1

THE farmer opened his bee-hive.

“Out with you!” he said. “The sun is shining; the flowers are blossoming everywhere and are a sheer joy to behold. Let me see you industrious now and gather me a good lot of honey which I can sell to the shopkeeper in the autumn. Many mickles make a muckle; and you know that things are looking bad with agriculture.”

“What is agriculture to us?” said the bees.

But they flew out nevertheless, for they had been in the hive all winter and were longing for a breath of fresh air. Buzzing and humming, they stretched their legs and tried their wings. They swarmed forth everywhere, crawled up and down the hive, flew off to the flowers and shrubs and walked about on the ground.

There were many hundred bees.

The queen came last. She was bigger than the others and it was she that reigned in the hive.

“Stop that nonsense now, children,” she said, “and begin to do something. A decent bee does not idle, but turns to, in a capable way, and makes good use of her time.”

Then she divided them into companies and set them to work.

“You, there, fly out and see if there is any honey in the flowers. The second company can gather pollen; and, when you come home, deliver it all nicely to the old bees indoors.”

They flew away. But all the young ones were still left. They formed the last company, for they had never been out before.

“What are we to do?” they asked.

“You? You’ve got to sweat!” said the queen. “One, two, three and to work!”

And they sweated as best they knew how and the loveliest yellow wax burst out of their bodies.

“That’s right,” said the queen. “Now we will begin to build.”

The old bees took the wax and started building a number of small hexagonal cells, all alike and close together. All the time that they were building, the others came flying up with pollen and honey, which they laid at the queen’s feet.

“Now we’ll knead the dough!” said she. “But first pour a little honey in; then it will taste better.”

They kneaded and kneaded and made nice little loaves of bee-bread, which they carried to the cells.

“Now we’ll go on building!” commanded the queen-bee. And they sweated wax and built away with a vengeance.

“I may as well begin my own work,” said the queen and heaved a deep sigh, for this was the hardest of all.

She sat down in the middle of the hive and began to lay eggs. She laid great heaps and the bees ran up, took the little eggs in their mouths and carried them into the new cells. Every egg got its own little room; and, when they were all disposed of, the queen ordered the bees to put doors to the cells and to shut them tight.

“Good!” she said, when they had finished. “Now you can build me ten big, handsome rooms at the outer edge of the hive.”

The bees did so in a trice and then the queen laid ten beautiful eggs, one in each of the big rooms, and put a door before them.

Every day, the bees flew out and in and gathered great heaps of honey and pollen; but, in the evening, when their work was done, they set the doors a little ajar and peeped in at the eggs.

“Take care!” said the queen, one day. “Now they’re coming!”And suddenly all the eggs burst and in each cell lay a nice little baby.

“What queer creatures!” said the young bees. “Why, they have no eyes; and where are their legs and wings?”

“Those are grubs,” said the queen, “and that’s what you young green-horns yourselves once looked like. You have to be a grub before you can become a proper bee. Hurry now and give them something to eat.”

The bees hastened to feed the little young ones; but they did not all fare equally well. The ten that lay in the large rooms got as much to eat as ever they wanted and a big helping of honey was carried in to them every day.

“Those are princesses,” said the queen. “Therefore, you must treat them well. The others you can stint in their food; they are only work-people and must accustom themselves to take things as they come.”

And the poor little creatures got a small piece of bee-bread every morning and nothing more; they had to be content with that, even though they were ever so hungry.

2

In one of the small hexagonal cells close to the princesses’ rooms lay a tiny little grub. She was the youngest of them all and had but quite lately come out of the egg. She could not see, but she could distinctly hear the grown-up bees talking outside; and meanwhile she lay quite still and just thought her own thoughts.“I could do with a little more to eat,” she said and tapped at her door.

“You’ve got enough for today,” replied the old bee who crawled up and down outside in the passage and had been appointed head-nurse to the baby bees.

“Ah, but I’m hungry!” cried the little grub. “And then I want to have a princess’s room; I feel so cramped in here.”

“Oh, just listen to her!” said the old bee, sarcastically. “One would think she was a dainty little princess by the pretensions she puts forward! You were born to toil and drudge, my little friend. A common working-bee, that’s what you are; and you’ll never be anything else in all your days.”“Ah, but I want to be a queen!” said the grub and thumped on the door.

