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diff --git a/22354.txt b/22354.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d604d55 --- /dev/null +++ b/22354.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5624 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Adventures of Maya the Bee, by Waldemar +Bonsels, Translated by Adele Szold Seltzer and Arthur Guiterman, +Illustrated by Homer Boss + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Adventures of Maya the Bee + + +Author: Waldemar Bonsels + + + +Release Date: August 19, 2007 [eBook #22354] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF MAYA THE BEE*** + + +E-text prepared by Louise Hope, Stephen Hope, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) from digital +material generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries +(http://www.archive.org/details/americana) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg has the original German version + of this work (_Die Biene Maja und ihre Abenteuer_). + See https://www.gutenberg.org/etext/21021 + + + Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original lovely illustrations. + See 22354-h.htm or 22354-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/3/5/22354/22354-h/22354-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/3/5/22354/22354-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/American Libraries. See + http://www.archive.org/details/adventuresofmaya00bons + or + http://www.archive.org/details/adventuresofmaya00bonsiala + + + + + +THE ADVENTURES OF MAYA THE BEE + + + [Illustration: "Won't You Come In?"] + + + +THE ADVENTURES OF MAYA THE BEE + +by + +WALDEMAR BONSELS + +Illustrated by Homer Boss + + + + + + + +[Publisher's Device] + + +New York +Thomas Seltzer +1922 + +Copyright, 1922, by +Thomas Seltzer, Inc. +All rights reserved +Printed in the United States of America + + + + +The Translation of this book was made by +ADELE SZOLD SELTZER + +The Poems were done into English by +ARTHUR GUITERMAN + + + + +CONTENTS + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. First Flight 1 + II. The House of the Rose 14 + III. The Lake 25 + IV. Effie and Bobbie 43 + V. The Acrobat 60 + VI. Puck 72 + VII. In the Toils 87 + VIII. The Bug and the Butterfly 104 + IX. The Lost Leg 113 + X. The Wonders of the Night 133 + XI. With the Sprite 153 + XII. Alois, Ladybird and Poet 163 + XIII. The Fortress 172 + XIV. The Sentinel 182 + XV. The Warning 194 + XVI. The Battle 204 + XVII. The Queen's Friend 218 + + + + +LIST OF COLORED ILLUSTRATIONS + + "Won't you come in?" FRONTISPIECE + + Facing Page + Maya lifted her wings, buzzed farewell + to the lake, and flew inland 42 + + A human being in miniature was coming up + out of the iris 146 + + The Queen came without her court, + attended only by her aide and two + ladies-in-waiting 200 + + + + + [Illustration] + +CHAPTER I + +FIRST FLIGHT + + +The elderly lady-bee who helped the baby-bee Maya when she awoke +to life and slipped from her cell was called Cassandra and +commanded great respect in the hive. Those were exciting days. +A rebellion had broken out in the nation of bees, which the +queen was unable to suppress. + +While the experienced Cassandra wiped Maya's large bright eyes +and tried as best she could to arrange her delicate wings, the +big hive hummed and buzzed like a threatening thunderstorm, and +the baby-bee found it very warm and said so to her companion. + +Cassandra looked about troubled, without replying. It astonished +her that the child so soon found something to criticize. But +really the child was right: the heat and the pushing and +crowding were almost unbearable. Maya saw an endless succession +of bees go by in such swarming haste that sometimes one climbed +up and over another, or several rolled past together clotted in +a ball. + +Once the queen-bee approached. Cassandra and Maya were +jostled aside. A drone, a friendly young fellow of immaculate +appearance, came to their assistance. He nodded to Maya and +stroked the shining hairs on his breast rather nervously with +his foreleg. (The bees use their forelegs as arms and hands.) + +"The crash will come," he said to Cassandra. "The revolutionists +will leave the city. A new queen has already been proclaimed." + +Cassandra scarcely noticed him. She did not even thank him for +his help, and Maya felt keenly conscious that the old lady was +not a bit nice to the young gentleman. The child was a little +afraid to ask questions, the impressions were coming so thick +and fast; they threatened to overwhelm her. The general +excitement got into her blood, and she set up a fine, distinct +buzzing. + +"What do you mean by that?" said Cassandra. "Isn't there noise +enough as it is?" + +Maya subsided at once, and looked at Cassandra questioningly. + +"Come here, child, we'll see if we cannot quiet down a bit." +Cassandra took Maya by her gleaming wings, which were still soft +and new and marvelously transparent, and shoved her into an +almost deserted corner beside a few honeycombs filled with +honey. + +Maya stood still and held on to one of the cells. + +"It smells delicious here," she observed. + +Her remark seemed to fluster the old lady again. + +"You must learn to wait, child," she replied. "I have brought up +several hundred young bees this spring and given them lessons +for their first flight, but I haven't come across another one +that was as pert and forward as you are. You seem to be an +exceptional nature." + +Maya blushed and stuck the two dainty fingers of her hand in her +mouth. + +"Exceptional nature--what is an exceptional nature?" she asked +shyly. + +"Oh, _that's_ not nice," cried Cassandra, referring not to +Maya's question, which she had scarcely heeded, but to the +child's sticking her fingers in her mouth. "Now, listen. Listen +very carefully to what I am going to tell you. I can devote only +a short time to you. Other baby-bees have already slipped out, +and the only helper I have on this floor is Turka, and Turka is +dreadfully overworked and for the last few days has been +complaining of a buzzing in her ears. Sit down here." + +Maya obeyed, with great brown eyes fastened on her teacher. + +"The first rule that a young bee must learn," said Cassandra, +and sighed, "is that every bee, in whatever it thinks and does, +must be like the other bees and must always have the good of all +in mind. In our order of society, which we have held to be the +right one from time immemorial and which couldn't have been +better preserved than it has been, this rule is the one +fundamental basis for the well-being of the state. To-morrow you +will fly out of the hive, an older bee will accompany you. At +first you will be allowed to fly only short stretches and you +will have to observe everything, very carefully, so that you can +find your way back home again. Your companion will show you the +hundred flowers and blossoms that yield the best nectar. You'll +have to learn them by heart. This is something no bee can escape +doing.-- Here, you may as well learn the first line right +away--clover and honeysuckle. Repeat it. Say 'clover and +honeysuckle.'" + +"I can't," said little Maya. "It's awfully hard. I'll see the +flowers later anyway." + +Cassandra opened her old eyes wide and shook her head. + +"You'll come to a bad end," she sighed. "I can foresee that +already." + +"Am I supposed later on to gather nectar all day long?" asked +Maya. + +Cassandra fetched a deep sigh and gazed at the baby-bee +seriously and sadly. She seemed to be thinking of her own +toilsome life--toil from beginning to end, nothing but toil. +Then she spoke in a changed voice, with a loving look in her +eyes for the child. + +"My dear little Maya, there will be other things in your +life--the sunshine, lofty green trees, flowery heaths, lakes of +silver, rushing, glistening waterways, the heavens blue and +radiant, and perhaps even human beings, the highest and most +perfect of Nature's creations. Because of all these glories your +work will become a joy. Just think--all that lies ahead of you, +dear heart. You have good reason to be happy." + +"I'm so glad," said Maya, "that's what I want to be." + +Cassandra smiled kindly. In that instant--why, she did not +know--she conceived a peculiar affection for the little bee, +such as she could not recall