The Life of the Bee 
and even from the depths of the country, 
laden with presents. One can only 
assume that these persons must be indis- 
pensable to the race, to which they render 
essential service, although our means of 
investigation have not yet enabled us to 
discover what the precise nature of this 
service may be. There are others, again, 
who are incessantly engaged in the most 
wearisome labour, whether it be in great 
sheds full of wheels that forever turn round 
and round, or close by the shipping, or in 
obscure hovels, or on small plots of earth 
that from sunrise to sunset they are con- 
stantly delving and digging. Weare led to 
believe that this labour must be an offence, 
and punishable. For the persons guilty 
of it are housed in filthy, ruinous, squalid 
cabins. They are clothed in some colour- 
less hide. So great does their ardour 
appear for this noxious, or at any rate 
useless activity, that they scarcely allow 
64 
