The Life of the Bee 
is more prolific, stronger, more active and 
gentler than our own. It is the custom 
to forward them in small, perforated 
boxes. In these some food is placed, and 
the queen enclosed, together with a certain 
number of workers, selected as far as pos- 
sible from among the oldest bees in the 
hive. (The age of the bee can be readily 
told by its body, which gradually becomes 
more polished, thinner, and almost bald; 
and more particularly by the wings, which 
hard work uses and tears.) It is their mis- 
sion to feed the queen during the journey, 
to tend her and guard her. I would fre- 
quently find, when the box arrived, that 
nearly every one of the workers was dead. 
On one occasion, indeed, they had all 
perished of hunger; but in this instance, 
as in all others, the queen was alive, un- 
harmed, and full of vigour; and the last of 
her companions had probably passed away in 
the act of presenting the last drop of honey 
she held in her sac to the queen, who was 
symbo] of a life more precious, more vast, 
than her own. 
72 