ever having felt for any child-bee +before. And that, probably, is how it came about that she told +Maya more than a bee usually hears on the first day of its life. +She gave her various special bits of advice, warned her against +the dangers of the wicked world, and named the bees' most +dangerous enemies. At the end she spoke long of human beings, +and implanted the first love for them in the child's heart and +the germ of a great longing to know them. + +"Be polite and agreeable to every insect you meet," she said in +conclusion, "then you will learn more from them than I have told +you to-day. But beware of the wasps and hornets. The hornets are +our most formidable enemy, and the wickedest, and the wasps are +a useless tribe of thieves, without home or religion. We are a +stronger, more powerful nation, while they steal and murder +wherever they can. You may use your sting upon insects, to +defend yourself and inspire respect, but if you insert it in a +warm-blooded animal, especially a human being, you will die, +because it will remain sticking in the skin and will break off. +So do not sting warm-blooded creatures except in dire need, and +then do it without flinching or fear of death. For it is to our +courage as well as our wisdom that we bees owe the universal +respect and esteem in which we are held. And now good-by, Maya +dear. Good luck to you. Be faithful to your people and your +queen." + +The little bee nodded yes, and returned her old monitor's kiss +and embrace. She went to bed in a flutter of secret joy and +excitement and could scarcely fall asleep from curiosity. For +the next day she was to know the great, wide world, the sun, the +sky and the flowers. + +Meanwhile the bee-city had quieted down. A large part of the +younger bees had now left the kingdom to found a new city; but +for a long time the droning of the great swarm could be heard +outside in the sunlight. It was not from arrogance or evil +intent against the queen that these had quitted; it was because +the population had grown to such a size that there was no longer +room for all the inhabitants, and it was impossible to store a +sufficient food-supply of honey to feed them all over the +winter. You see, according to a government treaty of long +standing, a large part of the honey gathered in summer had to be +delivered up to human beings, who in return assured the welfare +of the bee-state, provided for the peace and safety of the bees, +and gave them shelter against the cold in winter. + +"The sun has risen!" + +The joyous call sounding in Maya's ears awoke her out of sleep +the next morning. She jumped up and joined a lady working-bee. + +"Delighted," said the lady cordially. "You may fly with me." + +At the gate, where there was a great pushing and crowding, they +were held up by the sentinels, one of whom gave Maya the +password without which no bee was admitted into the city. + +"Be sure to remember it," he said, "and good luck to you." + +Outside the city gates, a flood of sunlight assailed the little +bee, a brilliance of green and gold, so rich and warm and +resplendent that she had to close her eyes, not knowing what to +say or do from sheer delight. + +"Magnificent! It really is," she said to her companion. "Do we +fly into that?" + +"Right ahead!" answered the lady-bee. + +Maya raised her little head and moved her pretty new wings. +Suddenly she felt the flying-board on which she had been sitting +sink down, while the ground seemed to be gliding away behind, +and the large green domes of the tree-tops seemed to be coming +toward her. + +Her eyes sparkled, her heart rejoiced. + +"I am flying," she cried. "It cannot be anything else. What I am +doing must be flying. Why, it's splendid, perfectly splendid!" + +"Yes, you're flying," said the lady-bee, who had difficulty in +keeping up with the child. "Those are linden-trees, those toward +which we are flying, the lindens in our castle park. You can +always tell where our city is by those lindens. But you're +flying so fast, Maya." + +"Fast?" said Maya. "How can one fly fast enough? Oh, how sweet +the sunshine smells!" + +"No," replied her companion, who was rather out of breath, "it's +not the sunshine, it's the flowers that smell.-- But please, +don't go so fast, else I'll drop behind. Besides, at this pace +you won't observe things and be able to find your way back." + +But little Maya transported by the sunshine and the joy of +living, did not hear. She felt as though she were darting like +an arrow through a green-shimmering sea of light, to greater and +greater splendor. The bright flowers seemed to call to her, the +still, sunlit distances lured her on, and the blue sky blessed +her joyous young flight. + +"Never again will it be as beautiful as it is to-day," she +thought. "I _can't_ turn back. I can't think of anything except +the sun." + +Beneath her the gay pictures kept changing, the peaceful +landscape slid by slowly, in broad stretches. + +"The sun must be all of gold," thought the baby-bee. + +Coming to a large garden, which seemed to rest in blossoming +clouds of cherry-tree, hawthorn, and lilacs, she let herself +down to earth, dead-tired, and dropped in a bed of red tulips, +where she held on to one of the big flowers. With a great sigh +of bliss she pressed herself against the blossom-wall and looked +up to the deep blue of the sky through the gleaming edges of the +flowers. + +"Oh, how beautiful it is out here in the great world, a thousand +times more beautiful than in the dark hive. I'll never go back +there again to carry honey or make wax. No, indeed, I'll never +do that. I want to see and know the world in bloom. I am not +like the other bees, my heart is meant for pleasure and +surprises, experiences and adventures. I will not be afraid of +any dangers. Haven't I got strength and courage and a sting?" + +She laughed, bubbling over with delight, and took a deep draught +of nectar out of the flower of the tulip. + +"Grand," she thought. "It's glorious to be alive." + +Ah, if little Maya had had an inkling of the many dangers and +hardships that lay ahead of her, she would certainly have +thought twice. But never dreaming of such things, she stuck to +her resolve. + +Soon tiredness overcame her, and she fell asleep. When she +awoke, the sun was gone, twilight lay upon the land. A bit +of alarm, after all. Maya's heart went a little faster. +Hesitatingly she crept out of the flower, which was about to +close up for the night, and hid herself away under a leaf high +up in the top of an old tree, where she went to sleep, thinking +in the utmost confidence: + +"I'm not afraid. I won't be afraid right at the very start. The +sun is coming round again; that's certain; Cassandra said so. +The thing to do is to go to sleep quietly and sleep well." + + [Illustration] + + + + + [Illustration] + +CHAPTER II + +THE HOUSE OF THE ROSE + + +By the time Maya awoke, it was full daylight. She felt a little +chilly under her big green leaf, and stiff in her limbs, so that +her first movements were slow and clumsy. Clinging to a vein of +the leaf she let her wings quiver and vibrate, to limber them up +and shake off the dust; then she smoothed her fair hair, wiped +her large eyes clean, and crept, warily, down to the edge of the +leaf, where she paused and looked around. + +The glory and the glow of the morning sun were dazzling. Though +Maya's resting-place still lay in cool shadow, the leaves +overhead shone like green gold. + +"Oh, you glorious world," thought the little bee. + +Slowly, one by one, the experiences of the previous day came +back to her--all the beauties she had seen and all the risks she +had run. She remained firm in her resolve not to return to the +hive. To be sure, when she thought of Cassandra, her heart beat +fast, though it was not very likely that Cassandra would ever +find her.