The Life of the Bee 
I will frankly confess, therefore, that the 
marked bee often returns alone. Shall we 
believe that in bees there exists the same 
difference of character as in men: that of 
them too some are gossips, and others prone 
to silence? A triend who stood by and 
watched my experiment declared that it was 
evidently mere selfishness or vanity that 
caused so many of the bees to refrain from 
revealing the source of their wealth, and 
from sharing with others the glory of an 
achievement that must seem miraculous to 
the hive. These were sad vices, indeed, that 
give not forth the sweet odour, so fragrant 
and loyal, that springs from the home of the 
many thousand sisters. But, whatever the 
cause, it often will also happen that the bee 
whom fortune has favoured will return to 
the honey accompanied by two or three 
friends. Jam aware that Sir John Lubbock, 
in the appendix to his book on “ Ants, Bees, 
and Wasps,” records the results of his in- 
vestigations in long and minute tables, and 
from these we are led to infer that it is 
a matter of rarest occurrence for a single 
bee to follow the one who has made the 
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