The Life of the Bee 
day beholds the birth of thousands of 
bees. The overgrown males now all sally 
forth from their cells, and disport them- 
selves on the combs; and so crowded 
does the too prosperous city become that 
hundreds of belated workers, coming back 
from the flowers towards evening, will 
vainly seek shelter within, and will be 
forced to spend the night on the threshold, 
where they will be decimated by the cold. 
Restlessness seizes the people, and the 
old queen begins to stir. She feels 
that a new destiny is being prepared. 
She has religiously fulfilled her duty as a 
good creatress; and from this duty done 
there result only tribulation and sorrow. 
An invincible power menaces her tran- 
quillity ; she will soon be forced to quit 
this city of hers, where she has reigned. 
But this city is her work, it is she, her- 
self. She is not its queen in the sense in 
which men use the word. She issues no 
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