To-morrow you
will fly out of the hive, an older bee will accompany you. At
first you will be allowed to fly only short stretches and you
will have to observe everything, very carefully, so that you can
find your way back home again. Your companion will show you the
hundred flowers and blossoms that yield the best nectar. You'll
have to learn them by heart. This is something no bee can escape
doing.-- Here, you may as well learn the first line right
away--clover and honeysuckle. Repeat it. Say 'clover and
honeysuckle.'"

"I can't," said little Maya. "It's awfully hard. I'll see the
flowers later anyway."

Cassandra opened her old eyes wide and shook her head.

"You'll come to a bad end," she sighed. "I can foresee that
already."

"Am I supposed later on to gather nectar all day long?" asked
Maya.

Cassandra fetched a deep sigh and gazed at the baby-bee
seriously and sadly. She seemed to be thinking of her own
toilsome life--toil from beginning to end, nothing but toil.
Then she spoke in a changed voice, with a loving look in her
eyes for the child.

"My dear little Maya, there will be other things in your
life--the sunshine, lofty green trees, flowery heaths, lakes of
silver, rushing, glistening waterways, the heavens blue and
radiant, and perhaps even human beings, the highest and most
perfect of Nature's creations. Because of all these glories your
work will become a joy. Just think--all that lies ahead of you,
dear heart. You have good reason to be happy."

"I'm so glad," said Maya, "that's what I want to be."

Cassandra smiled kindly. In that instant--why, she did not
know--she conceived a peculiar affection for the little bee,
such as she could not recall ever having felt for any child-bee
before. And that, probably, is how it came about that she told
Maya more than a bee usually hears on the first day of its life.
She gave her various special bits of advice, warned her against
the dangers of the wicked world, and named the bees' most
dangerous enemies. At the end she spoke long of human beings,
and implanted the first love for them in the child's heart and
the germ of a great longing to know them.

"Be polite and agreeable to every insect you meet," she said in
conclusion, "then you will learn more from them than I have told
you to-day. But beware of the wasps and hornets. The hornets are
our most formidable enemy, and the wickedest, and the wasps are
a useless tribe of thieves, without home or re