“When the swarm was well away, the workers who were left in the hive hastened to let out the new queen.” “She must have been glad,” said Ruth. “Very likely,” agreed Miss Apis. “She began her reign with a flying trip into the world with the drones. But after this, she came back to the hive, and settled down to the business of egg-laying. Of course the workers took up the same old tasks, for whatever happens, workers will work. That is why they have no love for the drones, and when Winter comes they drive these lazy ones from the hive.” “I think I feel a little bit sorry for the drones,” said Ruth, “if they can’t help being lazy, as that drone said a while ago.” “Well, it is our way,” answered Miss Apis. “Only those who have worked in the Summer have a right to eat in the Winter. Now my work is calling me, and I must leave. This story of one hive is true of all. I hope you have enjoyed it, and so good-by.” “There, she is finished at last,” said Mrs. Horntail. “I think this whole meeting has been most tiresome.” But Ruth did not agree with her. [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER XIII THE MOST BEAUTIFUL OF ALL Lo! the bright train their radiant wings unfurl. —_Anna L. Barbauld._ “It seems nothing but butterflies!” cried Ruth, running out into the garden as soon as breakfast was over. “Of course,” answered a voice, “the Lepidoptera will meet by the summer-house.” “Does that mean butterflies? And oh, please, may I come?” “Yes, to both questions,” was wafted back from the beautiful creature flitting so gracefully on the light warm breeze. “Just like a flower with wings,” thought Ruth as, holding Belinda closely, she followed as fast as she could go. Indeed, they all seemed like flowers with wings, she decided, as she came into the middle of the gathering. “It is the most beautiful we have been to yet,” she whispered to Belinda, “and I am sure it is going to be the most interesting. I couldn’t begin to count them.” Ruth might well say this, for nearly all the fifty-four families of moths to be found in America north of Mexico were represented by at least one member, while there were many from the four families of butterflies and the two families of skippers. Ruth came only just in time, for already one of the moths had begun to speak. He was a handsome fellow, with fore wings in different shades of olive. “My friends,” he said, “I am called the modest sphinx, and, that being the case, you may imagine how painful it is for me to put myself forward in this way. I have been asked, however, to give you a few general facts. Why I am expected to know these facts is, perhaps, because, being a sphinx, I should also be wise. Yet I am not the only sphinx here, and, if I remember aright, the old and historic sphinx _asked_, rather than _answered_, questions.”