-- No, no, to her there was no joy in forever having to +fly in and out of the hive, carrying honey and making wax. This +was clear, once and for all. She wanted to be happy and free and +enjoy life in her own way. Come what might, she would take the +consequences. + +Thus lightly thought Maya, the truth being that she had no real +idea of the things that lay in store for her. + +Afar off in the sunshine something glimmered red. A lurking +impatience seized the little bee. Moreover, she felt hungry. So, +courageously, with a loud joyous buzz, she swung out of her +hiding-place into the clear, glistening air and the warm +sunlight, and made straight for the red patch that seemed to nod +and beckon. When she drew near she smelled a perfume so sweet +that it almost robbed her of her senses, and she was hardly able +to reach the large red flower. She let herself down on the +outermost of its curved petals and clung to it tightly. At the +gentle tipping of the petal a shining silver sphere almost as +big as herself, came rolling toward her, transparent and +gleaming in all the colors of the rainbow. Maya was dreadfully +frightened, yet fascinated too by the splendor of the cool +silver sphere, which rolled by her, balanced on the edge of the +petal, leapt into the sunshine, and fell down in the grass. Oh, +oh! The beautiful ball had shivered into a score of wee pearls. +Maya uttered a little cry of terror. But the tiny round +fragments made such a bright, lively glitter in the grass, and +ran down the blades in such twinkling, sparkling little drops +like diamonds in the lamplight, that she was reassured. + +She turned towards the inside of the calix. A beetle, a little +smaller than herself, with brown wing-sheaths and a black +breastplate, was sitting at the entrance. He kept his place +unperturbed, and looked at her seriously, though by no means +unamiably. Maya bowed politely. + +"Did the ball belong to you?" she asked, and receiving no reply +added: "I am very sorry I threw it down." + +"Do you mean the dewdrop?" smiled the beetle, rather superior. +"You needn't worry about that. I had taken a drink already and +my wife never drinks water, she has kidney trouble.-- What are +you doing here?" + +"What is this wonderful flower?" asked Maya, not answering the +beetle's question. "Would you be good enough to tell me its +name?" + +Remembering Cassandra's advice she was as polite as possible. + +The beetle moved his shiny head in his dorsal plate, a thing he +could do easily without the least discomfort, as his head fitted +in perfectly and glided back and forth without a click. + +"You seem to be only of yesterday?" he said, and laughed--not +so very politely. Altogether there was something about him that +struck Maya as unrefined. The bees had more culture and better +manners. Yet he seemed to be a good-natured fellow, because, +seeing Maya's blush of embarrassment, he softened to her +childish ignorance. + +"It's a rose," he explained indulgently. "So now you know.-- We +moved in four days ago, and since we moved in, it has flourished +wonderfully under our care.-- Won't you come in?" + +Maya hesitated, then conquered her misgivings and took a few +steps forward. He pressed aside a bright petal, Maya entered, +and she and the beetle walked beside each other through the +narrow chambers with their subdued light and fragrant walls. + +"What a charming home!" exclaimed Maya, genuinely taken with the +place. "The perfume is positively intoxicating." + +Maya's admiration pleased the beetle. + +"It takes wisdom to know where to live," he said, and smiled +good-naturedly. "'Tell me where you live and I'll tell you what +you're worth,' says an old adage.-- Would you like some nectar?" + +"Oh," Maya burst out, "I'd love some." + +The beetle nodded and disappeared behind one of the walls. Maya +looked about. She was happy. She pressed her cheeks and little +hands against the dainty red hangings and took deep breaths of +the delicious perfume, in an ecstasy of delight at being +permitted to stop in such a beautiful dwelling. + +"It certainly is a great joy to be alive," she thought. "And +there's no comparison between the dingy, crowded stories in +which the bees live and work and this house. The very quiet here +is splendid." + +Suddenly there was a loud sound of scolding behind the walls. It +was the beetle growling excitedly in great anger. He seemed to +be hustling and pushing someone along roughly, and Maya caught +the following, in a clear, piping voice full of fright and +mortification. + +"Of course, because I'm alone, you dare to lay hands on me. But +wait and see what you get when I bring my associates along. You +are a ruffian. Very well, I am going. But remember, I called you +a ruffian. You'll never forget _that_." + +The stranger's emphatic tone, so sharp and vicious, frightened +Maya dreadfully. In a few moments she heard the sound of someone +running out. + +The beetle returned and sullenly flung down some nectar. + +"An outrage," he said. "You can't escape those vermin anywhere. +They don't allow you a moment's peace." + +Maya was so hungry she forgot to thank him and took a mouthful +of nectar and chewed, while the beetle wiped the perspiration +from his forehead and slightly loosened his upper armor so as to +catch his breath. + +"Who was that?" mumbled Maya, with her mouth still full. + +"Please empty your mouth--finish chewing and swallowing your +nectar. One can't understand a word you say." + +Maya obeyed, but the excited owner of the house gave her no time +to repeat her question. + +"It was an ant," he burst out angrily. "Do those ants think we +save and store up hour after hour only for them! The idea of +going right into the pantry without a how-do-you-do or a +by-your-leave! It makes me furious. If I didn't realize that the +ill-mannered creatures actually didn't know better, I wouldn't +hesitate a second to call them--thieves!" + +At this he suddenly remembered his own manners. + +"I beg your pardon," he said, turning to Maya, "I forgot +to introduce myself. My name is Peter, of the family of +rose-beetles." + +"My name is Maya," said the little bee shyly. "I am delighted to +make your acquaintance." She looked at Peter closely; he was +bowing repeatedly, and spreading his feelers like two little +brown fans. That pleased Maya immensely. + +"You have the most fascinating feelers," she said, "simply +sweet...." + +"Well, yes," observed Peter, flattered, "people do think a lot +of them. Would you like to see the other side?" + +"If I may." + +The rose-beetle turned his fan-shaped feelers to one side and +let a ray of sunlight glide over them. + +"Great, don't you think?" he asked. + +"I shouldn't have thought anything like them possible," rejoined +Maya. "My own feelers are very plain." + +"Well, yes," observed Peter, "to each his own. By way of +compensation you certainly have beautiful eyes, and the color of +your body, the gold of your body, is not to be sneezed at." + +Maya beamed. Peter was the first person to tell her she had any +good looks. Life was great. She was happy as a lark, and helped +herself to some more nectar. + +"An excellent quality of honey," she remarked. + +"Take some more," said Peter, rather amazed by his little +guest's appetite. "Rose-juice of the first vintage. One has to +be careful and not spoil one's stomach. There's some dew left, +too, if you're thirsty." + +"Thank you so much," said Maya. "I'd like to fly now, if you +will permit me." + +The rose-beetle laughed. + +"Flying, always flying," he said. "It's in the blood of you +bees. I don't understand such a restless way of living. There's +some advantage in staying in one place, too, don't you think?" + +Peter courteously held the red curtain aside. + +"I'll go as far as our observation petal with you," he said. "It +makes an excellent place to fly from." + +"Oh, thank you," said Maya, "I can fly from anywhere." + +"That's where you have the advantage over me," replied Peter. +"I have some difficulty in unfolding my lower wings." He shook +her hand and held the last curtain aside for her. + +"Oh, the blue sky!" rejoiced Maya. "Good-by." + +"So long," called Peter, remaining on the top petal to see Maya +rise rapidly straight up to the sky in the golden sunlight and +the clear, pure air of the morning. With a sigh he returned, +pensive, to his cool rose-dwelling, for though it was still +early he was feeling rather warm. He sang his morning song to +himself, and it hummed in the red sheen of the petals and the +radiance of the spring day that slowly mounted and spread over +the blossoming earth. + + Gold and green are field and tree, + Warm in summer's glow; + All is bright and fair to see + While the roses blow. + + What or why the world may be + Who can guess or know? + All my world is glad and free + While the roses blow. + + Brief, they say, my time of glee; + With the roses I go; + Yes, but life is good to me + While the roses blow. + + [Illustration] + + + + + [Illustration] + +CHAPTER III + +THE LAKE + + +"Dear me," thought Maya, after she had flown off, "oh, dear me, +I forgot to ask Mr. Peter about human beings. A gentleman of his +wide experience could certainly have told me about them. But +perhaps I'll meet one myself to-day." Full of high spirits and +in a happy mood of adventure, she let her bright eyes rove over +the wide landscape that lay spread out below in all its summer +splendor. + +She came to a large garden gleaming with a thousand colors. On +her way she met many insects, who sang out greetings, and wished +her a pleasant journey and a good harvest.