The Life of the Bee 



which was as readily perceptible as the 

 great wheel of a clock ; showed him, in 

 all its bareness, the universal agitation 

 on every comb, the perpetual, frantic, 

 bewildered haste of the nurses around 

 .the brood-cells ; the living gangways and 

 ladders formed by the makers of wax, the 

 abounding, unceasing activity of the entire 

 population, and their pitiless, useless ef- 

 fort ; the ardent, feverish coming and 

 going of all, the general absence of sleep 

 save in the cradles alone, around which 

 continuous labour kept watch ; the denial 

 of even the repose of death in a home 

 which permits no illness and accords no 

 grave ; and my friend, his astonishment 

 over, soon turned his eyes away, and in 

 them I could read the signs of I know 

 not what saddened fear. 



And truly, underlying the gladness that 

 we note first of all in the hive, underly- 

 ing the dazzling memories of beautiful 

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