BEES IN THE HIVE. 203 
and the life of its inhabitants, I think you will ac- 
knowledge that they are a wonderful community, and 
that it is a great compliment to anyone to say that he 
or she is "as busy as a bee." 
* In order to begin at the beginning of the story, 
let us suppose that we go into a country garden 
one fine morning in May when the sun is shining 
brightly overhead, and that we see hanging from the 
bough of an old apple-tree a black object which looks 
very much like a large plum-pudding. On approach- 
ing it, however, we see that it is a large cluster or 
swarm of bees clinging to each other by their legs; 
each bee with its two fore-legs clinging to the two 
hinder legs of the one above it. In this way as many 
as 20,000 bees may be clinging together, and yet they 
hang so freely that a bee, even from quite the centre 
of the swarm, can disengage herself from her neigh- 
bours and pass through to the outside of the cluster 
whenever she wishes. 
If these bees were left to themselves, they would 
find a home after, a time in a hollow tree, or under 
the roof of a house, or in some other cavity, and begin 
to build their honeycomb there. But as we do not 
wish to lose their honey we will bring a hive, and, 
holding it under the swarm, shake the bough gently 
so that the bees fall into it, and cling to the sides 
as we turn it over on a piece of clean linen, on the 
stand where the hive is to be. 
And now let us suppose that we are able to watch 
what is going on in the hive. Before five minutes 
are over the industrious little insects have begun to 
