The Life of the Bee 
Lag] 
All things go to prove that it is not 
the queen, but the spirit of the hive, 
that decides on the swarm. With this 
queen of ours it happens as with many 
a chief among men, who though he ap- 
pear to give orders, is himself obliged 
to obey commands far more mysterious, 
far more inexplicable, than those he 
issues to his subordinates. The hour 
once fixed, the spirit will probably let 
it be known at break of dawn, or the 
previous night, if indeed not two nights 
before; for scarcely has the sun drunk 
in the first drops of dew when a most 
unaccustomed stir, whose meaning the 
bee-keeper rarely will fail to grasp, is 
to. be noticed within and around the 
buzzing city. At times one would al- 
most appear to detect a sign of dispute, 
hesitation, recoil. It will happen even 
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