Mexico Missouri message., 1916-11-23

one pretty summer DAY, as Dlttle
Miss Worker Bee was slipping the
honey from the pretty wild rose.
Beautiful Butterfly, who also has a
sweet tooth for honey stopped on
nearby field daisy.
Good morning." said Butterfly. a."
How is your family this morning?"
well, to tell the truth, Butterfly,
we are not getting along very we'll.
You see we are thinking of moving.
We have a new queen in our hive.
In fact we had three new ones but
the old queen killed two of the others
and several workers clustered around
the new Queen and saved her life.
But, oh, my, the old Queen is angry"
SIS that so?" said Butterfly. Tell
me more of what happened to your
house. won't you, Honey Bee? You
see l was an ugly worm and after I
turned into a Butterfly nothing ev-
er happens now, except once in a
while when Mary Tompkins chases
me with a net"
"Well," said Honey Bee, "If you
will promise not to tell the Queen
if I rest a minute I will tell you.
You see our Queen lays an egg in
each worker-cell, and also one in
each drone-cell, and if we make a
few Queen cells she puts one in each
| af hn
with food for the Workers, and diff
ferent kind for the Drones, and still
different kind for the Queens. AS
soon as they are hatched all they have
to do is to eat their way out. had an
awful hard job. | had to seal up, the
cracks in the hive to keep the hcoId
air out. We used a glue made from
the resin weed. You know it is a
weed that looks almost like the wild
sun flower"
"Oh, yes" said Butterfly, "Only
don't like the honey from it. it is
too bitter"
well" continued the Honey Bee,
Everything went along fine in our
hive for a while, only we had to work
awfully hard. You see, the flowers
for some reason did not have much
honey, and we had to go clear over
to Tommie Tompkin's to get grape
juice"
why. can't you bite through the
grape skim" asked the Butterfly.
Gracious, no." said Honey Bee"
But you see there is always
friendly bug or bird to make the hole
in the grape skin for US. Sister Cat
Bird is such a pig for fruit she al
ways bites more than she can eat, like
Tommie Tompkins does the big red
apples So the honey got scarcer and
scarcer, and the old Queen got angrier
and angrier, for she said we surely
could keep the honey cupboard full
when she did all the work laying the
eggs which amounts to thousands,
for one Queen lays all the eggs for
one hive. So we gnawed the wings of
the Drones almost in two, and it was
funny to see them fall to the ground
when their wings would break. But
YOU see they never work and they eat
more than We"
"Who takes care of the babies and
the Queen?" asked Butterfly.
why, the young bees do" said
Honey Bee, And they work awfully
hard cleaning out the hive and do
ing little chores, and at night we all
pitch in doing honey over again.
; You see we never rest nor sleep"
do you work at night?" aske
the Butterfly.
Yes, indeed we do"
, But Honey Bee. how do you see?
On yes l know. let me see If car
guess it, You invite Brother Light,
ming Bug and his sisters and cousins
and uncles and"
: ''No, no." said Honey Bee. 81 am
ashamed of you. You see we have
} three eyes on the top of our heads to
see at night, like DIR. Owl and Skinny
Bat. And we have two eyes to see
great distances. can see Tommit
, Tompkins coming out of his gate
} now, And let me see. what is that in
: his hand? Why. bless my meart. i
is a Butterfly net"
"But must be going" quickly
spoke Butterfly.
= He was soon fiuttering away. bu
he stopped second as he few from
) flower to flower to smell their swee
perfume. For when Mother Natur,