LOSS OF TUB QUEEN. 277 



" Anywhere, anywhere 

 Out of the world ;" 



when amid tears and sighs of inexpressible agony, you set- 

 tle down into the heart-breaking conviction that you can 

 have no home until you have passed into that habitation not 

 fashioned by human hands, or inhabited by human hearts 1 



Is there any husband who can resist all the sweet attrac- 

 tions of a lovely wife ? who does not set a priceless value 

 upon the very gem of his life ? 



" If such there be, go mark him well ; 

 High though his titles, proud his fame, 

 Boundless his wealth as wish can claim, 

 The wretch, concentered all in self. 

 Living, shall forfeit fair renown, 

 And doubly dying, shall go down 

 To the vile dust from whence he sprang 

 Unwept, unhonored, and unsung." — Scott. 



I trust my readers, remembering my profession, will par- 

 don this long digression to which I felt myself irresistibly 

 impelled. 



When the bees commence their work in the Spring, they 

 give, as previously stated, reliable evidence either that all is 

 well, or that ruin lurks within. In the common hives howev- 

 er, it is not always easy to decide upon their real condition. 

 The queenless ones do not, in all cases, disclose their mis- 

 fortune, any more than all unhappy husbands or wives see 

 fit to proclaim the full extent of their domestic wretched- 

 ness : there is a vast amount of seeming even in the little 

 world of the bee-hive. One great advantage in my mode of 

 construction is that I am never obliged to leave anything to 

 vague conjecture ; but I can, in a few moments, open the in- 

 terior, and know precisely what is the real condition of the 

 bees. 



On one occasion I found that a colony which had been 

 queenless for a considerable time, utterly refused to raise 

 24 



