BEES. 



AN IDYL OF THE HONEY-BEE. 



There is no creature with which man has sui- 

 rounded himself that seems so much like a product of 

 civilization, so much like the result of development 

 on special lines and in special fields, as the honey-bee. 

 Indeed, a colony of bees, with their neatness and love 

 of order, their division of labor, their public spirited* 

 ness, their thrift, their complex economies and their 

 inordinate love of gain, seems as far removed from a 

 condition of rude nature as does a walled city or a 

 cathedral town. Our native bee, on the other hand, 

 " the burly, dozing humble-bee," affects one more like 

 the rude, untutored savage. He has learned nothing 

 from experience. He lives from hand to mouth. He 

 luxuriates in time of plenty, and he starves in times 

 of scarcity. He lives in a rude nest or in a hole in 

 the ground, and in small communities ; he builds a 

 few deep cells or sacks in which he stores a little honey 

 and bee-bread for his young, but as a worker in wax 

 jhe is of the most primitive and awkward. The In- 

 dian regarded the honey-bee as an ill-omen. She was 

 the white man's fly. In fact she was the epitome of 

 the white man himself. She has the white mans 

 craftiness, his industry, his architectural skill, his 

 neatness and love of system, his foresight ; and above 