The old bee, of course, made no reply to such silly trash, but went on to the others. Everywhere they were crying for more food; and the little grub could hear it all.

“It’s really hard,” she thought, “that we should be so hungry.”

And then she tapped on the wall and called to the princess on the other side:

“Give me a little of your honey! Let me come in to you in your room. I am lying here and starving and I am quite as good as you.”

“Ah, you just wait till I’m queen-regnant!” said the princess. “Be sure I shan’t forget your impudence.”

But she had hardly said this before the other princesses began to bawl most terribly:

“You shan’t be queen! I will! I will!” they all yelled together and began to thump on the walls and make a frightful din.

The head-nurse came running up at once and opened the doors:

“What are your Royal Highnesses’ commands?” she asked and curtseyed and scraped with her legs.

“More honey!” they all cried together. “But me first, me first! I’m going to be queen!”

“This minute, this minute, your Royal Highnesses!” she replied and ran off as fast as her six old legs could carry her.

Soon after, she came back with several other bees. They dragged a quantity of honey with them, which they put down the throats of the angry little princesses, till gradually they grew quiet and all ten of them went to sleep.

But the little grub lay awake and thought over what had happened. She was yearning for honey and shook the door:

“Give me some honey! I can stand this no longer; I’m quite as good as the others.”

The old bee told her to be silent:

“Keep still, you little squaller! Here comes the queen.”

And the queen-bee came as she spoke:

“Go away,” she said to the bees. “I wish to be alone.”

She stood long, silently, outside the princesses’ rooms.

“You’re lying in there now and sleeping,” she said at last. “Eat and sleep, that’s what you do, from morn till night, and, every day that passes, you grow stronger and fatter. In a few days, you will be full-grown and you will creep out of the cells. Then my time is over. I know it well! I have heard the bees saying among themselves that they want a younger and prettier queen; and then they will drive me away in disgrace. But that I will not submit to. To-morrow, I shall kill them all, so that I can go on reigning till I die.”

Then she went away, but the little grub had heard all that she said.

“Goodness gracious!” she thought. “After all, it’s really a pity for the little princesses. They certainly give themselves airs and they have been nasty to me; but it would be sad, for all that, if the wicked queen killed them. I think I shall tell the old grumbler in the passage.”

Then she began to tap at the door again; and the old head-nurse came running up; but this time she was really angry:

“Now, you had better mind yourself, my good grub!” she said. “You’re the youngest of them all and the noisiest. Next time, I’ll report you to the queen.”

“Ah, but first listen to me,” said the grub; and then she betrayed the queen’s wicked plan.

“Heavens above! Is that true?” cried the old bee and struck her wings together with horror.

And, without listening to any more, she hurried away to tell the other bees.“I do think I deserve a little honey for my goodwill,” said the little grub. “But now I can go to sleep with an easy conscience.”

The next morning, the queen, when she thought that all the bees were in bed, came to put the princesses to death. The grub could hear her talking aloud to herself; but was very frightened of the wicked queen and hardly dared move.

“If only she doesn’t kill the princesses,” she thought and crept closer to the door to hear what was happening.

The queen-bee looked carefully round in every direction and opened the first of the doors. But, as she did so, the bees swarmed up from every side, seized her by the legs and wings and dragged her away.“What does this mean?” she screamed. “Are you rising in rebellion?”

“No, your Majesty,” replied the bees, respectfully, “but we know that you are thinking of killing the princesses; and that you cannot possibly be permitted to do. How should we manage in that case in the autumn, when your Majesty dies?”

“Unhand me!” screamed the queen and tried to tear herself free. “I am still queen and have the right to do what I please. How do you know that I shall die in the autumn?”

But the bees held fast and dragged her out of the hive. There they let her go; but she shook her wings with rage and said:

“You are disloyal subjects, who are not worth reigning over. I will not stay here another hour, but will go away and build a new hive. Are there any of you that will follow me?”

Some of the old bees who had been grubs with the queen declared that they would go with her, and soon after they flew away.