-- But every time she +met a bee, her heart went pit-a-pat. After all she felt a little +guilty to be idle, and was afraid of coming upon acquaintances. +Soon, however, she saw that the bees paid not the slightest +attention to her. + +Then all of a sudden the world seemed to turn upside down. The +heavens shone _below_ her, in endless depths. At first she was +dreadfully frightened; she thought she had flown too far up and +lost her way in the sky. But presently she noticed that the +trees were mirrored on the edge of the terrestrial sky, and to +her entrancement she realized that she was looking at a great +serene basin of water which lay blue and clear in the peaceful +morning. She let herself down close to the surface. There was +her image flying in reflection, the lovely gold of her body +shining at her from the water, her bright wings glittering like +clear glass. And she observed that she held her little legs +properly against her body, as Cassandra had taught her to do. + +"It's bliss to be flying over the surface of water like this. +It is, really," she thought. + +Big fish and little fish swam about in the clear element, or +seemed to float idly. Maya took good care not to go too close; +she knew there was danger to bees from the race of fishes. + +On the opposite shore she was attracted by the water-lilies and +the rushes, the water-lilies with their large round leaves lying +outspread on the water like green plates, and the rushes with +their sun-warmed, reedy stalks. + +She picked out a leaf well-concealed under the tall blades of +the rushes. It lay in almost total shade, except for two round +spots like gold coins; the rushes swayed above in the full +sunlight. + +"Glorious," said the little bee, "perfectly glorious." + +She began to tidy herself. Putting both arms up behind her head +she pulled it forward as if to tear it off, but was careful not +to pull too hard, just enough to scrape away the dust; then, +with her little hind legs, she stroked and dragged down her +wing-sheaths, which sprang back in position looking beautifully +bright and glossy. + +Just as she had completed her toilet a small steely blue-bottle +came and alighted on the leaf beside her. He looked at her in +surprise. + +"What are you doing here on my leaf?" he demanded. + +Maya was startled. + +"Is there any objection to a person's just resting here a moment +or two?" + +Maya remembered Cassandra's telling her that the nation of bees +commanded great respect in the insect world. Now she was going +to see if it was true; she was going to see if she, Maya, could +compel respect. Nevertheless her heart beat a little faster +because her tone had been very loud and peremptory. + +But actually the blue-bottle was frightened. He showed it +plainly. When he saw that Maya wasn't going to let anyone lay +down the law to her he backed down. With a surly buzz he swung +himself on to a blade that curved above Maya's leaf, and said in +a much politer tone, talking down to her out of the sunshine: + +"You ought to be working. As a bee you certainly ought. But if +you want to rest, all right. I'll wait here." + +"There are plenty of leaves," observed Maya. + +"All rented," said the blue-bottle. "Now-a-days one is happy to +be able to call a piece of ground one's own. If my predecessor +hadn't been snapped up by a frog two days ago, I should still be +without a proper place to live in. It's not very pleasant to +have to hunt up a different lodging every night. Not everyone +has such a well-ordered state as you bees. But permit me to +introduce myself. My name is Jack Christopher." + +Maya was silent with terror, thinking how awful it must be to +fall into the clutches of a frog. + +"Are there many frogs in the lake?" she asked and drew to the +very middle of the leaf so as not to be seen from the water. + +The blue-bottle laughed. + +"You are giving yourself unnecessary trouble," he jeered. "The +frog can see you from below when the sun shines, because then +the leaf is transparent. He sees you sitting on my leaf, +perfectly." + +Beset by the awful idea that maybe a big frog was squatting +right under her leaf staring at her with his bulging hungry +eyes, Maya was about to fly off when something dreadful +happened, something for which she was totally unprepared. In the +confusion of the first moment she could not make out just +exactly what _was_ happening. She only heard a loud rustling +like the wind in dry leaves, then a singing whistle, a loud +angry hunter's cry. And a fine, transparent shadow glided over +her leaf. Now she saw--saw fully, and her heart stood still in +terror. A great, glittering dragon-fly had caught hold of poor +Jack Christopher and held him tight in its large, fangs, sharp +as a knife. The blade of the rush bent low beneath their weight. +Maya could see them hovering above her and also mirrored in the +clear water below. Jack's screams tore her heart. Without +thinking, she cried: + +"Let the blue-bottle go, at once, whoever you are. You have no +right to interfere with people's habits. You have no right to be +so arbitrary." + +The dragon-fly released Jack from its fangs, but still held him +fast with its arms, and turned its head toward Maya. She was +fearfully frightened by its large, grave eyes and vicious +pincers, but the glittering of its body and wings fascinated +her. They flashed like glass and water and precious stones. The +horrifying thing was its huge size. How could she have been so +bold? She was all a-tremble. + +"Why, what's the matter, child?" The dragon-fly's tone, +surprisingly, was quite friendly. + +"Let him go," cried Maya, and tears came into her eyes. "His +name is Jack Christopher." + +The dragon-fly smiled. + +"Why, little one?" it said, putting on an interested air, though +most condescending. + +Maya stammered helplessly: + +"Oh, he's such a nice, elegant gentleman, and he's never done +you any harm so far as I know." + +The dragon-fly regarded Jack Christopher contemplatively. + +"Yes, he _is_ a dear little fellow," it replied tenderly +and--bit Jack's head off. + +Maya thought she was losing her senses. For a long time she +couldn't utter a sound. In horror she listened to the munching +and crunching above her as the body of Jack Christopher the +blue-bottle was being dismembered. + +"Don't put on so," said the dragon-fly with its mouth full, +chewing. "Your sensitiveness doesn't impress me. Are you bees +any better? What do you do? Evidently you are very young still +and haven't looked about in your own house. When the massacre of +the drones takes place in the summer, the rest of the world is +no less shocked and horrified, and _I_ think with greater +justification." + +Maya asked: + +"Have you finished up there?" She did not dare to raise her +eyes. + +"One leg still left," replied the dragon-fly. + +"Do please swallow it. Then I'll answer you," cried Maya, who +knew that the drones in the hive _had_ to be killed off in the +summer, and was provoked by the dragon-fly's stupidity. "But +don't you dare to come a step closer. If you do I'll use my +sting on you." + +Little Maya had really lost her temper. It was the first time +she had mentioned her sting and the first time she felt glad +that she possessed the weapon. + +The dragon-fly threw her a wicked glance. It had finished its +meal and sat with its head slightly ducked, fixing Maya with its +eyes and looking like a beast of prey about to pounce. The +little bee was quite calm now. Where she got her courage from +she couldn't