The Life of the Bee 
slab of tin, on the spot whence I had 
removed it; so that, while one side of 
the comb presented no abnormal feature, 
the damage having been repaired, the 
other displayed a sort of deep cavity, 
covering the space of about thirty cells, 
with the piece of tin as its base. The 
bees were disconcerted at first; they 
flocked in numbers to inspect and ex- 
amine this curious chasm; day after day 
they wandered agitatedly to and fro, ap- 
parently unable to form a decision. But, 
as I fed them copiously every evening, 
there came a moment when they had no 
more cells available for the storage of 
provisions. Thereupon they probably 
summoned their great engineers, distin- 
guished sculptors, and wax-workers, and 
invited them to turn this useless cavity 
to profitable account. 
The wax-makers having gathered around 
and formed themselves into a dense fes- 
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