g LIVING CREATURES. 



straight line, which is called a "bee-line." Having 

 filled themselves with nectar, and having taken a good 

 drink of water, they fly back to the hive, and hang 

 from its top in thick clusters or festoons, holding to 

 one another by their legs. In twenty-four hours, 

 small plates of wax appear in pouches on their under- 

 parts, or abdomens. 



The workers shake the wax from their bodies, or 

 pick it out of the pouches with their feet ; then take 

 it in their jaws, work it over with saliva, and from it 



build cells in double rows. A 

 great many are at work, and 

 they crowd one another close- 

 ly. Wonderful indeed are 

 these cells ! always six-sided ; 

 never round or square. Why 

 are they six-sided, and not 

 square? How awkward for 

 a round animal to turn in a 



Hexagons and Circles. gquare fofe | But why nQt 



round? With the diagram before you, these ques- 

 tions will be left for you to study upon. 



Besides nectar for honey, pollen is required for bee- 

 bread. This is mixed with honey for ordinary food, 

 and is quite necessary in the preparation of baby-food 

 for the young or larvae. Should you ask a bee why, 

 in gathering pollen, she confines herself to one variety 

 of flowers at one time, she could, perhaps, give you 

 no reason, even if she could talk. To keep the dif- 

 ferent kinds of plants unmixed, it is necessary that 

 this should be so. 



The pollen is scraped up and rolled into balls, and 



