it continues for several hours. At length they begin to be quiet once more; they now return to their work, and soon take steps to repair their loss.

If a stranger queen from another hive is given to the bees in a shorter period than twelve hours after their loss, they will not receive her as their sovereign, but treat her as they would a stranger at any other time. But if twice that number of hours have passed by since they lost their queen, when a new one is introduced, it is singular that they seem then to have forgotten their former queen so far as to be willing to adopt another.

The moment this stranger is placed upon a comb, the workers who are near first touch her with their little horns, and then pass them all over her body, when they retire and give room to others, who salute her in the same manner, and give her honey to eat. All then beat their wings at the same time, and range themselves in a circle round her. A general agitation seems to pass through the hive; many others draw near, touch the stranger, offer her honey, and fall behind again, all continuing to shake their wings. At last she moves, and the circle opens to let her pass; then they follow her, and soon she appears the acknowledged queen in all parts of the hive.

The worms from which the queens come are hatched only one at a time; and, unless they have need of them to lead out a swarm, the workers keep them in confinement in their cells, (covering them with lids of wax,) to prevent them from killing each other, or being killed by the reigning queen. As they must

be fed, they make a small hole in the waxen lid, through which the captive queen thrusts her tongue and receives her food from the nurse bees. While in this confinement, she utters a low, complaining note.

While the workers thus prevent the young queens from leaving their cells more than one at the same time, when they need a sovereign for their hive, or to conduct a swarm, they always set free the eldest first. Probably, they know their age by the noise which these little creatures make while they are covered up in their cells; this noise becoming sharper and louder as they grow older and increase in strength.

It is a remarkable fact, that, if the death of a queen should occur, no eggs being left in the royal cells, the bees can at once supply her place, if she left worker eggs in the cells, or their larvæ less than four days old. To do this, they select one or more from the young worker brood, and make a royal cell or cradle for them, by tearing down the partition between and throwing three common cells into one; afterwards making it larger and deeper. The chosen grub is then plentifully fed with the royal jelly, or the food of the queens, which is much more sharp and biting in taste than that given to other bees. Thus cradled and thus fed, the insect leaves its cell as a queen, although otherwise it would have been a common worker bee!

The care of the bees for their young brood is very great, and nothing awakens their anger so much as to meddle with them. In a new hive, they first prepare the cells which are to

serve as cradles for the young; and they collect very little honey till after they have laid up an ample store of bee-bread for their food. By watching them in the spring-time, they may be seen constantly returning, one after another, in rapid succession, alighting on the board in front of the hive, their baskets filled with the treasure they have gathered by flying from flower to flower, brushing from the stamens the soft dust, and kneading it into balls. They quickly deposit the contents of their baskets, and go back for a new load.

This bee-bread is carefully stored up, and kept until the eggs are hatched which the queen bee has laid in the different cells, when the little worms or larvæ are fed by those of the workers who are nurse bees. They put their heads into each cell containing the young worms while they feed them, and then pass on to the next. Others, coming by, look in, and, appearing to see with a glance that all is right, do nothing unless they find a cell where some food is needed. This food the nurse bees adapt to the different ages of the young worms; and for the youngest it is made very simple and insipid, as suited to their taste.

Thus, all are nursed and fed till they are ready to spin their cocoons; and so careful are the bees of the quantity of food they give out, that not a particle is left behind to be wasted when the young bees come forth from their cells. We see, from all this, that these little creatures may well be called "busy bees," as they are described in the following pleasing verses :

'Thou wert out betimes, thou busy, busy bee!
When abroad I took my early way;
Before the cow from her resting-place
Had risen up, and left her trace

On the meadow with dew so grey,
I saw thee then, thou busy, busy bee!

"Thou wert alive, thou busy, busy bee!

;

When the crowd in their sleep were dead
Thou wert abroad in the freshest hour,
When the sweetest odour comes from the flower:
Man will not learn to leave his bed,

And be wise and copy thee, thou busy, busy bee!

"Art thou a miser, thou busy, busy bee?
Late and early at employ;

Still on thy golden stores intent,

Thy summer in heaping and hoarding is spent,
What thy winter may never enjoy:

Wise lesson this for me, thou busy, busy bee !"

THE WIDOW'S SON.

AHAB was a wicked king of Israel. He forsook the service of the true God, built a temple to his idol in the city of Samaria, and set

up another image in a grove of trees. There is a fearful character given of him in the Bible. It is said, "He did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him."

One day an aged man stood before king Ahab ; his dress was a coarse garment called sackcloth, perhaps made of the hair of camels. The look of the old man was grave and sorrowful. He had to deliver a message from God to the king, and to declare that the whole people of Israel were soon to be punished for their sin. When the king and his nobles looked on him, they knew that it was the prophet Elijah.

The prophet did not fear the angry looks of Ahab, but thus spake boldly: "As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word." No rain for years! Then, in that hot country, the fields and trees, and every green thing, would wither, and there would be a famine, and the cattle would die of thirst.

God then spake to Elijah, and directed him to go to a solitary place where a brook of water ran, and where he would cause the ravens to feed him. The prophet went as he was told; and in this lonely spot he spent about a year, drinking of the brook, and supplied with food by birds of the air. Though no human being was near him he was happy, for God was with him, and he knew he was safe under his care.

Months passed away, and no rain nor dew had fallen on the earth. The brook became more and more narrow. The grass and rushes which grew on its banks had quite withered;