The Swarm 



time of great heat, to congregate and to 

 gossip. 



[23] 



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 larv^, 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 whom, 

 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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