Queen Melissa. Thus was the community saved from foreign enemies and internal rebellion. One day, a good deal later in the year, when the hive was nearly full, and the queen was beginning to think of shutting it up for the winter, the little bee was resting on a withered dahlia, surveying the ruin which had been caused by the frost of the preceding night, when he heard a doleful voice near him, and, glancing round, he saw his old friend the grasshopper, looking quite old, and gray, and withered; his voice was cracked, and he sang, in a mournful tone,— "O dear, what shall I do? For there's no more morning-dew, "O dear! O dear! I begin to fear: I've led a gay life, 'tis true; But now, O, what shall I do? The little bee was very sorry for his old friend; and, hearing that he had had no breakfast, he gave him a little honey which he had with him. This greatly comforted the old fellow, and he began to sing, as he had done in former days, "O, who so blithe as I, With my hop, skip, and a jump!" But, unfortunately, he tumbled down, and broke his withered leg; and just then a hungry blackbird came by, and gobbled him up in a minute. The little bee flew away as fast as he could; and presently he espied a jar hanging against a wall, on looking into which, he saw his old acquaintance the wasp, his wings clogged with a poisonous sirup, unable to extricate himself, and almost at the point of death. "You see," said the wasp, in a voice choked with sirup, “to what a dreadful fate I have come from too great love of eating and drinking. Let all insects take warning by me, and be satisfied with " What he would have added is uncertain, for just then the treacherous liquid closed over his head, and he sank to rise no more. The little bee, being unable to render any assistance, flew on until he arrived at the place where the old humble-bee had made his nest, and treated him so scurvily. If he had harbored any ill-will, he would have been gratified by the sight which he saw. The old miser's store had been plundered by a burglarious field-mouse: the fragments of the humblebee's nest were strewed around in wild confusion, and the old miser himself was lying amongst the ruins. The little bee flew down to see if he could render him any assistance; but the old humble-bee was quite dead. "It is a happy thing," thought the little bee, "that I dissolved partnership with you, old gentleman, or I should have shared the same fate." So saying, he returned thankfully to his hive, grateful that he had a good queen and a comfortable home. "Pray, mother," said Annie, when the story was finished, "does the queen bee really manage and govern her subjects in the way which you have described?" "It is impossible, my child, to say precisely how it is that so much order and regularity are kept up in the hive. Certainly, the bees have a great regard for their queen some of them always follow her, as if they were her attendants. And so, in telling a story, it is very allowable to represent her as governing them in the same manner as a queen may be supposed to govern her subjects. But the principal office of the queen bee is to lay all the eggs, from which the hive is hatched; and this it is which seems to be the greatest object of solicitude in the hive. The bees prepare a number of cells, and in each of these the queen deposits an egg, which in due time becomes a grub, and afterwards changes into a bee; so that nearly all the hive are the children as well as the subjects of the "queen." MORAL. "From this story we may learn to be industrious and obedient; and thus we shall do well in this world, and not come to want." "We learn that certainly. The honest and indus trious are more likely to prosper and live happy days than the bad and idle. And yet it sometimes pleases God to afflict those whom he most loves, in order to try them and reward them the more; so that we must pray to bear patiently whatsoever God may lay upon us. "But, besides this lesson, we may learn from this parable, or fable, (which is the same thing,) that we all have our allotted tasks to perform; we are all to work while it is called to-day, and God will reward every one according to his works. "Too many are accustomed to waste their youth in idle vanities, such as singing and dancing, like the grasshopper, which, if indulged in to excess, are sinful and dangerous. Others become grasping and greedy, like the wasp; others covetous and unjust, like the old humble-bee all these come to evil. But they who serve God faithfully, laboring truly in their appointed station, these meet with their reward. : "We learn also to labor, not for ourselves only, but for the community of which God has made us members. We are all joinel together in one family, and may greatly assist each other. Idleness and misconduct injure not ourselves only, but the whole human family, of which we are members. "Solomon bids us go to the ant,' and learn wisdom and forethought; and I trust we may gain some valuable counsel from the bee." SELECTIONS FROM THE PROVERBS. I. TRAIN up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction. My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck. Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying, How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity; and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? Turn you at my reproof; behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth. Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that gette'h understanding. |