and fray-winged to feed their queer charges. Most of the Oddities
would not, and many, on account of their malformations, could
not, go through a day's field-work; but the Wax-moths, who were
always busy on the brood-comb, found pleasant home occupations
for them. One albino, for instance, divided the number of pounds
of honey in stock by the number of bees in the Hive, and proved
that if every bee only gathered honey for seven and three quarter
minutes a day, she would have the rest of the time to herself,
and could accompany the drones on their mating flights. The
drones were not at all pleased.

Another, an eyeless drone with no feelers, said that all
brood-cells should be perfect circles, so as not to interfere
with the grub or the workers. He proved that the old six-sided
cell was solely due to the workers building against each other on
opposite sides of the wall, and that if there were no
interference, there would be no angles. Some bees tried the new
plan for a while, and found it cost eight times more wax than the
old six sided specification; and, as they never allowed a cluster
to hang up and make wax in peace, real wax was scarce. However,
they eked out their task with varnish stolen from new coffins at
funerals, and it made them rather sick. Then they took to cadging
round sugar-factories and breweries, because it was easiest to
get their material from those places, and the mixture of glucose
and beer naturally fermented in store and blew the store-cells
out of shape, besides smelling abominably. Some of the sound bees
warned them that ill-gotten gains never prosper, but the Oddities
at once surrounded them and balled them to death. That was a
punishment they were almost as fond of as they were of eating,
and they expected the sound bees to feed them. Curiously enough