14 THE PRACTICAL BEE GUIDE. 



however, leave the hive at noon, never to returii. Others, 

 " infirm of purpose," seek to share, for one night more, the 

 comforts of the hive ; but sentries at the entrance forbid it and 

 drive them off. Others still, fearful of destiny, have clung- to 

 the cojTiliS, with weak love of life exceptional in such a race 

 and feeble efforts to resist expulsion to the inhospitable fields 

 without. On them the workers pour the vials of their wrath, 

 and the helpless victims, left by nature defenceless among a 

 multitude of pitiless enemies, succumb to their wounds, or 

 are driven out to join their comrades in misfortune. As the 

 sun sinks and twilight gathers round the scene, the chill of 

 the autumn evening settles upon the vanquished, and all that 

 army of males, once so gay and careless, lies motionless and 

 dead, 



25. The Approach of Winter — That awful tragedy over, the 

 workers return to their more peaceful duties. Blackberry, 

 heather, and ivy still offer their sweets, and much remains to 

 be done before sufficient stores can be collected and sealed to 

 supply the colony with food for winter and early spring. But 

 foraging becomes a more precarious task. The days in which 

 a bee may work out of doors grow shorter. Rain and high 

 winds claim their victims. The strength of the stock 

 diminishes rapidly. And the queen gradually ceases to lay, 

 well knowing that presently the task of the nurse bees will 

 have become impossible. For autumn, with its harvest song 

 and glory tints, is passing, and 



" The leaves are falling, falling, 

 Solemnly and slow ; 

 'Caw! caw!' the rooks are calling. 

 Tt is a sound of woe, 

 A sound of woe ! " 



Presently silence reigns in the hive. The bees have collected 

 upon the centre combs, clustering closely — 



" Insensibly subdued to settled quiet." 



There they will hang together until, the frosts and storms of 

 winter passed, spring shall visit the earth again, and the 

 morning sun, peering through the entrance of their citadel, 

 shall woo them to the work and adventures or another year! 



