y interloper meets
With sure and sharp disdain.

Of workers, some are strong to fly,
While some are weak and small,
Unfitted quite, for load or flight,
Or outside work at all.

These last complete the larvae-cells,
And nurse and feed the young;
They mix the bee-bread, cleanse the hive,
And care for every drone.

All bees have stings except the drones,
And these, when Autumn nears,
Are stung to death with furious wrath,
As by the book appears.

{202}

And now I hope you children all,
Will use your wondrous power
To "gather honey all the day,
From every opening flower."

{203}

BBB R YYY
B U YY

[Footnote: Bees are wises; Be you wise.]

{204}

{205}

_HONEY-SWEET._

"Ah, but how do bees make honey?"
Now the children, eager, ask;
And we'll try to give them answer,
If we're able for the task.

See, the under-lip is lengthened,
Like a trunk or proboscis,
Ending by a kind of button,
Fringed with tiny moving hairs.

All along its length, too, fringes,
Just the same, are growing forth;
And by means of these, the honey
Is conveyed from flowers to mouth.

Then the bee has two small stomachs,
In the first of which is stored
All the honey it can gather,
But, when home, 'tis quick out-poured.

{206}

Bees have six legs; and in hindmost,
There are baskets found, or bags,
Into which the pollen gathered,
Is brushed off by the other legs.

And this pollen, for the bee-bread
And as food for young, they use,
Mixed with honey and with water,--
Swallowed and disgorged like juice

By the nurses, who digest it
Partly, for the larvae-food,
Taking care that each shall have it,
Just according to the brood.

{207}

Now we'll watch and see them working;
See them brush off pollen-dust;
See them, too, disgorge the honey,
Into cells the sweetness thrust.

Children, with your useful fingers,
Hands and arms and feet and head,
Do not let the bees surpass you,
Making honey, nay, nor bread.

{208}

_WHAT THEY SAY._

Those creatures that chew the cud,
The "RUMINANTS" we call,
From "Rumen," or the stomach-pouch,
In which their food doth fall.

A "SPECIES" is a kind
Of animals or plants;--
Each species has a different name,
And differing traits and wants,--

And species may unite
To form a RAC