ping so pitifully all the time. I am sure she must be
beautiful. I never saw a finer tongue than the one she runs out for
honey."

"Humph!" said a sensible old Worker, who had seen many Queens hatched
and many swarms fly away, "you'd be a good deal more sorry if we did let
her out now. It would not do at all."

The tender-hearted Worker did not answer this, but she talked it over
with the Drones. "I declare," said she, wiping her eyes with her
forefeet, "I can hardly gather a mouthful of honey for thinking of her."

"Suppose you hang yourself up and make wax then," said one Drone. "It
is a rather sunshiny day, but you ought to be doing something, and if
you cannot gather honey you might do that." This was just like a Drone.
He never gathered honey or made wax, yet he could not bear to see a
Worker lose any time.

The Worker did not hang herself up and make wax, however. She never did
that except on cloudy days, and she was one of those Bees who seem to
think that nothing will come out right unless they stop working to see
about it. There was plenty waiting to be done, but she was too sad and
anxious to do it. She might have known that since her friends were only
minding the law, it was right to keep the new Queen in her cell.

The Queen Mother was restless and fussy. She could not think of her
work, and half the time she did not know whether she was laying a Drone
egg or a Worker egg. In spite of that, she did not make any mistake, or
put one into the wrong kind of cell. "I cannot stay here with a young
Queen," said she. "I will not stay here. I will take my friends with me
and fly away."

Whenever she met a Worker, she struck her feelers on those of her
friend, and then this friend knew exactly how she felt about it. In this
way the news was passed around, and soon many of the Workers were as
restless as their Queen Mother. They were so excited over it at times
that the air of the hive grew very hot. After a while they would become
quiet and gather honey once more. They whispered often to each other.
"Do you know where we are going?" one said.

"Sh!" was the answer. "The guides are looking for a good place now."

"I wish the Queen Mother knew where we are going," said the first.

"How could she?" replied the second. "You know very well that she has
not left the hive since she began to lay eggs. Here she comes now."

"Oh dear!" exclaimed the Queen Mother. "I can never stand this. I
certainly cannot. To think