The Life of the Bee 
23 
To-day this is all changed. A certain 
number of workers, it is true, will peace- 
fully go to the fields, as though nothing 
were happening; will come back, clean the 
hive, attend to the brood-cells, and hold 
altogether aloof from the general ecstasy. 
These are the ones that will not accompany 
the queen; they will remain to guard the 
old home, feed the nine or ten thousand 
eggs, the eighteen thousand larvae, the 
thirty-six thousand nymphs and seven or 
eight royal princesses that to-day shall 
all be abandoned. Why they have been 
singled out for this austere duty, by what 
law, or by whom, it is not in our power 
to divine. To this mission of theirs they 
remain inflexibly, tranquilly faithful; and 
though I have many times tried the ex- 
periment of sprinkling a colouring matter 
over one of these resigned Cinderellas, 
that are moreover easily to be distinguished 
in the midst of the rejoicing crowds by 
their serious and somewhat ponderous gait, 
62 
