The Life of the Bee 
‘hunger, of force, of opinion and law, and 
the terror of hell when they die. To 
show what they are, we should have to 
consider them one by one. See that tall 
fellow there on the right, who flings up 
such mighty sheaves. Last summer his 
friends broke his right arm in some tavern 
row. I reduced the fracture, which was a 
bad and compound one. I tended him 
for a long time, and gave him the where- 
withal to live till he should be able to get 
back to work. He came to me every 
day. He profited by this to spread the 
report in the village that he had discov- 
ered me in the arms of my sister-in-law, 
and that my mother drank. He is not 
vicious, he bears me no ill-will; on the 
contrary, see what a broad, open smile 
spreads over his face as he sees me. It 
was not social animosity that induced him 
to slander me. The peasant values wealth 
far too much to hate the rich man. But 
336 
