THE HONEY-FLOW 207 



alighting-board, for we can thus stand behind the 

 hive and out of the line of flight of the bees. We 

 can see them fall and stick, then run on as though 

 there was no second to spare. In twos, and fours, 

 and tens, they come with the visible signs of wealth 

 on their thighs. It seems as though some munificent 

 hand were tumbling all the wealth of the country-side 

 into our money-box. Just as in the observatory 

 hive, but on a larger scale, cells are gleaming every- 

 where with honey. Bees are covering full cells with 

 caps of exquisite whiteness. Some are hanging 

 hand-in-hand for the production of more wax with 

 which to fit walls to the flat foundations we have 

 given them. Nurses are cramming happy grubs, or 

 rather swimming them, in the food that they must eat 

 for themselves in this busy place ; others are urging 

 on the queen to lay eggs for a still greater army to 

 take advantage of the sweets that summer is pro- 

 viding so lavishly. Each one has her task, each task 

 its bee, though everything is obviously ordered ac- 

 cording to the willingness of each citizen to do the 

 work that lies nearest. 



Pollen nowadays is of little account. A week or 

 two ago each forager had the greatest difficulty to get 

 her burden safely into the cell. She ran a furious 

 gauntlet through the nurses, hungering for pollen, 

 and had to shake them off with a maze of dancing 

 turns and twists. Now every one knows where pollen 

 can he had, and the foragers lose no time in ramming 

 their bundles into a cell and starting off for more. 

 Many bees have been so careless about pollen that 

 they have not rolled it in bundles, but come home 

 smeared with what the flowers have put there. 



