and leave the victuals gradually to ooze out by themselves. At length,
the egg is laid and the door sealed up, without anything being done by
the Bee in the matter of the disastrous breach. And yet to plug the
hole were an easy matter for her: a pellet of her mortar would
suffice. Besides, while the cup was still empty, did she not instantly
close the hole which I had made? Why are not those early repairs of
hers repeated? It clearly shows the creature's inability to retrace
the course of its actions, however slightly. At the time of the first
breach, the cup was empty and the insect was laying the first rows of
bricks. The accident produced through my agency concerned the part of
the work which occupied the Bee at the actual moment; it was a flaw in
the building, such as can occur naturally in new courses of masonry,
which have not had time to harden. In correcting that flaw, the Mason
did not go outside her usual work.

But, once the provisioning begins, the cup is finished for good and
all; and, come what may, the insect will not touch it again. The
harvester will go on harvesting, though the pollen trickle to the
ground through the drain. To plug the hole would imply a change of
occupation of which the insect is incapable for the moment. It is the
honey's turn and not the mortar's. The rule upon this point is
invariable. A moment comes, presently, when the harvesting is
interrupted and the masoning resumed. The edifice must be raised a
storey higher. Will the Bee, once more a builder, mixing fresh cement,
now attend to the leakage at the bottom? No more than before. What
occupies her at present is the new floor, whose brickwork would be
repaired at once, if it sustained a damage; but the bottom storey is
too old a part of the business, it is ancient history; and the worker
will not put a further touch to it, even though it be in serious
danger.