sting my grandmother whenever she went into the part of the
garden where they were kept. No one ever knew the reason of this."

Bees keep the inside of their hives very clean. If a bee dies, they turn
it out; or if anything like a snail, for instance, crawled in, which
would be too large for them to push out, they would completely cover it
over with wax.

Here grandpapa came into the room and said, "That was a strong swarm of
bees that we have just hived; first swarms generally are."

"How many bees do you think there were, grandpapa?" asked Jack.

"I should say about five thousand. A well-stocked hive will hold from
fifteen to twenty thousand bees. We may expect another swarm from that
same hive in a week or ten days; but it won't be worth so much as this
one."

"Did you ever hear the old rhyme, children?

"A swarm of bees in May
Is worth a load of hay;
A swarm of bees in June
Is worth a silver spoon;
But a swarm in July
Is not worth a fly."

"Why not?" asked Annie.

"Because it is smaller and weaker, and it is later in the year, so they
have not such a long time to get honey to keep them through the winter.
They will generally die off, if they are not fed."

"Suppose the queen dies, what do the bees do then, grandpapa?"

"They are greatly concerned; they run about the hive touching every bee
they meet with their little horns or feelers. Then, when all the bees
know of their loss, they set to work to feed one of the grubs in the
royal cells with a particular kind of food, and a young queen after due
time makes her appearance. They take great care of her, and obey her as
they did the old queen."

VI.

_WASPS AND THEIR WAYS._

"An elegant shape is yours, Sir Wasp,
And delicate is your wing;
Your armour is brave, in black and gold;
But we do not like your sting."--C. H.

The next morning Jack went to see how the new hive had settled, and he
found everything going on as usual. The bees were very busy, flying in
and out, and working hard to build the cells of their new home.

The gardener was working near, and he said, "Master Jack, did you ever
see a wasp's nest?"

Jack shook his head.

"Well, now, if you come into my cottage, I'll show you one this evening.
It's not a very good one, for it got broken digging it out of the ground
in one of the garden paths. We'd been terribly plagued with wasps for
weeks, and it was some time before we could find the nest. We watched
them go into a ho