aloof from the general 

 ecstasy. These are the ones that will 

 not accompany the queen ; they will 

 remain to guard the old home, feed the 

 nine or ten thousand eggs, the eighteen 

 thousand larvae, the thirty-six thousand 

 nymphs and seven or eight royal prin- 

 cesses, that to-day shall all be abandoned. 

 Why they have been singled out for this 

 austere duty, by what law, or by v/hom, 

 it is not in our power to divine. To 

 this mission of theirs they remain in- 

 flexibly, tranquilly faithful ; and though 

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