HAPPY 



this was the customary salutation to all newly-born 

 bees. Of course I was too young to appreciate all 

 they said and did, and I soon forgot the jubilation, for 

 I happened, in my wanderings, upon a cell brimming 

 with honey, and, without asking permission, I ate and 

 ate until I could not hold another mouthful. 



Then a strange drowsiness seized me, and I scarcely 

 knew which way to turn. But I fell in with what I 

 afterward learned were nurse bees, and they took me 

 in charge. Presently, hanging fast to the comb with 

 my half-a-dozen legs, I fell asleep. 



Wonderful things had happened in a very few 

 minutes. It seemed to me, as I began to drowse and 

 the light to fade, that once more I was falling asleep 

 in my cell, whence I had so shortly emerged. The 

 something that had awakened within me, that had 

 caused me to turn round and round in my cell, and 

 that had cried gently in my ear, "See the light cut 

 your way through the door and live," sang me to sleep. 



When I awoke, for a moment I imagined I was 

 still in my cell. I thought I could hear my neighbors, 

 on all sides of me, biting at the wax doors that closed 

 them in, and that I could see the thin, transparent 

 shutters giving way before the eager heads which ap- 

 peared in the doorways tiny, whitish-black heads, 

 with huge eyes that slowly issued from the dungeon- 

 like cells. I, too, unconsciously trying my mandibles, 

 must have been biting on the combs about me, for pres- 

 ently I was stopped by an important-looking bee that 

 cried, sharply, "What are you about, youngster?" 



He was rough to me, but I had learned that one 

 must not bite the combs just for the pleasure of biting; 



16 



