Evening star., 1902-08-09
THE BUSY BEE.
1t Improves the Shining Hour, but
Will Not Fight for Home.

From Harper's Magazine.
The bee. essentially so pacific. so long
suffering, the bee which never stings (un-
less you crush herr when looting among the
flowers, once she has returned to her king
dom with the waxen monuments, retains
her mild and tolerant character, or grows
aggressive and deadly dangerous accord
ing to whether her maternal city be opulent
or poor. Here again, as often happens
when We study the manners of this spirited
and mysterious little people, the provisions
of human logic are utterly at fault II
would be natural that the bees should le-
fend desperately treasures so laborlously
amassed, city such as we find I'm good
apiaries. where the nectar, overflowing the
numberless cells that represent thousands
of casks piled from cellar to garret. streams
in golden stalacttes along the rustling
walls and sends far afield. in glad response
to the ephemeral perfumes Of calyces that
are opening, the more lasting perfume of
the honey that keeps alive the memory OF
calEces that time has closed Now this Is
not the case.
The richer their abode the less eagerness
they display to fight around II. Open or
turn over a wealthy hive; If you take care
to drive the sentries from the entrance with
a pun of smoke, IL will be extremely rare
for the other bees to contend with you for
the Hquld booty conquered from the smiles,
from all the charms Of the beautiful azure
months. Try the experiment: | prom ise
you fmpunity, If you touch only the heav-
lest hives. You can turn them over and
handle them: those throbbing fiagons are
perfectly harmless. What does Il meaR2
have the fierce amaZons lost courage? HAS
abundance unnerved them, and have thay,
after the manner of the too fortunate in
habitants Of luxurious towns, delegated
the dangerous duties to the unhappy mcr-
cenaries that keep watch at the gates? No:
II has never been observed that the great
est good fortune relaxes the valor of the
Dee. On the contrary, the more the re-
public prospers the more harshly and
severely are its laws applied and the
worker in hive where sUperfiuity accum-
ulates labors much more zealously and
much more pitilessly than her sister in an
INDECENT hive.
There are other reasons which we cannot
wholly fathom. but which are likely rea-
sons. if only we take into account the wild
Interpretation that the poor bee must place
on our inordinate doings. Seeing suddenly
her huge dwelling place upheaved over
turned. half opened, she probably imagines
that an inevitable, a natural catastrophe
is occurring. against which it were mad
but neither does she flee. Admitting the
ruin, II looks as though already. in her in
stinct she saw the future dwelling that
she hopes to build with the materials of
the gutted town. She leaves the present
Gefenseless to save the heraSifter or else
perhaps, does she. like the dog in the
fable-'the dog that carried his masters
dinner round his neck'-knowiag that all
IL irreparaby lost, prefer to die taking her
share of the pillage, and to pass from life
to death in one prodigious orgy? We DO
not know for certain. How should We pene-
trate the motives of the bee when those OF
the simplest actions of our brothers are
beyond our ken?