The Young Queens 



powdery dust of the ways that lead unto 

 life. She is perfect, however, from head 

 to foot; she knows at once all that has to 

 be known ; and, hke the children of the 

 people, who learn, as it were, at their birth, 

 that for them there shall never be time 

 to play or to laugh, she instantly makes 

 her way to the cells that are closed, and 

 proceeds to beat her wings and to dance 

 in cadence, so that she in her turn may 

 quicken her buried sisters ; nor does she 

 for one instant pause to decipher the 

 astounding enigma of her destiny, or her 

 race. 



[65] 



The most arduous labours will, how- 

 ever, at first be spared her. A week 

 must elapse from the day of her birth 

 before she will quit the hive ; she will 

 then perform her first " cleansing flight," 

 and absorb the air into her tracheae, which, 

 237 



