66

64 CHAPMAN'S HANDY-BOOK.

copy: "Not slothful in business." There is no getting
on in this world of ours without hard work. It is not
work and plenty of it that kills people, but worry.
2. Bees teach a lesson of loyalty. They are monarchi-
cal by conviction and in practice. They love a queen,
whose sovereignty is motherhood, and whose service is
perfect freedom. They detest your republics, and de-
mocracies, and radicalism in all its phases.
3. Bees are immensely attached to their homes. They
are "keepers at home." No mother of a family gets on
by gadding about and gossiping from house to house.
4. Bees are models of cleanliness. The care with
which they remove filth of all kinds is something remark-
able. They plainly believe what many Christians say,
"cleanliness is next to godliness." The cottager
cannot in this matter do better than follow the example
of these admirable sanitary philosophers.
5. Bees set a beautiful example of Christian sympathy.
I have seen a wounded bee, accidently hurt, carried out
from the hive and laid tenderly on the bee-board in the
warm sunshine. One bee would lick the sufferer with
his tongue from head to foot; another would roll him
over and over in the sunshine; and at sunset they would
carry him into his sick bed. I do not complain of want
of such sympathy among the poor. I have seen much
of it in the homes of the most destitute, and witnessed
personal attentions and sacrifices and services which
have never been exceeded, if equalled, in the houses of
the great.
6. Bees are very fond of fresh air. A hive is one of
the best ventilated homes; and I have some doubt about
the wisdom or success of the various arrangements made
by some bee-masters for increasing the ventilation of
their hives. In a hot and sultry day I have seen succes-
sive lines of bees take up their position at the mouth of
the hive, and, joining the tips of their wings, work these
fanners for ten minutes, and then retire and let the
second parallel line come to the front and continue the
same process. This example is not efficiently followed
in city or cottage. People who are most careful about
what they eat and drink and put into their stomachs,