have told, but she was no longer afraid. She set up +a very fine clear buzzing as she had once heard a sentinel do +when a wasp came near the entrance of the hive. + +The dragon-fly said slowly and threateningly: + +"Dragon-flies live on the best terms with the nation of bees." + +"Very sensible in them," flashed Maya. + +"Do you mean to insinuate that I am afraid of you--I of you?" +With a jerk the dragon-fly let go of the rush, which sprang back +into its former position, and flew off with a whirr and sparkle +of its wings, straight down to the surface of the water, where +it made a superb appearance reflected in the mirror of the lake. +You'd have thought there were two dragon-flies. Both moved their +crystal wings so swiftly and finely that it seemed as though a +brilliant sheen of silver were streaming around them. + +Maya quite forgot her grief over poor Jack Christopher and all +sense of her own danger. + +"How lovely! How lovely!" she cried enthusiastically, clapping +her hands. + +"Do you mean me?" The dragon-fly spoke in astonishment, but +quickly added: "Yes, I must admit I am fairly presentable. +Yesterday I was flying along the brook, and you should have +heard some human beings who were lying on the bank rave +over me." + +"Human beings!" exclaimed Maya. "Oh my, did you see human +beings?" + +"Of course," answered the dragon-fly. "But you'll be very +interested to know my name, I'm sure. My name is Loveydear, +of the order Odonata, of the family Libellulidae." + +"Oh, do tell me about human beings," implored Maya, after she +had introduced herself. + +The dragon-fly seemed won over. She seated herself on the leaf +beside Maya. And the little bee let her, knowing Miss Loveydear +would be careful not to come too close. + +"Have human beings a sting?" she asked. + +"Good gracious, what would they do with a sting! No, they have +worse weapons against us, and they are very dangerous. There +isn't a soul who isn't afraid of them, especially of the little +ones whose two legs show--the boys." + +"Do they try to catch you?" asked Maya, breathless with +excitement. + +"Yes, can't you understand why?" Miss Loveydear glanced at her +wings. "I have seldom met a human being who hasn't tried to +catch me." + +"But why?" asked Maya in a tremor. + +"You see," said Miss Loveydear, with a modest smirk and a +drooping, sidewise glance, "there's something attractive about +us dragon-flies. That's the only reason I know. Some members of +our family who let themselves be caught went through the +cruellest tortures and finally died." + +"Were they eaten up?" + +"No, no, not exactly that," said Miss Loveydear comfortingly. +"So far as is known, man does not feed on dragon-flies. But +sometimes he has murderous desires, a lust for killing, which +will probably never be explained. You may not believe it, but +cases have actually occurred of the so-called boy-men catching +dragon-flies and pulling off their legs and wings for pure +pleasure. You doubt it, don't you?" + +"Of course I doubt it," cried Maya indignantly. + +Miss Loveydear shrugged her glistening shoulders. Her face +looked old with knowledge. + +"Oh," she said after a pause, grieving and pale, "if only one +could speak of these things openly. I had a brother who gave +promise of a splendid future, only, I'm sorry to say, he was a +little reckless and dreadfully curious. A boy once threw a net +over him, a net fastened to a long pole.-- Who would dream of a +thing like that? Tell me. Would you?" + +"No," said the little bee, "never. I should never have thought +of such a thing." + +The dragon-fly looked at her. + +"A black cord was tied round his waist between his wings, so +that he could fly, but not fly away, not escape. Each time my +brother thought he had got his liberty, he would be jerked back +horribly within the boy's reach." + +Maya shook her head. + +"You don't dare even think of it," she whispered. + +"If a day passes when I don't think of it," said the dragon-fly, +"I am sure to dream of it. One misfortune followed another. My +brother soon died." Miss Loveydear heaved a deep sigh. + +"What did he die of?" asked Maya, in genuine sympathy. + +Miss Loveydear could not reply at once. Great tears welled up +and rolled down her cheeks. + +"He was stuck in a pocket," she sobbed. "No one can stand being +stuck in a pocket." + +"But what is a pocket?" Maya could hardly take in so many new +and awful things all at once. + +"A pocket," Miss Loveydear explained, "is a store-room that men +have in their outer hide.-- And what else do you think was in +the pocket when my brother was stuck into it? Oh, the dreadful +company in which my poor brother had to draw his last breath! +You'll never guess!" + +"No," said Maya, all in a quiver, "no, I don't think I +can.-- Honey, perhaps?" + +"Not likely," observed Miss Loveydear with an air of mingled +importance and distress. "You'll seldom find honey in the +pockets of human beings. I'll tell you.-- A frog was in the +pocket, and a pen-knife, and a carrot. Well?" + +"Horrible," whispered Maya.-- "What _is_ a pen-knife?" + +"A pen-knife, in a way, is a human being's sting, an artificial +one. They are denied a sting by nature, so they try to imitate +it.-- The frog, thank goodness, was nearing his end. One eye was +gone, one leg was broken, and his lower jaw was dislocated. Yet, +for all that, the moment my brother was stuck in the pocket he +hissed at him out of his crooked mouth: + +"'As soon as I am well, I will swallow you.' + +"With his remaining eye he glared at my brother, and in the +half-light of the prison you can imagine what an effect the look +he gave him must have had--fearful!-- Then something even more +horrible happened. The pocket was suddenly shaken, my brother +was pressed against the dying frog and his wings stuck to its +cold, wet body. He went off in a faint.-- Oh, the misery of it! +There are no words to describe it." + +"How did you find all this out?" Maya was so horrified she could +scarcely frame the question. + +"I'll tell you," replied Miss Loveydear. "After a while the boy +got hungry and dug into his pocket for the carrot. It was under +my brother and the frog, and the boy threw them away first.-- I +heard my brother's cry for help, and found him lying beside the +frog on the grass. I reached him only in time to hear the whole +story before he breathed his last. He put his arms round my neck +and kissed me farewell. Then he died--bravely and without +complaining, like a little hero. When his crushed wings had +given their last quiver, I laid an oak leaf over his body and +went to look for a sprig of forget-me-nots to put upon his +grave. 'Sleep well, my little brother,' I cried, and flew off in +the quiet of the evening. I flew toward the two red suns, the +one in the sky and the one in the lake. No one has ever felt as +sad and solemn as I did then.-- Have you ever had a sorrow in +your life? Perhaps you'll tell me about it some other time." + +"No," said Maya. "As a matter of fact, until now I have always +been happy." + +"You may thank your lucky stars," said Miss Loveydear with a +note of disappointment in her voice. + +Maya asked about the frog. + +"Oh, _him_," said Miss Loveydear. "He, it is presumed, met with +the end he deserved. The hard-heartedness of him, to frighten a +dying person! When I found him on the grass beside my brother, +he was trying to get away. But on account of his broken leg and +one eye gone, all he could do was hop round in a circle and hop +round in a circle. He looked too comical for words. 'The +stork'll soon get ye,' I called to him as I flew away." + +"Poor frog!" said little Maya. + +"Poor frog! Poor frog indeed! That's going too far. Pitying a +frog. The idea! To feel sorry for a frog is like clipping your +own wings. You seem to have no principles." + +"Perhaps. But it's hard for me to see _any_ one suffer." + +"Oh"--Miss Loveydear comforted her--"that's because you're so +young. You'll learn to bear it in time. Cheerio, my dear.