The Life of the Bee 
that sort of abstract divinity that we should 
call future society, which the bees would 
appear to regard far more seriously than 
we. It happens, for instance, at times that 
apiarists, for various reasons, will prevent 
the queen from joining a swarm by inserting 
a trellis into the hive. The nimble and 
slender workers will flit through it, unper- 
ceiving, but to the poor slave of love, 
heavier and more corpulent than her daugh- 
ters, it offers an impassable barrier. The 
bees, when they find that the queen has not 
followed, will return to the hive and scold 
the unfortunate prisoner, hustle and ill- 
treat her, accusing her of mere laziness, 
probably, or suspecting her of feeble mind. 
On their second departure, when they find 
that she still has not followed, her ill-faith 
becomes evident to them, and their attacks 
grow more serious. And finally, when they 
shall have gone forth once more, and still 
with the same result, they will almost 
always condemn her as irremediably faith- 
less to her destiny and to the future of the 
race, and put her to death in the royal 
prison. 
go 
