The Life of the Bee 
who are exhaustedly, feverishly, erecting the 
cradles her fecundity demands. We have 
here the union of two mighty instincts, 
and their workings throw into light, though 
they leave unresolved, many an enigma of 
the hive. 
It will happen, for instance, that the 
workers will distance her and acquire a 
certain start; whereupon, mindful of their 
duties as careful housewives to provide for 
the bad days ahead, they hasten to fill with 
honey the cells they have wrested from 
the avidity of the species. But the queen 
approaches; material wealth must make way 
for the scheme of nature; and the distracted 
workers are compelled with all speed to 
remove the importunate treasure. 
But assume them to be a whole comb 
ahead, to have no longer before them her 
who stands for the tyranny of days they 
shall none of them see; we find, then, that 
they eagerly, hurriedly, build a zone of 
large cells, cells for males, whose construc- 
tion is very much easier and far more rapid. 
When the queen in her turn attains this 
unthankful zone, she will regretfully lay 
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