he Acrobat 60
VI. Puck 72
VII. In the Toils 87
VIII. The Bug and the Butterfly 104
IX. The Lost Leg 113
X. The Wonders of the Night 133
XI. With the Sprite 153
XII. Alois, Ladybird and Poet 163
XIII. The Fortress 172
XIV. The Sentinel 182
XV. The Warning 194
XVI. The Battle 204
XVII. The Queen's Friend 218

LIST OF COLORED ILLUSTRATIONS

"Won't you come in?" FRONTISPIECE

Facing Page
Maya lifted her wings, buzzed farewell
to the lake, and flew inland 42

A human being in miniature was coming up
out of the iris 146

The Queen came without her court,
attended only by her aide and two
ladies-in-waiting 200

[Illustration]

CHAPTER I

FIRST FLIGHT

The elderly lady-bee who helped the baby-bee Maya when she awoke
to life and slipped from her cell was called Cassandra and
commanded great respect in the hive. Those were exciting days.
A rebellion had broken out in the nation of bees, which the
queen was unable to suppress.

While the experienced Cassandra wiped Maya's large bright eyes
and tried as best she could to arrange her delicate wings, the
big hive hummed and buzzed like a threatening thunderstorm, and
the baby-bee found it very warm and said so to her companion.

Cassandra looked about troubled, without replying. It astonished
her that the child so soon found something to criticize. But
really the child was right: the heat and the pushing and
crowding were almost unbearable. Maya saw an endless succession
of bees go by in such swarming haste that sometimes one climbed
up and over another, or several rolled past together clotted in
a ball.

Once the queen-bee approached. Cassandra and Maya were
jostled aside. A drone, a friendly young fellow of immaculate
appearance, came to their assistance. He nodded to Maya and
stroked the shining hairs on his breast rather nervously with
his foreleg. (The bees use their forelegs as arms and