her own children: but for the
children of another bee, her queen. For them she labours all day long,
builds for them, feeds them, nurses them, spends her love and cunning on
them. So does that ant on the path. She is carrying home that stick to
build for other ants' children. So do the white ants in the tropics.
They have learnt not to compete, but to help each other; not to be
selfish, but to sacrifice themselves; and therefore they are strong.

But you told me once that ants would fight and plunder each other's
nests. And once we saw two hives of bees fighting in the air, and
falling dead by dozens.

My child, do not men fight, and kill each other by thousands with sharp
shot and cold steel, because, though they have learnt the virtue of
patriotism, they have not yet learnt that of humanity? We must not blame
the bees and ants if they are no wiser than men. At least they are wise
enough to stand up for their country, that is, their hive, and work for
it, and die for it, if need be; and that makes them strong.

But how does that make them strong?

How, is a deep question, and one I can hardly answer yet. But that it
has made them so there is no doubt. Look at the solitary bees--the
governors as we call them, who live in pairs, in little holes in the
banks. How few of them there are; and they never seem to increase in
numbers. Then look at the hive bees, how, just because they are
civilised,--that is, because they help each other, and feed each other,
instead of being solitary and selfish,--they breed so fast, and get so
much food, that if they were not killed for their honey, they would soon
become a nuisance, and drive us out of the parish.

But then we give them their hives ready made.

True. But in old forest countries, where trees decay and grow hollow,
the bees breed in them.

Yes. I remember the bee tree in the fir avenue.

Well then, in many forests in hot countries the bees swarm in hollow
trees; and they, and the ants, and the white ants, have it all their own
way, and are lords and masters, driving the very wild beasts before them,
while the ants and white ants eat up all gardens, and plantations, and
clothes, and furniture; till it is a serious question whether in some hot
countries man will ever be able to settle, so strong have the ants grown,
by ages of civilisation, and not competing against their brothers and
sisters.

But may I not compete for prizes against the other boys?

We