-- But +I must be getting into the sunshine. It's pretty cold here. +Good-by!" + +A faint rustle and the gleam of a thousand colors, lovely pale +colors like the glints in running water and clear gems. + +Miss Loveydear swung through the green rushes out over the +surface of the water. Maya heard her singing in the sunshine. +She stood and listened. It was a fine song, with something of +the melancholy sweetness of a folksong, and it filled the little +bee's heart with mingled happiness and sadness. + + Softly flows the lovely stream + Touched by morning's rosy gleam + Through the alders darted, + Where the rushes bend and sway, + Where the water-lilies say + "We are golden-hearted!" + + Warm the scent the west-wind brings, + Bright the sun upon my wings, + Joy among the flowers! + Though my life may not be long, + Golden summer, take my song! + Thanks for perfect hours! + +"Listen!" a white butterfly called to its friend. "Listen to the +song of the dragon-fly." The light creatures rocked close to +Maya, and rocked away again into the radiant blue day. Then Maya +also lifted her wings, buzzed farewell to the silvery lake, and +flew inland. + + [Illustration] + + + + + [Illustration] + +CHAPTER IV + +EFFIE AND BOBBIE + + +When Maya awoke the next morning in the corolla of a blue +canterbury bell, she heard a fine, faint rustling in the air and +felt her blossom-bed quiver as from a tiny, furtive tap-tapping. +Through the open corolla came a damp whiff of grass and earth, +and the air was quite chill. In some apprehension, she took a +little pollen from the yellow stamens, scrupulously performed +her toilet, then, warily, picking her steps, ventured to the +outer edge of the drooping blossom. It was raining! A fine cool +rain was coming down with a light plash, covering everything all +round with millions of bright silver pearls, which clung to the +leaves and flowers, rolled down the green paths of the blades of +grass, and refreshed the brown soil. + +What a change in the world! It was the first time in the +child-bee's young life that she had seen rain. It filled her +with wonder; it delighted her. Yet she was a little troubled. +She remembered Cassandra's warning never to fly abroad in the +rain. It must be difficult, she realized, to move your wings +when the drops beat them down. And the cold really hurt, and she +missed the quiet golden sunshine that gladdened the earth and +made it a place free from all care. + +It seemed to be very early still. The animal life in the grass +was just beginning. From the concealment of her lofty bluebell +Maya commanded a splendid view of the social life coming awake +beneath. Watching it she forgot, for the moment, her anxiety and +mounting homesickness. It was too amusing for anything to be +safe in a hiding-place, high up, and look down on the doings of +the grass-dwellers below. + +Slowly, however, her thoughts went back--back to the home she +had left, to the bee-state, and to the protection of its close +solidarity. There, on this rainy day, the bees would be sitting +together, glad of the day of rest, doing a little construction +here and there on the cells, or feeding the larvae. Yet, on the +whole, the hive was very quiet and Sunday-like when it rained. +Only, sometimes messengers would fly out to see how the weather +was and from what quarter the wind was blowing. The queen would +go about her kingdom from story to story, testing things, +bestowing a word of praise or blame, laying an egg here and +there, and bringing happiness with her royal presence wherever +she went. She might pat one of the younger bees on the head to +show her approval of what it had already done, or she might ask +it about its new experiences. How delighted a bee would be to +catch a glance or receive a gracious word from the queen! + +Oh, thought Maya, how happy it made you to be able to count +yourself one in a community like that, to feel that everybody +respected you, and you had the powerful protection of the state. +Here, out in the world, lonely and exposed, she ran great risks +of her life. She was cold, too. And supposing the rain were to +keep up! What would she do, how could she find something to eat? +There was scarcely any honey-juice in the canterbury bell, and +the pollen would soon give out. + +For the first time Maya realized how necessary the sunshine is +for a life of vagabondage. Hardly anyone would set out on +adventure, she thought, if it weren't for the sunshine. The very +recollection of it was cheering, and she glowed with secret +pride that she had had the daring to start life on her own hook. +The number of things she had already seen and experienced! More, +ever so much more, than the other bees were likely to know in a +whole lifetime. Experience was the most precious thing in life, +worth any sacrifice, she thought. + +A troop of migrating ants were passing by, and singing as they +marched through the cool forest of grass. They seemed to be in a +hurry. Their crisp morning song, in rhythm with their march, +touched the little bee's heart with melancholy. + + Few our days on earth shall be, + Fast the moments flit; + First-class robbers such as we + Do not care a bit! + +They were extraordinarily well armed and looked saucy, bold and +dangerous. + +The song died away under the leaves of the coltsfoot. But some +mischief seemed to have been done there. A rough, hoarse voice +sounded, and the small leaves of a young dandelion were +energetically thrust aside. Maya saw a corpulent blue beetle +push its way out. It looked like a half-sphere of dark metal, +shimmering with lights of blue and green and occasional black. +It may have been two or even three times her size. Its hard +sheath looked as though nothing could destroy it, and its deep +voice positively frightened you. + +The song of the soldiers, apparently, had roused him out of +sleep. He was cross. His hair was still rumpled, and he rubbed +the sleep out of his cunning little blue eyes. + +"Make way, _I'm_ coming. Make way." + +He seemed to think that people should step aside at the mere +announcement of his approach. + +"Thank the Lord I'm not in his way," thought Maya, feeling very +safe in her high, swaying nook of concealment. Nevertheless her +heart went pit-a-pat, and she withdrew a little deeper into the +flower-bell. + +The beetle moved with a clumsy lurch through the wet grass, +presenting a not exactly elegant appearance. Directly under +Maya's blossom was a withered leaf. Here he stopped, shoved the +leaf aside, and made a step backward. Maya saw a hole in the +ground. + +"Well," she thought, all a-gog with curiosity, "the things there +_are_ in the world. I never thought of such a thing. Life's not +long enough for all there is to see." + +She kept very quiet. The only sound was the soft pelting of the +rain. Then she heard the beetle calling down the hole: + +"If you want to go hunting with me, you'll have to make up your +mind to get right up. It's already bright daylight." He was +feeling so very superior for having waked up first that it was +hard for him to be pleasant. + +A few moments passed before the answer came. Then Maya heard a +thin, chirping voice rise out of the hole. + +"For goodness' sake, do close the door up there. It's raining +in." + +The beetle obeyed. He stood in an expectant attitude, his head +cocked a little to one side, and squinted through the crack. + +"Please hurry," he grumbled. + +Maya was tense with eagerness to see what sort of a creature +would come out of the hole. She crept so far out on the edge of +the blossom that a drop of rain fell on her shoulder, and gave +her a start. She wiped herself dry. + +Below her the withered leaf heaved; a brown insect crept out, +slowly. Maya thought it was the queerest specimen she had ever +seen. It had a plump body, set on extremely thin, slow-moving +legs, and a fearfully thick head, with little upright feelers. +It looked flustered. + +"Good morning, Effie dear." The beetle went slim with +politeness. He was all politeness, and his body seemed really +slim. "How did you sleep? How did you sleep, my precious--my +all?" + +Effie took his hand rather stonily. + +"It can't be, Bobbie," she said. "I can't go with you. We're +creating too much talk." + +Poor Bobbie looked quite alarmed. + +"I don't understand," he stammered. "I don't understand.-- Is +our new-found happiness to be wrecked by such nonsense? Effie, +think--think the thing over. What do _you_ care _what_ people +say? You have your hole, you can creep into it whenever you +like, and if you go down far enough, you won't hear a syllable." + +Effie smiled a sad, superior smile. + +"Bobbie, you don't understand. I have my own views in the +matter.