58 CONVERSATIONS ON 



"These are workers among the bees, and 

 they are gathering the dust out of the flowers, 

 to work it up into what is commonly called 

 bee-bread. More tools here, boys !" 



" Tools, Uncle Philip ! Ah, we like that : 

 pray let us hear of them ; what are they ?" 



" Why, there is a brush and a basket in the 

 legs of these little fellows ; but they are so 

 small that you cannot see them without a 

 microscope." 



" What is a microscope ?" 



" It is an instrument, made by fixing glasses 

 in such a way to look through, that small 

 things will seem to be very large. Do you 

 not see how some of these little fellows are 

 rolling themselves over in the inside of the 

 flowers, so that the yellow dust is sticking to 

 them ? Now their breasts, and legs, and 

 many other parts of their bodies are covered 

 with very short hairs, which catch the dust. 

 The last joint but one of each leg is made 

 exactly like a brush, the hairs being longer 

 there than on any other part ; and with these 

 they brush off the dust, and get it into two 

 little heaps. The bags into which they put it, 

 or rather the baskets, are in the thighs of the 

 last pair of legs. These are hollow, so as to 



