The Life of the Bee 



filling, expand her body, and proclaim her 

 the bride of space. Thereupon she re- 

 turns to the hive, and waits yet one week 

 more ; and then, with her sisters born 

 the same day as herself, she will for the 

 first time set forth to visit the flowers. 

 A special emotion now will lay hold of 

 her ; one that French apiarists term the 

 " soleil d'artifice," but which might more 

 rightly perhaps be called the " sun of dis- 

 quiet." For it is evident that the bees 

 are afraid, that these daughters of the 

 crowd, of secluded darkness, shrink from 

 the vault of blue, from the infinite loneli- 

 ness of the light; and their joy is halting, 

 and woven of terror. They cross the 

 threshold and pause ; they depart, they 

 return, twenty times. They hover aloft 

 in the air, their head persistently turned 

 to the home ; they describe great soaring 

 circles that suddenly sink beneath the 

 weight of regret ; and their thirteen thou- 



238 



