The Life of the Bee 



plateau in the "pays de Caux," in Nor- 

 mandy, which is supple as an English 

 park, but natural and limitless. It is one 

 of the rare spots on the globe where 

 nature reveals herself to us unfailingly 

 wholesome and green. A little further to 

 the north the country is threatened with 

 barrenness, a little further to the south, it 

 is fetigued and scorched by the sun. At 

 the end of a plain that ran down to the 

 edge of the sea, some peasants were erect- 

 ing a stack of corn. " Look," he said, 

 " seen from here, they are beautiful. 

 They are constructing that simple and 

 yet so important thing, which is above 

 all else the happy and almost unvarying 

 monument of human life taking root — 

 a stack of corn. The distance, the air of 

 the evening, weave their joyous cries into 

 a kind of song without words, which re- 

 plies to the noble song of the leaves as 

 they whisper over our heads. Above 

 330 