-- Besides, there's something else. You have been +exceedingly indelicate. You took advantage of my ignorance. You +let me think you were a rose-beetle and yesterday the snail told +me you are a tumble-bug. A considerable difference! He saw you +engaged in--well, doing something I don't care to mention. I'm +sure you will now admit that I must take back my word." + +Bobbie was stunned. When he recovered from the shock he burst +out angrily: + +"No, I _don't_ understand. I can't understand. I want to be +loved for myself, and not for my business." + +"If only it weren't dung," said Effie offishly, "anything but +dung, I shouldn't be so particular.-- And please remember, I'm +a young widow who lost her husband only three days ago under +the most tragic circumstances--he was gobbled up by the +shrewmouse--and it isn't proper for me to be gadding about. +A young widow should lead a life of complete retirement. +So--good-by." + +Pop into her hole went Effie, as though a puff of wind had blown +her away. Maya would never have thought it possible that anyone +could dive into the ground as fast as that. + +Effie was gone, and Bobbie stared in blank bewilderment down the +empty dark opening, looking so utterly stupid that Maya had to +laugh. + +Finally he roused, and shook his small round head in angry +distress. His feelers drooped dismally like two rain-soaked +fans. + +"People now-a-days no longer appreciate fineness of character +and respectability," he sighed. "Effie is heartless. I didn't +dare admit it to myself, but she is, she's absolutely heartless. +But even if she hasn't got the _right feelings_, she ought to +have the _good sense_ to be my wife." + +Maya saw the tears come to his eyes, and her heart was seized +with pity. + +But the next instant Bobbie stirred. He wiped the tears away +and crept cautiously behind a small mound of earth, which his +friend had probably shoveled out of her dwelling. A little +flesh-colored earthworm was coming along through the grass. +It had the queerest way of propelling itself, by first making +itself long and thin, then short and thick. Its cylinder of a +body consisted of nothing but delicate rings that pushed and +groped forward noiselessly. + +Suddenly, startling Maya, Bobbie made one step out of his +hiding-place, caught hold of the worm, bit it in two, and began +calmly to eat the one half, heedless of its desperate wriggling +or the wriggling of the other half in the grass. It was a tiny +little worm. + +"Patience," said Bobbie, "it will soon be over." + +But while he chewed, his thoughts seemed to revert to Effie, his +Effie, whom he had lost forever and aye, and great tears rolled +down his cheeks. + +Maya pitied him from the bottom of her heart. + +"Dear me," she thought, "there certainly is a lot of sadness in +the world." + +At that moment she saw the half of the worm which Bobbie had set +aside, making a hasty departure. + +"Did you _ever_ see the like!" she cried, surprised into such a +loud tone that Bobbie looked around wondering where the sound +had come from. + +"Make way!" he called. + +"But I'm not in your way," said Maya. + +"Where are you then? You must be somewhere." + +"Up here. Up above you. In the bluebell." + +"I believe you, but I'm no grasshopper. I can't turn my head up +far enough to see you. Why did you scream?" + +"The half of the worm is running away." + +"Yes," said Bobbie, looking after the retreating fraction, "the +creatures are very lively.-- I've lost my appetite." With that +he threw away the remnant which he was still holding in his hand, +and this worm portion also retreated, in the other direction. + +Maya was completely puzzled. But Bobbie seemed to be familiar +with this peculiarity of worms. + +"Don't suppose that I always eat worms," he remarked. "You see, +you don't find roses everywhere." + +"Tell the little one at least which way its other half ran," +cried Maya in great excitement. + +Bobbie shook his head gravely. + +"Those whom fate has rent asunder, let no man join together +again," he observed.-- "Who are you?" + +"Maya, of the nation of bees." + +"I'm glad to hear it. I have nothing against the bees.-- Why are +you sitting about? Bees don't usually sit about. Have you been +sitting there long?" + +"I slept here." + +"Indeed!" There was a note of suspicion in Bobbie's voice. +"I hope you slept well, _very_ well. Did you just wake up?" + +"Yes," said Maya, who had shrewdly guessed that Bobbie would not +like her having overheard his conversation with Effie, the +cricket, and did not want to hurt his feelings again. + +Bobbie ran hither and thither trying to look up and see Maya. + +"Wait," he said. "If I raise myself on my hind legs and lean +against that blade of grass I'll be able to see you, and you'll +be able to look into my eyes. You want to, don't you?" + +"Why, I do indeed. I'd like to very much." + +Bobbie found a suitable prop, the stem of a buttercup. The +flower tipped a little to one side so that Maya could see him +perfectly as he raised himself on his hind legs and looked up at +her. She thought he had a nice, dear, friendly face--but not so +very young any more and cheeks rather too plump. He bowed, +setting the buttercup a-rocking, and introduced himself: + +"Bobbie, of the family of rose-beetles." + +Maya had to laugh to herself. She knew very well he was not a +rose-beetle; he was a dung-beetle. But she passed the matter +over in silence, not caring to mortify him. + +"Don't you mind the rain?" she asked. + +"Oh, no. I'm accustomed to the rain--from the roses, you know. +It's usually raining there." + +Maya thought to herself: + +"After all I must punish him a little for his brazen lies. He's +so frightfully vain." + +"Bobbie," she said with a sly smile, "what sort of a hole is +that one there, under the leaf?" + +Bobbie started. + +"A hole? A hole, did you say? There are very many holes round +here. It's probably just an ordinary hole. You have no idea how +many holes there are in the ground." + +Bobbie had hardly uttered the last word when something dreadful +happened. In his eagerness to appear indifferent he had lost his +balance and toppled over. Maya heard a despairing shriek, and +the next instant saw the beetle lying flat on his back in the +grass, his arms and legs waving pitifully in the air. + +"I'm done for," he wailed, "I'm done for. I can't get back on my +feet again. I'll never be able to get back on my feet again. +I'll die. I'll die in this position. Have you ever heard of a +worse fate!" + +He carried on so that he did not hear Maya trying to comfort +him. And he kept making efforts to touch the ground with his +feet. But each time he'd painfully get hold of a bit of earth, +it would give way, and he'd fall over again on his high +half-sphere of a back. The case looked really desperate, and +Maya was honestly concerned; he was already quite pale in the +face and his cries were heart-rending. + +"I can't stand it, I can't stand this position," he yelled. "At +least turn your head away. Don't torture a dying man with your +inquisitive stares.