that I shall die in the autumn?" But the Bees held her fast, and
dragged her outside the hive. There they set her free, but she
shook her wings in a passion and said to them,--

"You are disloyal subjects, who are not worth ruling over. I
won't stay here an hour longer, but I will go out into the world and
build a new nest. Are there any of you who will come with me?"

Some of the old Bees, who had been Grubs at the same time as the
Queen, declared that they would follow her. And soon after they
flew away.

"Now we have no Queen," said the others, "we must take good care of
the Princesses." And so they crammed them with honey from morning
till night; and they grew, and grabbed, and squabbled, and made
more noise each day than the day before.

As for the little Grub, no one gave a single thought to her.

One morning the doors of the Princesses' chambers flew open, and
all ten of them stepped out, beautiful full-grown Queen Bees. The
other Bees ran up and gazed at them in admiration. "How pretty they
are!" they said. "It is hard to say which is the most beautiful."

"_I_ am!" one cried.

"You make a mistake," said another, and stabbed her with her sting.

"You are rather conceited," shrieked a third. "I imagine that
_I_ am rather prettier than you are." And immediately they all