210 THE FAIRY-LAND OF SCIENCE. 
fight takes place within the hive, and the invader is 
stung to death. 
Sometimes, however, after they have killed the 
enemy, the bees cannot get rid of his body, for a snail 
or slug is too heavy to be easily moved, and yet it 
would make the hive very unhealthy to allow it to 
remain. In this dilemma the ingenious little bees 
fetch the gummy " propolis " from the plant-buds and 
cement the intruder all over, thus embalming his 
body and preventing it from decaying. 
And so the life of this wonderful city goes on. 
Building, harvesting, storing, nursing, ventilating and 
cleaning from morn till night, the little worker-bee 
lives for about eight months, and in that time has 
done quite her share of work in the world. Only the 
young bees, born late in the season, live on till the 
next year to work in the spring. The queen-bee lives 
longer, probably about two years, and then she too 
dies, after having had a family of many thousands of 
children. 
We have already pointed out that in our fairy-land 
of nature all things work together so as to bring order 
out of apparent confusion. But though we should 
naturally expect winds and currents, rivers and clouds, 
and even plants to follow fixed laws, we should 
scarcely have looked for such regularity in the life 
of the active, independent busy bee. Yet we see that 
she, too, has her own appointed work to do, and does 
it regularly and in an orderly manner. In this lecture 
we have been speaking entirely of the bee within the 
hive, and noticing how marvellously her instincts 
guide her in her daily life. But within the last few 
