"How very foolish," said the Queen, impatiently. "It would take a whole swarm a month to carry a single message a mile. I do hope that isn't going to turn out to be the best suggestion of all, for I should be most unhappy if I had to give the hand of my eldest daughter to a bee like that." "You may relieve your mind on that score," said the Trade Secretary. "I have just found another which is much better. This bee suggests that when we are not gathering honey and making honey-combs, it wouldn't be a bad thing to fly about barber-shops and gather hair and make hair-combs." "I think that is very foolish," said the Queen. "Why do you think it is better than the horse-bothering and the carrier-pigeon plans?" "It's no more foolish, and twice as funny," explained the Trade Secretary. "That is very true," said the Queen. "Here's another that's funnier yet," said the Lord High Treasurer. "This one says that we might gather curry and make curry-combs." The Queen laughed outright. "I think they'd better start a comic paper," she said. "That's the best idea yet," cried the Trade Secretary, enthusiastically, for he was a great flatterer. "Let us decide on that, and then your Majesty can keep your eldest daughter's hand as a reward for some future competition." "No," said the Queen, shaking her head; "that would never do. I shall not enter into this competition at all. The others would say, and very properly too, that I was partial to my own plan, and couldn't be a good judge of its merit. No; you must leave my plans out altogether." And so they went on examining the plans, none of which seemed any better or funnier than the ones I have mentioned, until they came to what appeared to be a grand scheme.