AT PEEP OF DAY 



hives. Some of the new dwellings are tenanted, 

 while others await inmates. 



In early childhood my knowledge of the bee 

 was confined to Dr. Watts's admiring mention 

 of the busy insect, to a hearty appreciation 

 of the luscious sweets sealed in the little waxen 

 cells, and to a painful encounter with an enraged 

 member of a hive on whom I accidentally trod 

 while indulging in the delights of a bare-footed 

 ramble among white clover blossoms. It was 

 not until the time of the transfer of the little 

 squirrel house, with its incongruous inhabitants 

 and its store of sweet treasure, that I gained a 

 little conception of the depth of meaning in the 

 life of a bee. 



We are told that these little sisters, the work- 

 ers, toil night and day, in darkness and in light, 

 during their entire short lives, for the benefit of 

 the generation that is to come, and that they 

 themselves reap merely enough for sustenance; 

 the finest of their gathering being devoted to 

 community interests, and in particular to the in- 

 terests of the yet unborn or dormant republics. 

 At the time when the sacrifice is required they 

 willingly abandon the beautiful, well-stocked 

 homes and go forth in search of some bare, un- 



