ny legs. You see, before all my legs
can be set in motion, too much time is lost. I didn't use to
realize this, and often wished I had a few more legs. But God's
will be done.-- Who are you?"

Maya introduced herself. The other one nodded and moved some of
his legs.

"I am Thomas of the family of millepeds. We are an old race, and
we arouse admiration and astonishment in all parts of the globe.
No other animals can boast anything like our number of legs.
Eight is _their_ limit, so far as I know."

"You are tremendously interesting. And your color is so queer.
Have you got a family?"

"Why, no! Why should I? What good would a family do me? We
millepeds crawl out of our eggs; that's all. If _we_ can't stand
on our own feet, who should?"

"Of course, of course," Maya observed thoughtfully. "But have
you no relations?"

"No, dear child. I earn my living, and doubt. I doubt."

"Oh! _What_ do you doubt?"

"I was born doubting. I must doubt."

Maya stared at him in wide-eyed bewilderment. What did he mean,
what could he possibly mean? She couldn't for the life of her
make out, but she did not want to pry too curiously into his
private affairs.

"For one thing," said Thomas after a pause, "for one thing I
doubt whether you have chosen a good place to rest in. Don't you
know what's over there in the big willow?"

"No."

"You see! I doubted right away if you knew. The city of the
hornets is over there."

Maya turned deathly white and nearly fell off the elder
blossoms. In a voice shaking with fright, she asked just where
the city was.

"Do you see that old nesting-box for starlings, there in the
shrubbery near the trunk of the willow-tree? It's so poorly
placed that I doubted from the first whether starlings would
ever move in. If a bird-house isn't set with its door facing the
sunrise, every decent bird will think twice before taking
possession. Well, the hornets have entrenched themselves in it.
It's the biggest hornets' fortress in the country. You as a bee
certainly ought to know of the place. Why, the hornets are
brigands who lie in wait for you bees. So, at least, I have
observed."

Maya scarcely heard what he was saying. There, showing clear
against the green, she saw the brown walls of the fortress. She
almost stopped breathing.

"I must fly away," she cried.

Too late! Behind her sounded a loud, mean laugh. At the same
moment the little bee felt herself caught by the neck, so
violently that s