Though it is not always the case, I believe,
That the longer we've kept 'em, the more do we grieve:
For, when debts are payable, right or wrong,
A short-time loan is as bad as a long
So why in Heaven (before we are there!)
Should we give our hearts to a dog to tear?



THE MOTHER HIVE

If the stock had not been old and overcrowded, the Wax-moth would
never have entered; but where bees are too thick on the comb
there must be sickness or parasites. The heat of the hive had
risen with the June honey-flow, and though the farmers worked,
until their wings ached, to keep people cool, everybody suffered.

A young bee crawled up the greasy trampled alighting-board.
"Excuse me," she began, "but it's my first honey-flight. Could
you kindly tell me if this is my--"

"--own hive?" the Guard snapped. "Yes! Buzz in, and be
foul-brooded to you! Next!"

"Shame!" cried half a dozen old workers with worn wings and
nerves, and there was a scuffle and a hum.

The little grey Wax-moth, pressed close in a crack in the
alighting-board, had waited this chance all day. She scuttled in
like a ghost, and, knowing the senior bees would turn her out at