"You must mind what you are doing, my good grub," she said. "You are the youngest of them all, and you are the worst for making a noise. Next time I shall tell the queen." "First listen to me," said the grub, and she told her about the queen's wicked design. "Good gracious! is that true?" cried the old nurse, and beat her wings in horror. And without hearing a word more, she hurried off to tell the other bees. "I think I deserve a little honey for what I have done," said the little grub. "But I can now lie down and sleep with a good conscience." Next evening, when the queen thought that all the bees were in bed, she came to kill the princesses. The grub could hear her talking aloud to herself. But she was quite afraid of the wicked queen, and dared not stir. "I hope she won't kill the princesses," she thought, and squeezed herself nearer to the door to hear what happened. The queen looked cautiously round on all sides, and then opened the first of the doors. But at the same moment the bees swarmed out from all directions, seized her by the legs and wings, and dragged her out. "What is the matter?" she cried. "Are you raising a rebellion?" "No, your majesty," answered the bees, with great reverence; "but we know that you are intending to kill the princesses, and _that_ you shall not be allowed to do. What would become of us in the autumn after your majesty's death?" "Let me go!" cried the queen, and tried to get away. "I am queen now anyway, and have the power to do what I like. How do you know that I shall die in the autumn?" But the bees held her fast, and dragged her outside the hive. There they set her free, but she shook her wings in a passion and said to them,-- "You are disloyal subjects, who are not worth ruling over. I won't stay here an hour longer, but I will go out into the world and build a new nest. Are there any of you who will come with me?" Some of the old bees, who had been grubs at the same time as the queen, declared that they would follow her. And soon after they flew away. "Now we have no queen," said the others, "we must take good care of the princesses." And so they crammed them with honey from morning till night; and they grew, and grabbed, and squabbled, and made more noise each day than the day before. As for the little grub, no one gave a single thought to her. One morning the doors of the princesses' chambers flew open, and all ten of them stepped out, beautiful full-grown queen bees. The other bees ran up and gazed at them in admiration. "How pretty they are!" they said. "It is hard to say which is the most beautiful." "_I_ am!" one cried. "You make a mistake," said another, and stabbed her with her sting. "You are rather conceited," shrieked a third. "I imagine that _I_ am rather prettier than you are." And immediately they all began calling out at once, and soon after began to fight with one another as hard as ever they could.