V 

 THE YOUNG QUEENS 



[64] 



HERE let us close our hive, where we 

 find that life is reassuming its cir- 

 cular movement, is extending and multi- 

 plying, to be again divided as soon as it 

 shall attain the fulness of its happiness 

 and strength ; and let us for the last time 

 reopen the mother-city, and see what is 

 happening there after the departure of the 

 swarm. 



The tumult having subsided, the hap- 

 less city, that two thirds of her children 

 have abandoned for ever, becomes feeble, 

 empty, moribund ; like a body from which 

 the blood has been drained. Some thou- 

 sands of bees have remained, however ; and 

 233 



