THE BEES AND THE POETS. 
75 
When the bee is fully laden with pollen and 
honey, she flies straight as an arrow to her home, 
and from this fact we have easily learned 'to call 
a straight line a “ bee line.” How is her uner- 
ring flight directed ? Who is her guide ? Some 
think memory aids her in finding the hive ; some 
that her far-sighted eyes lead her safely ; and 
others that, by some additional sense or instinct, 
that same paternal Power, whose care is over all, 
is pleased to conduct to and fro, not alone the 
bee and the bird, but a variety of other creatures 
who lack tongues to inquire the way. 
To us God gives plain directions for our every- 
day life, and teaches us to call upon him at all 
times and make known our wants. “ In all thy 
ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy 
paths.” 
As we think of the bee, gathering through the 
warm summer days its baskets of food and laying 
by a store of good things for the future, we can 
say with the poet, 
“Sweet laborer! ’mid the summer’s golden hour, 
Pull oft I trace thy little busy flight ; 
With pleasure see thee perch from flower to flower, 
On violets, woodbines, roses, lilies bright.” 
