ITALIAN QUEEN BEE 63 



legs, drew my long body under me until it 

 was the shape of a sickle, thrust my abdomen 

 down into it, and, by a marvelous provision 

 of my nature, dexterously glued a tiny egg 

 to the bottom of that cell, similarly as the 

 botfly has been endowed with ability to thus 

 secure her eggs to a horse's hair. But our 

 fastening is not so tenacious as that, since 

 it need not be, but is sufficiently so, as that 

 if our hive were blown over or upset by 

 some accident, not one egg would be dis- 

 lodged. 



Now, after I had been thus diligent for 

 several days filling up the gaps in the brood 

 nest, I heard my Master telling his wife, 

 who was frequently his associate and an in- 

 terested spectator at the apiary, that "he 

 did dislike to part with me at any price." 

 She replied that she thought the price was 

 fine, compared with that for which many 

 other Queens were marketed, which I then 

 learned was from one to five dollars, accord- 

 ing to the particular strain of their extrac- 

 tion, size, beauty, and the reputation of the 



