36 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN 



Master, but retard the hatching of bees to 

 such an extent that my mother would not 

 be at all likely to lead out another swarm 

 that season. And they did complete over 

 one hundred pounds of luscious comb honey 

 that summer, in sections holding about one 

 pound each. 



Meanwhile, I wondered why I had been 

 left with so few bees. But some from the 

 fields, absent when the swarm went out, al- 

 lured by the old colony scent, since each 

 one has its own, came into the old familiarly 

 scented entrance and so upon the old combs 

 again. Presently I became assured that 

 with myriads of young bees hatching out at 

 the rate of three thousand a day, we should 

 soon be populous again. The sun shone 

 bright and warm, as it does to glorious per- 

 fection in Italy, and the old hive was warm 

 enough. Not one egg or larva chilled or 

 died. In a few days I was the adored royal 

 head of a rapidly increasing colony, and was 

 as full of youthful spirits and hopes as 



