A Second Swarm — Idle Hours. 83 



swarms of wild bees are starved to death. Then 

 again, our hive is much more convenient than a 

 hollow tree : dryer and warmer, and with a better 

 entrance. I've seen some pretty good hollow trees 

 in my time, certainly ; but there's nothing like a 

 hive after all." 



Buz was somewhat consoled by this, but still felt 

 indignant at the idea of being liable to lose any of 

 the beautiful honey she had worked so hard for. 



" Wait till some one tries it on with us," said she 

 to herself. " Not sting, indeed ! We'll see about 

 that." 



Soon after this, Buz began to find her present 

 hive almost as inconveniently crowded as the one 

 she had left ; the super was nearly filled with comb, 

 and that was half full of honey ; the queen had laid 

 a great many eggs in the hive below, and the young 

 bees were daily emerging from their cells. 



Some of the grubs, also, in the royal cells were 

 nearly ready to come out. 



A feverish excitement, similar to that which she 

 remembered on a former occasion, began to set in, 

 and the queen frequently squeaked. 



This time, however. Buz made up her mind to 

 remain where she was. 



" I'm getting too old," she told herself, " for 



