"Ugh!" said Uno. "Can't you sing something more cheerful? Be funny, can't you?" Beffa got up and hopped about a little. Then he sang: "Out among the flower-cups, Dancing in the sun; Now a drink of nectar, Then another one. Brushing up the pollen, Hurry 'gainst the gloam, Pail and basket over-full, Off to hive and home!" All the bees skipped and danced and sang after him: "Pail and baskets over-full, Off to hive and home!" After singing this refrain several times and dancing happily about a few moments, the bees set at their work again industriously. It was so beautiful and so bright and so warm in the garden that one could not help being happy in it. And yet just then Nuova stepped out from behind a flowering bush looking very weary and very sad. Saggia, who had been glancing around for her all the time, slipped quickly and quietly over to her without attracting the attention of any of the bees, and before any other one had seen her. Saggia led Nuova around to the side of the bush where they would be out of sight of the other bees, and then spoke to her in a low tone. "Are you all right, Nuova?" she asked anxiously. Nuova smiled wearily and sadly. "Of course, I am all right," she said gently; "who would not be out here in this wonderful world, this golden sunshine, this fragrant air? It's a place to be all right in all the time. I am going to stay here." "Stay here? What do you mean?" asked Saggia. "Simply that, dear Saggia," she replied gently, smiling; "stay right here in the warm sun, near the beautiful flowers. Do you think I am going back into the dark hive to die like that poor forager and be dragged off and tossed out like a piece of dirty wax?" She shuddered. "No, no; I am going to die out here, and lie in the soft grass under that heliotrope there." Saggia spoke anxiously but sternly. "Die? Die? Why do you talk of dying? Have you a right to die yet? Have you done all you should do for the hive? Are you going to shirk your duty? Anyway"--and her voice grew more kindly--"do you really want to die? Don't you want to do first all the things a bee can do, to nurse--" "I have nursed," Nuova interrupted. "And make wax--" Saggia went on. "I have made wax," Nuova broke in. Saggia persisted, "And build cells--" "I have built cells," interrupted Nuova again. "And gather honey--" Saggia continued. Nuova touched a near-by flower. "I am gathering honey," she said. Saggia hesitated a moment, then began again. "And--and--" she stammered; then exclaimed suddenly and triumphantly--"and clean floors!" Nuova smiled at Saggia's anticlimax. "No, I haven't scrubbed the floor yet. I suppose I ought to enjoy that a little before I die. But you see I am not really old enough to have had time for _everything_." "That's it," broke in Saggia warmly. "You are not old enough yet. It is nonsense to talk of dying so young. You must live a long time yet. Look at me! Think how old I am!"