IV 

 THE YOUNG QUEENS 



66 



HERE let us close our hive, where we find that life is 

 reassuming its circular movement, is extending and 

 multiplying, to be again divided as soon as it shall 

 attain the fulness of its happiness and strength ; and let us 

 for the last time reopen the mother-city, and see what is 

 happening there after the departure of the swarm. 



The tumult having subsided, the hapless city, that two- 

 thirds of her children have abandoned for ever, becomes 

 feeble, empty, moribund ; like a body from which the blood 

 has been drained. Some thousands of bees have remained, 

 however, and these, though a trifle languid perhaps, are 

 still immovably faithful to the duty a precise destiny has laid 

 upon them, still conscious of the part that they have themselves 

 to play ; they resume their labours, therefore, fill as best they 

 can the place of those who have gone, remove all trace of 

 the orgies, carefully house the provisions that have escaped 

 pillage, sally forth to the flowers again, and keep scrupulous 

 guard over the hostages of the future. 



And, for all that the moment may appear gloomy, 

 hope abounds wherever the eye may turn. We might be 

 in one of the castles of German legend, whose walls are 



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