Produced by David Edwards, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) NUOVA or THE NEW BEE A Story for Children of Five to Fifty by VERNON KELLOGG With Songs by CHARLOTTE KELLOGG Illustrated by Milo Winter HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY Boston and New York COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY VERNON KELLOGG AND HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED TO JEAN WHO IS FIVE [Illustration: "Nuova, I love you"] PREFATORY NOTE Most of this that I have written about bees is true: what is not, does not pretend to be. Some of the true part sounds almost like a description of what human life might in some respects be, if certain social movements of to-day were followed out to their logical extreme. I suppose that in this likeness lies the moral of the book. V. K. CONTENTS I. Nuova Appears 1 II. Nuova's First Experiences 7 III. Nuova as Nurse 16 IV. Nuova sees Some Other Things Done 29 V. Nuova sees Bee Moth and gets acquainted with Beffa 44 VI. Nuova and Hero, and the Birth of the Princess 60 VII. Nuova goes Outside 78 VIII. Nuova and Hero again, and a Battle 93 IX. Hero and Nuova once more, and the Great Courting Chase 106 X. Nuova in the Beautiful Garden 115 XI. Hero finds Nuova in the Garden 130 XII. The Happy Ending 142 ILLUSTRATIONS "Nuova, I love you" _Colored Frontispiece_ The beginning of a new life for Nuova 4 Industriously cleaning the floor 12 "I am so tired," replied poor Nuova 26 She would like that kind of work 32 "What?" she cried. "Well, you really are a stupid bee" 42 "The stupid one! The faithless one!" 48 "Drones work? It isn't done, you know" 62 There came slowly forth ... the new Princess 74 "Beffa, you are sad," said Saggia 80 Nuova began to clean his wings 96 Nuova was among the fallen 104 In the Garden 116