Animals -- Juvenile fiction; Children's stories; Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Natural history -- Juvenile fiction
So she flew off by herself and was talking rather airily to a Butterfly
when two of the Workers came after her.
"You may return to the rest," she said in a queenly way, as she motioned
to them with her feelers. "I will come by and by."
"No," said they, "you must come at once or we shall all go back to the
Bee tree. You must stay with us. You must do your part as it should be
done." And she had to go, for she knew in her heart that Queens have to
obey the law as well as other people.
After she had hung with the Workers on the bush for some time, the ones
who had gone ahead to find a new home for the swarm came back and gave
the signal for the rest to follow. They went to an old log near the
river-bank, and here they began the real work. Crawling through an
opening at one end, they found a roomy place within, and commenced to
clean house at once.
"If there is anything I do like," said a Worker, as she dropped a
splinter of rotten wood outside the door, "it is house-cleaning."
"So do I," said her sister. "But what a fuss the Drones always make when
we try to do anything of the sort! A pretty-looking home we'd have if
they took care of it!"
"I'm glad none of them came with us to this place," said the first
Worker. "I guess they knew they were not wanted."
"There, there!" said the Queen-Mother, coming up to where they were;
"you must not talk in that way. It may be that you would rather do
without Drones, and perhaps they would rather do without you; but I need
you both and I will not have any quarreling." When she said this she
walked away with her head in the air, and the Workers did not scold any
more. They knew that she was right, and, after all, she was their Queen,
even if she did have to obey the laws.
Next they got varnish from the buds of poplar trees and varnished over
all the cracks and little holes in the walls of their home, leaving open
only the place where they were to go in and out. They also covered with
varnish a few heavy fragments of wood that lay on the floor of their
home, and when this task was done it was all in order and ready for the
furniture, that is, the comb.
You know how the comb looks, and you know how they get the wax from
which to make it, but unless you are acquainted with the Bees, and have
seen them at work, you have no idea what busy creatures they are. The
Queen-Mother, as soon as the cells were ready and she could begin laying
eggs again, was as contented and happy as ever.
One day, when she was walking around a corner of the comb, she ran
against a sad and discouraged-looking Worker. "Why, what is the matter?"
said she, kindly. "Are you sick?"
"No," answered the Worker. "I'm not sick and I'm not tired, only I want
to get through."
"Through with what?" asked the Queen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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