"_I_ am!" one cried.
"You make a mistake," said another, and stabbed her with her sting.
"You are rather conceited," shrieked a third. "I imagine that _I_ am rather prettier than you are."
And immediately they all began calling out at once, and soon after began to fight with one another as hard as ever they could.
The bees would have liked to separate them, but the old head bee-nurse said to them,--
"Let them go on fighting; then we shall see which of them is the strongest, and we will choose her to be our queen. We can"t do with more than one."
At this the bees formed round in a ring and looked on at the battle.
It lasted a long time, and it was fiercely fought. Wings and legs which had been bitten off were flying about in the air, and after some time eight of the princesses lay dead upon the ground. The two last were still fighting. One of them had lost all her wings, and the other had only four legs left.
"She will be a poor sort of queen whichever of the two we get," said one of the bees. "We should have done better to have kept the old one."
But she might have spared herself the remark, for in the same moment the princesses gave each other such a stab with their stings that they both fell dead as a door-nail.
"That is a pretty business!" called the bees, and ran about among each other in dismay. "Now we have no queen! What shall we do? what shall we do?"
In despair they crawled about the hive, and did not know which way to turn. But the oldest and cleverest sat in a corner and held a council.
For a long time they talked this way and that as to what they should decide on doing in their unhappy circ.u.mstances. But at last the head bee-nurse got a hearing, and said,--
"I can tell you how you can get out of the difficulty, if you will but follow my advice. I remember that the same misfortune happened to us in this hive a long time ago. I was then a grub myself. I lay in my cell, and distinctly heard what took place. All the princesses had killed one another, and the old queen had gone out into the world: it was just as it is now. But the bees took one of us grubs and laid her in one of the princesses" cells. They fed her every day with the finest and best honey in the whole hive; and when she was full-grown, she was a charming and good queen. I can clearly remember the whole affair, for I thought at the time that they might just as well have taken me. But we may do the same thing again. I propose that we act in the same way."
The bees were delighted, and cried that they would willingly do so, and they ran off at once to fetch a grub.
"Wait a moment," cried the head bee-nurse, "and take me with you. At any rate, I will come and help you. Consider now. It must be one of the youngest grubs, for she must have time to think over her new position. When one has been brought up to be a mere drudge, it is not easy to accustom oneself to wear a crown."
That also seemed to the bees to be wise, and the old one went on,--
"Close by the side of the princesses" cells lies a little grub. She is the youngest of them all. She must have learnt a good deal by hearing the princesses" refined conversation, and I have noticed that she has some character. Besides, it was she who was honourable enough to tell me about the wicked intentions of the old queen. Let us take her."
At once they went in a solemn procession to the six-sided cell where the little grub lay. The head bee-nurse politely knocked at the door, opened it cautiously, and told the grub what the bees had decided. At first she could hardly believe her own ears; but when they had carried her carefully into one of the large, delightful chambers, and brought her as much honey as she could eat, she perceived that it was all in earnest.
"So I am to be queen after all," she said to the head bee-nurse. "You would not believe it, you old growler!"
"I hope that your majesty will forget the rude remarks that I made at the time you lay in the six-sided cell," said the old bee, with a respectful bow.
"I forgive you," said the new-baked princess. "Fetch me some more honey."
A little time after the grub was full grown, and stepped out of her cell as big and as beautiful as the bees could wish. And besides, she knew how to command.
"Away with you!" she said. "We must have more honey for our use in the winter, and you others must perspire more wax. I am thinking of building a new wing to the hive. The new princesses shall live there next year; it is very unsuitable for them to be so near common grubs."
"Heyday!" said the bees to one another. "One would think she had been a queen ever since she lay in the egg."
"No," said the head bee-nurse; "that is not so. But she has had _queenly thoughts_, and that is the great thing."
The Anemones
[Ill.u.s.tration: The Anemones]
"Peeweet! peeweet!" cried the plover, as he flew over the bog in the wood. "My Lady Spring is coming! I can tell it from the feeling in my legs and wings."
When the new gra.s.s that lay below in the earth heard that, it pushed up at once and peeped out merrily from among the old yellow gra.s.s of last year. For the gra.s.s is always in a great hurry.
The anemones in among the trees also heard the plover"s cry; but they, on the contrary, would not come up yet on any account.
"You must not believe the plover," they whispered to one another. "He is a gay young spark who is not to be depended upon. He always comes too early, and begins crying out at once. No, we will wait quietly till the starlings and swallows come. They are sensible, steady-going people who know what"s what, and don"t go sailing with half a wind."
And then the starlings came. They perched on the stumps in front of their summer villa, and looked about them.
"Too early as usual," said Daddy Starling. "Not a green leaf and not a fly to be seen, except an old tough one from last year, which isn"t worth opening one"s bill for."
Mother Starling said nothing, but she did not seem any more enchanted with the prospect.
"If we had only stayed in our cosy winter home down there beyond the mountains," said Daddy Starling. He was angry at his wife"s not answering him, because he was so cold that he thought it might do him good to have a little fun. "But it is _your_ fault, as it was last year. You are always in such a dreadful hurry to come out to the country."
"If I am in a hurry, I know the reason for it," said Mother Starling.
"And you ought to be ashamed of yourself if you didn"t know it also, since they are your eggs just as much as mine."
"What do you mean?" said Daddy Starling, much insulted. "When have I neglected my family? Perhaps you even want me to sit in the cold and sing to you?"
"Yes, I do," said Mother Starling in the tone he couldn"t resist.
He began to pipe at once as well as he knew how. But Mother Starling had no sooner heard the first notes than she gave him a flap with her wings and snapped at him with her beak.
"Oh, please stop it!" she cried bitterly. "It sounds so sad that it makes one quite heartsick. Instead of piping like that, get the anemones to come up. I think it must be time for them. And besides, one always feels warmer when there are others freezing besides oneself."
Now as soon as the anemones had heard the first piping of the starling, they cautiously stuck out their heads from the earth. But they were so tightly wrapped up in green kerchiefs that one could not get a glimpse of them. They looked like green shoots which might turn into anything.
"It is too early," they whispered. "It is a shame of the starling to entice us out. One can"t rely on anything in the world nowadays."
Then the swallow came.
"Chee! chee!" he twittered, and shot through the air on his long, tapering wings. "Out with you, you stupid flowers! Don"t you see that my Lady Spring has come?"
But the anemones had grown cautious. They only drew their green kerchiefs a little apart and peeped out.
"One swallow does not make a summer," they said. "Where is your wife?
You have only come here to see if it is possible to stay here, and you want to take us in. But we are not so stupid. We know very well that if we once catch a bad cold we are done for, for this year at any rate."
[Ill.u.s.tration: MY LADY SPRING]