THE WORK OF THE BEE. 11 



Then I hear something else hi the hum of the 

 bee as it passes me so swiftly on its way from the 

 hive to the flower and back again ; I fancy I hear 

 it say, ' I am very busy, but at the same time I am 

 very happy.' 



It certainly is a very busy bee. Let me give you 

 some idea of what its work is, how busy its little life. 

 In the first place, it works so hard that it does not 

 live long. In spring and summer-time, when there is 

 much honey to be had, and a great deal of work to 

 do, its life is a very short one, perhaps not more than 

 from six to eight weeks. And to show you how this 

 shortness of life is caused by hard work, you must 

 know that a bee born in autumn, at the beginning 

 of September, will live all through the winter, and 

 generally during the first months of spring, that is 

 to say, from six to eight months — as many months, 

 you see, during its winter rest, as it lives weeks in 

 summer, when it is hard at work. ]• 



The daily work of a bee in summer is something 

 most remarkable. Go into the garden, when the 

 sun rises early, and you will very soon see the 

 bee come out and begin its day. And when it has 

 found a place — perhaps it found this the day before 

 — where honey, or whatever it wants, is to be had, 

 whether it is far off" or near, it begins to go backwards 

 and forwards to the place as fast as it can fly. It has 

 been found out that if the place, where it can get its 

 food, is tolerably near, it will go backwards and for- 

 wards as many as eight or ten times in an hour. 



Sir John Lubbock, of whose observations you will 

 hear more, has made many experiments about this, 



