The Swarm 
tragic and distant quest of love. This 
they will never do, however, if they be 
provided with a fragment of comb con- 
taining brood-cells, whence they shall be 
able to rear other queens. Indeed, their 
affection even may turn into fury and 
hatred should their sovereign fail in her 
duty to that sort of abstract divinity that 
we should call future society, which the 
bees would appear to regard far more 
seriously than we. It happens, for in- 
stance, at times, that apiarists for various 
reasons will prevent the queen from join- 
ing a swarm by inserting a trellis into the 
hive; the nimble and slender workers will 
flit through it, unperceiving, but to the 
poor slave of love, heavier and more cor- 
pulent than her daughters, it offers an im- 
passable barrier. The bees, whien they 
find that the queen has not followed, will 
return to the hive, and scold the unfortu- 
nate prisoner, hustle and ill-treat her, 
109 
