1030 



THE NATURE BOOK 



SHAKING THE SWAKM INTO A SKEP. 



None knew where or when the next meal 

 would be taken or what fortune would 

 follow departure from home. Yet, again, 

 the Old Queen called. " Forward," she 

 cried ; and with a mighty rush some 

 thousands of workers left the hive and 

 circled in the air with a great noise of wings 

 and many shrill cries of excitement. ])itched 

 too high for any human ear. Seeing her 

 huge cohort leading the way, the Queen 

 moved steadily to the ahghting board, 

 stretched her wings that had been unused 

 for so long, and rose into the sunny air, 

 followed almost immediately by her re- 

 tainers, who had not left her for a moment. 

 Behind her came the rest of the swarm, 

 and soon these many thousands of sober 

 Workers were playing in the sunhght as 

 though they had never known the mean- 

 ing oi toil. They moved in large sweep- 

 ing flight, much greater than that wliich 

 served them when they came to and 

 from the fields ; and as they went round 

 they sang their own shrill summer song 



as though they knew that this was for 

 them the one hohday of their life, and 

 that when it was at an end there would 

 be no further respite from labour until 

 work was ended for all time. 



At the far end of the orchard a 3'oung 

 mulberry tree had allowed one branch 

 to stretch out beyond all the others, 

 and the gardener had allowed it to 

 remain for reasons best known to him- 

 self. Hither the Old Queen made her 

 way ; the dense swarm moving in large 

 circles round and round her at a pace 

 that made the air as full of sound as 

 sunshine. Gradually the flight of the 

 bees took a circular shape, a living wheel 

 seemed to go round the tree, very large 

 at first, but contracting gradually until 

 in a few moments it had disappeared, and 

 in its place there was one long cluster of 

 bees hanging down in some mysterious 

 fashion from the branch of the mulberry 

 tree itself. Tlie ardour of the swarm had 

 proved of slKjrt duration. Once again 



