The Swarm 
time of great heat, to congregate and to 
gossip. 
[ 23] 
To-day this is all changed. A certain 
number of workers, it is true, will peace- 
fully go to the fields, as though nothing 
were happening; will come back, clean 
the hive, attend to the brood-cells, and 
hold altogether aloof from the general 
ecstasy. These are the ones that will 
not accompany the queen; they will 
remain to guard the old home, feed the 
nine or ten thousand eggs, the eighteen 
thousand larve, the thirty-six thousand 
nymphs and seven or eight royal prin- 
cesses, that to-day shall all be abandoned. 
Why they have been singled out for this 
austere duty, by what law, or by whom, 
it is not in our power to divine. To 
this mission of theirs they remain in- 
flexibly, tranquilly faithful; and though 
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