22 AUTOBIOGBAPHY OF AN 



colored, which is our true one if we are high- 

 bred, had three yellow bands across her 

 back, and her body lengthened out so grace- 

 fully over the adjoining cells that my re- 

 sponsive admiration scarcely knew bounds- 

 Stroking me affectionately, she softly began 

 to cry, if I say it in English, "Queen, Queen, 

 Queenie, ee-e-e! That is your name and 

 you are my daughter. I dearly love and 

 am proud of you, but the spirit of the hive 

 knows but one punishment for every in- 

 fringement of its instinctive rules, and that 

 is death. You will be of age in two days 

 and the law is that then, or about then, your 

 mother must lead out a swarm of most of 

 the adult individuals of this colony. Should 

 I not do so, they will supercede by killing 

 me, and if I, or you, or any of the others 

 offend against the swarm-impulse and you 

 should come out of your cell before I have 

 led out the swarm to a new home, then I 

 must myself sting you to death, or command 

 that you be smothered to death, lest the 

 beneficent designs of gracious Nature be 



