Hive.' Why do they want to turn us out? Swarming be gummed!
Swarming was invented to cheat a worker out of her proper
comforts. Come on off to bed!"

The noise died out as the bees settled in empty cells for the
night.

"You hear?" said the Queen. "I know the Hive!"

"Quite between ourselves, I taught them that," cried the
Wax-moth. "Wait till my principles develop, and you'll see the
light from a new quarter."

"You speak truth for once," the Queen said suddenly, for she
recognized the Wax-moth. "That Light will break into the top of
the Hive. A Hot Smoke will follow it, and your children will not
be able to hide in any crevice."

"Is it possible?" Melissa whispered. "I-we have sometimes heard a
legend like it."

"It is no legend," the old Queen answered. "I had it from my
mother, and she had it from hers. After the Wax-moth has grown
strong, a Shadow will fall across the gate; a Voice will speak
from behind a Veil; there will be Light, and Hot Smoke, and
earthquakes, and those who live will see everything that they
have done, all together in one place, burned up in one great
fire." The old Queen was trying to tell what she had been told of
the Bee Master's dealings with an infected hive in the apiary,
two or three seasons ago; and, of course, from her point of view