LITTLE LANCE-BEARERS 319 
to help their queen mother, assisted their younger 
brothers and sisters in making. 
“ Now, with these willing children to shoulder 
the bulk of the burdens, the queen needs no 
longer to go far afield to gather pollen and honey 
for the young. The workers do this gladly, and 
even bring in the food for the queen. She does 
not have to step outside the door; indeed she 
dare not. For faithful as are these grown-up 
children in all the duties of the colony, they have 
one serious failing. They are exceptionally fond 
of eggs. If the mother so much as turns her back 
on even her most trusted worker, the little glut¬ 
ton falls to and gobbles up as many eggs as it can 
lay hands on. So the queen must stand on con¬ 
stant guard lest her well-planned efforts come to 
naught. One would think that with all this vigi¬ 
lance she herself would develop an unimpeach¬ 
able integrity. But alas! when, before the sum¬ 
mer is over, she is the mother of laying queens, 
she is just as anxious to eat their eggs as they 
were to eat hers. 
“ By and by there will probably be fifteen or 
twenty laying queens in our colony here, with 
two or three score or more of workers. Then, as 
you may imagine, affairs will be decidedly inter¬ 
esting. Busy will be no name for the little 
queens on guard over their precious eggs. But 
there will be no danger of their coming to blows. 
