The Swarm 
you still shall never succeed in making 
them doubt of the future; and though 
they be starving, and their number so 
small that it scarcely suffices to shield their 
mother from the enemy’s gaze, they will 
set about to reorganize the laws of the 
colony, and to provide for what is most 
pressing ; they will distribute the work in 
accordance with the new necessities of this 
disastrous moment, and thereupon will 
immediately re-assume their labours with 
an ardour, a patience, a tenacity and intel- 
ligence not often to be found existing to 
such a degree in nature, true though it be 
that most of its creatures display more 
confidence and courage than man. 
But the presence of the queen is not 
even essential for their discouragement to 
vanish and their love to endure. It is 
enough that she should have left, at the 
moment of her death or departure, the 
very slenderest hope of descendants. ‘We 
85 
