318 NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN 
honey, both materials having been gathered from 
the red clover field. On the mattress were laid 
two or three tiny eggs, the nucleus of the fine 
colony she hoped soon to have flourishing. 
“ Three or four days passed, during which time 
the queen mother hurriedly added to her pollen 
and honey mattress and laid more eggs, and then, 
as she roused to go about her labors one morning, 
lo! in the place of her first eggs were some tiny 
little white grubs, which must have gladdened 
her heart mightily. For these were workers, and 
full well she knew what need there would be of 
extra hands when her other eggs began to hatch. 
How eagerly she supplied them with honey and 
bee bread! Between times they nibbled each in 
their own place on their luscious pollen and 
honey bed, and shortly, when they had made a 
little hollow about them, they began to spin fine 
little silken cells for themselves. How proudly 
the queen mother viewed their industry! And 
as occasion offered she herself helped to 
strengthen these cells by reinforcing them with 
bits of hair, and pieces of leaves and grass mixed 
with wax. By and by each little grub was safely 
enclosed in a tight little cell over an inch long, 
and as thick as your thumb. You can see just 
what they looked like by examining other cells in 
the nest there, which these same workers, when 
they had had their short pupa sleep and emerged 
