THE DRONE AND HIS STORY 247 



spring. If the bee-master sees drones about a 

 hive, when other colonies have long ago made 

 a good riddance of them, he well knows what ails 

 the stock. Its queen is old and failing ; and these 

 astute amazons have given reprieve to their male- 

 kind until a new mother-bee can be raised and 

 properly mated. 1 1 is a case of mercy to the drones 

 tempered with so much justice to themselves that 

 the original virtue is largely discounted. 



And where the drones are carried through the 

 winter, it is ever a sign that the hive is not only 

 without a queen, but never will contrive one, of 

 their own race. Yet they know that, in the 

 preservation of the drones, they have at least one 

 indispensable element for their salvation, and — 

 who shall gainsay it of the sovereign honey-bee ? — 

 perhaps they rely on the bee-master to guess their 

 plight, and furnish them with another queen, in 

 time to save his property from extinction. 



