The Life of the Bee 
stinct, and conduct two opposite forces to 
a successful issue. They are fully aware 
that if the young queens should escape who 
now clamour for birth, they would fall into 
the hands of their elder sister, by this time 
irresistible, who would destroy them one by 
one. The workers, therefore, will pile on 
fresh layers of wax in proportion as the 
prisoner reduces, from within, the walls of 
her tower; and the impatient princess will 
ardently persist in her labour, little sus- 
pecting that she has to deal with an en- 
chanted obstacle, that rises ever afresh 
from its ruin. She hears the war-cry of 
her rival; and already aware of her royal 
duty and destiny, although she has not 
yet looked upon life, nor knows what a 
hive may be, she answers the challenge 
from within the depths of her prison. 
But her cry is different; it is stifled and 
hollow, for it has to traverse the walls of 
a tomb; and, when night is falling, and 
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