“Now we have no queen,” said the others. “We shall have to take good care of the princesses.”

And so they stuffed them with honey from morning till night and the princesses grew and thrived and squabbled and made more and more noise day after day.

And no one gave a thought to the little grub.

3

One morning, the doors of the princesses’ rooms flew open and they all ten came out as beautiful full-grown queen-bees; the other bees came running up and looked at them with admiration.

“Oh, how lovely they are!” they said. “It is not easy to say which of them is the prettiest.”

“I am!” cried one.

“You make a great mistake!” said the second and thrust at her with her sting.

“You flatter yourselves!” cried the third. “I should think I am no less beautiful than you.”

Soon they were all screaming together; and, a little later, they all began to fight. The bees wanted to part them, but the old head-nurse said:

“Just let them fight, then we shall see which is the strongest and we will elect her to be our queen. After all, we can’t have more than one.”

The bees then formed a ring and watched the combat. It was long and hard-fought. Wings and legs were bitten off and flew around in the air; and, after some time, eight of the princesses lay dead on the ground. The last two went on fighting for a long while. One had lost all her wings and the other had only four legs left.

“It will be a pitiful queen, whichever of them we get,” said one of the bees. “We had better have kept the old one.”

But she might as well have saved herself the observation, for at that very moment the princesses suddenly gave each other so violent a thrust with their stings that both of them fell stone-dead.

“Here’s a nice thing!” cried the bees and they all ran about in consternation. “Now we have no queen! What shall we do? What shall we do?”

They crept round the hive in utter bewilderment and despair. But the oldest and wisest of them sat in a corner and held counsel. They discussed at length what expedient they should resort to in this unfortunate case; but at last the head-nurse spoke and said:

“Now I will tell you how you can get out of the dilemma, if you will follow my advice. I remember that the same misfortune once happened long ago in this hive. I was a grub at the time and I lay in my cell and distinctly heard what was going on. All the princesses had killed one another and the old queen had gone away, just as now. But then the bees took one of us grubs and put her in one of the princesses’ cells. They fed her every day on the best and finest honey that the hive contained; and, when she was full-grown, she was a really good and beautiful queen. I remember the whole story clearly, for I thought at the time that they might just as well have taken me. But never mind that at present. I propose that we should behave in just the same way.”

The bees gladly cried that they agreed, and they ran straight off to fetch a grub.

“Stop a bit,” cried the head-nurse, “and take me with you. After all, I have managed to help you. Now, look here: it must be one of the youngest grubs, for she must have time to think of her new position. When you’ve been brought up to be a common worker, it’s not so easy to accustom yourself to wear a crown.”

The bees thought this sensible too, and the old bee continued:

“Just beside the princesses’ rooms lies a little grub. She is the youngest of them all. She must have learned a deal from hearing the princesses’ cultured conversation; and I have noticed that she is not without character. Moreover, it was she who had the honesty to tell me of the old queen’s wicked thoughts. Let us take her.”

They all went forthwith, in a solemn procession, to the narrow, hexagonal cell in which the little grub lay. The head-nurse knocked politely at the door, opened it carefully and told the grub what the bees had decided upon. At first she almost refused to believe her own ears; but, when they carried her carefully into one of the beautiful large rooms and brought her as much honey as she could eat, she saw that it was serious.

“So I am to be queen after all!” she said to the head-nurse. “You never thought that, you old grumbler!”

“I hope your Majesty will forget my rude remarks at the time when you lay in the hexagonal cell,” said the old bee and dropped a respectful curtsey.

“I forgive you!” replied the new-fledged princess. “Get me some more honey!”

Soon after, the grub was full-grown and stepped out of her room, looking as large and beautiful as the bees could possibly wish. And she did know how to command and no mistake!

“Away with you!” she said. “We want more honey for winter use and you others must sweat more wax. I mean to build a wing to the hive. The new princesses will live in it next year; it is much too unpleasant for them to be so near the common grubs.”

“What next!” cried the bees to one another. “One would really think that she had been queen from the time when she lay in the egg!”

“No,” said the head-nurse, “that she was not. But she has had queenly thoughts; and that is the great thing.”

THE CATERPILLAR