ITALIAN QUEEN BEE 47 



standpoint of workers, are the most impor- 

 tant personages of our order. To be sires 

 is the sole object of the Chaps' creation. 

 The second fact is, that the very great ma- 

 jority of all the thousands of bees hatched 

 in our colony are the Maids, that is the 

 Worker bees, and they are what my Master 

 calls imperfect females, so that they never 

 are married, but give themselves entirely to 

 the nursing of young bees, gathering honey, 

 and supplying the chief share of the neces- 

 sary warmth of the colony, which as I in- 

 timated before, must be at blood heat or 

 over, at least among the brood combs when 

 a brood is being reared. I have already af- 

 firmed my belief that a benevolent Creator 

 made us, and purposed our peculiar kind 

 of colony inspiration, as He has created all 

 beings and things and foreordained their de- 

 sign. But I also believe that by searching 

 no one has found Him out completely, 

 known His mind nor been His counselor, 

 for there are hosts of secret things and these 

 all belong to Him. One of the mysterious 



