HAPPY 



persisted, and presently came near enough to feel her 

 presence. I, too, sang fervently, for a new hope had 

 risen. Soon in the vast forest of the world a new 

 colony would be planted to aid in carrying on the 

 eternal work of the bee. 



At another corner of the hive I heard a different 

 sound. It was the wail of a Queen that was being 

 destroyed. I hurried toward her, but somehow felt 

 no pity for her. A great cluster of bees completely 

 enveloped her; this was the mode of taking the royal 

 life. All the remaining cells with their occupants had 

 been cut down, and soon there remained in all the 

 hive but the one mother and the one daughter. I came 

 upon the destroyed cells, torn and empty, and could 

 not help mourning the death of the royal creatures 

 they had housed. Perhaps there had been but min- 

 utes between the births of the Queens, but those 

 minutes had been fatal to the last. 



Preparations went steadily on for the day of the 

 exodus. The new Queen took her first flight suc- 

 cessfully; and then came the mating! Only a few 

 drones had been permitted to escape the massacre 

 of a month earlier tolerated on the chance of a 

 lost or a dead Queen borne with against a belated 

 mating. 



"How wonderful," Crip observed, ''that these 

 things should be provided for and how close are life 

 and death!" 



It was a hot afternoon when the time came for the 

 nuptial flight, and it lacked the wild glamour of an 

 earlier one that I had witnessed. On the first occasion 

 there were literally thousands of drones that went 



