14 THE BEE'S BUSY LIFE. 



not be lives of idleness. We shall not get rusty for 

 want of work. 



' I come at morn, when dewdrops bright 



Are twinkling on the grasses, 

 And woo the bahny breeze in flight 

 That o'er the heather passes. 



' Deem not these little eyes are dim 

 To every sense of duty ; 

 We owe a certain debt to Him 

 Who clad this earth in beauty. 



' And, therefore, I am never sad, 

 A burden homeward bringing. 

 But help to make the summer glad 

 In my own way of singing. 



' And thus my little life is fixed 

 Till tranquilly it closes.' 



Chambers' Journal. 



Indeed, as they work unceasingly day after day, 

 doing the same thing, I do not think we ever can 

 hear them say, in bee language, whatever it is, ' Oh, I 

 am tired of all this ! It is just the same thing every 

 day ! It is so dull to do it again and again !' The 

 cheerful hum we hear, as the bee flies past us, does 

 not, I think, sound at all like such a grumble. Do 

 you think it does ? It may be the same thing every 

 day, but it is what the bees have to do, and they do it 

 very cheerfully ; and I am sure of this, that they are 

 never so happy and in such good temper as when 

 they are at work ; and never so cross, as you will find 

 when you keep bees, as when they are obliged to stay 

 at home by the weather being cold or wet. Then they 

 are much more inclined to sting. 



