began calling out at once, and soon after began to fight with one
another as hard as ever they could.

The Bees would have liked to separate them, but the old head Bee
Nurse said to them,--"Let them go on fighting; then we shall see
which of them is the strongest, and we will choose her to be our
Queen. We can't do with more than one."

At this the Bees formed round in a ring and looked on at the
battle. It lasted a long time, and it was fiercely fought. Wings
and legs which had been bitten off were flying about in the air,
and after some time eight of the Princesses lay dead upon the
ground. The two last were still fighting. One of them had lost all
her wings, and the other had only four legs left.

"She will be a poor sort of Queen whichever of the two we get,"
said one of the Bees. "We should have done better to have kept the
old one." But she might have spared herself the remark, for in the
same moment the Princesses gave each other such a stab with their
stings that they both fell dead as a door-nail.

"That is a pretty business!" called the Bees, and ran about among
each other in dismay. "Now we have no Queen! What shall we do? What
shall we do?"

In despair they crawled about the hive, and did not know which way
to turn. But the oldest and cleverest sat in a corner and held a
council. For a long time they talked this way and that as to what
they should decide on doing in their unhappy circumstances. But at
last the head Bee Nurse got a hearing, and said,--"I can tell you