AN IDYL OF THE HONEY-BEE. 



THERE is no creature with which man has sur- 

 rounded himself that seems so much like a prod- 

 uct of civilization, so much like the result of de- 

 velopment on special lines and in special fields, as 

 the honey-bee. Indeed, a colony of bees, with their 

 neatness and love of order, their division of labor, 

 their public spiritedness, their thrift, their complex 

 economies and their inordinate love of gain, seems as 

 far removed from a condition of rude nature as does 

 a walled city or a cathedral town. Our native bee, on 

 the other hand, " the burly, dozing bumble-bee," af- 

 fects one more like the rude, untutored savage. He 

 has learned nothing from experience. He lives from 

 hand to mouth. He luxuriates in time of plenty, 

 and he starves in times of scarcity. He lives in a 

 rude nest or in a hole in the ground, and in small 

 communities ; he builds a few deep cells or sacks in 

 which he stores a little honey and bee-bread for his 

 young, but as a worker in wax he is of the most 

 primitive and awkward. The Indian regarded the 

 honey-bee as an ill-omen. She was the white man's 

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