-- If only I could reach a blade of grass, or +the stem of the buttercup. You can't hold on to the air. Nobody +can do that. Nobody can hold on to the air." + +Maya's heart was quivering with pity. + +"Wait," she cried, "I'll try to turn you over. If I try very +hard I am bound to succeed. But Bobbie, _Bobbie_, dear man, +don't yell like that. Listen to me. If I bend a blade of grass +over and reach the tip of it to you, will you be able to use it +and save yourself?" + +Bobbie had no ears for her suggestion. Frightened out of his +senses, he did nothing but kick and scream. + +So little Maya, in spite of the rain, flew out of her cover over +to a slim green blade of grass beside Bobbie, and clung to it +near the tip. It bent under her weight and sank directly above +Bobbie's wriggling limbs. Maya gave a little cry of delight. + +"Catch hold of it," she called. + +Bobbie felt something tickle his face and quickly grabbed at it, +first with one hand, then with the other, and finally with his +legs, which had splendid sharp claws, two each. Bit by bit he +drew himself along the blade until he reached the base, where it +was thicker and stronger, and he was able to turn himself over +on it. + +He heaved a tremendous sigh of relief. + +"Good God!" he exclaimed. "That was awful. But for my presence +of mind I should have fallen a victim to your talkativeness." + +"Are you feeling better?" asked Maya. + +Bobbie clutched his forehead. + +"Thanks, thanks. When this dizziness passes, I'll tell you all +about it." + +But Maya never got the answer to her question. A field-sparrow +came hopping through the grass in search of insects, and the +little bee pressed herself close to the ground and kept very +quiet until the bird had gone. When she looked around for Bobbie +he had disappeared. So she too made off; for the rain had +stopped and the day was clear and warm. + + [Illustration] + + + + + [Illustration] + +CHAPTER V + +THE ACROBAT + + +Oh, what a day! + +The dew had fallen early in the morning, and when the sun rose +and cast its slanting beams across the forest of grass, there +was such a sparkling and glistening and gleaming that you didn't +know what to say or do for sheer ecstasy, it was so beautiful, +so beautiful! + +The moment Maya awoke, glad sounds greeted her from all round. +Some came out of the trees, from the throats of the birds, the +dreaded creatures who could yet produce such exquisite song; +other happy calls came out of the air, from flying insects, or +out of the grass and the bushes, from bugs and flies, big ones +and little ones. + +Maya had made it very comfortable for herself in a hole in a +tree. It was safe and dry, and stayed warm the greater part +of the night because the sun shone on the entrance all day +long. Once, early in the morning, she had heard a woodpecker +rat-a-tat-tatting on the bark of the trunk, and had lost no time +getting away. The drumming of a woodpecker is as terrifying to a +little insect in the bark of a tree as the breaking open of our +shutters by a burglar would be to us. But at night she was safe +in her lofty nook. At night no creatures came prying. + +She had sealed up part of the entrance with wax, leaving just +space enough to slip in and out; and in a cranny in the back of +the hole, where it was dark and cool, she had stored a little +honey against rainy days. + +This morning she swung herself out into the sunshine with a cry +of delight, all anticipation as to what the fresh, lovely day +might bring. She sailed straight through the golden air, looking +like a brisk dot driven by the wind. + +"I am going to meet a human being to-day," she cried. "I feel +sure I am. On days like this human beings must certainly be out +in the open air enjoying nature." + +Never had she met so many insects. There was a coming and going +and all sorts of doings; the air was alive with a humming and a +laughing and glad little cries. You had to join in, you just +_had_ to join in. + +After a while Maya let herself down into a forest of grass, +where all sorts of plants and flowers were growing. The highest +were the white tufts of yarrow and butterfly-weed--the flaming +milkweed that drew you like a magnet. She took a sip of nectar +from some clover and was about to fly off again when she saw a +perfect droll of a beast perched on a blade of grass curving +above her flower. She was thoroughly scared--he was such a lean +green monster--but then her interest was tremendously aroused, +and she remained sitting still, as though rooted to the spot, +and stared straight at him. + +At first glance you'd have thought he had horns. Looking closer +you saw it was his oddly protuberant forehead that gave this +impression. Two long, long feelers fine as the finest thread +grew out of his brows, and his body was the slimmest imaginable, +and green all over, even to his eyes. He had dainty forelegs and +thin, inconspicuous wings that couldn't be very practical, Maya +thought. Oddest of all were his great hindlegs, which stuck up +over his body like two jointed stilts. His sly, saucy expression +was contradicted by the look of astonishment in his eyes, and +you couldn't say there was any meanness in his eyes either. No, +rather a lot of good humor. + +"Well, mademoiselle," he said to Maya, evidently annoyed by her +surprised expression, "never seen a grasshopper before? Or are +you laying eggs?" + +"The idea!" cried Maya in shocked accents. "It wouldn't occur to +me. Even if I could, I wouldn't. It would be usurping the sacred +duties of our queen. I wouldn't do such a foolish thing." + +The grasshopper ducked his head and made such a funny face that +Maya had to laugh out loud in spite of her chagrin. + +"Mademoiselle," he began, then had to laugh himself, and said: +"You're a case! You're a case!" + +The fellow's behavior made Maya impatient. + +"Why do you laugh?" she asked in a not altogether friendly tone. +"You can't be serious expecting me to lay eggs, especially out +here on the grass." + +There was a snap. "Hoppety-hop," said the grasshopper, and was +gone. + +Maya was utterly non-plussed. Without the help of his wings +he had swung himself up in the air in a tremendous curve. +Foolhardiness bordering on madness, she thought. + +But there he was again. From where, she couldn't tell, but there +he was, beside her, on a leaf of her clover. + +He looked her up and down, all round, before and behind. + +"No," he said then, pertly, "you certainly can't lay eggs. +You're not equipped for it. You haven't got a borer." + +"What--borer?" Maya covered herself with her wings and turned +so that the stranger could see nothing but her face. + +"Borer, that's what I said.-- Don't fall off your base, +mademoiselle.-- You're a wasp, aren't you?" + +To be called a wasp! Nothing worse could happen to little Maya. + +"I _never_!" she cried. + +"Hoppety-hop," answered he, and was off again. + +"The fellow makes me nervous," she thought, and decided to fly +away. She couldn't remember ever having been so insulted in her +life. What a disgrace to be mistaken for a wasp, one of those +useless wasps, those tramps, those common thieves! It really was +infuriating. + +But there he was again! + +"Mademoiselle," he called and turned round part way, so that his +long hindlegs looked like the hands of a clock standing at five +minutes before half-past seven, "mademoiselle, you must excuse +me for interrupting our conversation now and then. But suddenly +I'm seized. I must hop. I can't help it, I must hop, no matter +where. Can't you hop, too?" + +He smiled a smile that drew his mouth from ear to ear. Maya +couldn't keep from laughing. + +"Can you?" said the grasshopper, and nodded encouragingly. + +"Who _are_ you?" asked Maya. "You're terribly exciting." + +"Why, everybody knows who I am," said the green oddity, and +grinned almost beyond the limits of his jaws. + +Maya never could make out whether he spoke in fun or in earnest. + +"I'm a stranger in these parts," she replied pleasantly, "else +I'm sure I'd know you.-- But please note that I belong to the +family of bees, and am positively not a wasp." + +"My goodness," said the grasshopper, "one and the same thing." + +Maya couldn't utter a sound, she was so excited. + +"You're uneducated," she burst out at length. "Take a good look +at a wasp once." + +"Why should I?" answered the green one. "What good would it +do if I observed differences that exist only in people's +imagination? You, a bee, fly round in the air, sting everything +you come across, and can't hop. Exactly the same with a wasp. +So where's the difference? Hoppety-hop!" And he was gone. + +"But now I am going to fly away," thought Maya. + +There he was again. + +"Mademoiselle," he called, "there's going to be a hopping-match +to-morrow. It will be held in the Reverend Sinpeck's garden. +Would you care to have a complimentary ticket and watch the +games? My old woman has two left over. She'll trade you one for +a compliment. I expect to break the record." + +"I'm not interested in hopping acrobatics," said Maya in some +disgust. "A person who flies has _higher_ interests." + +The grasshopper grinned a grin you could almost hear. + +"Don't think _too_ highly of yourself, my dear young lady. Most +creatures in this world can fly, but only a very, very few can +hop. You don't understand other people's interests. You have no +vision. Even human beings would like a high elegant hop. The +other day I saw the Reverend Sinpeck hop a yard up into the air +to impress a little snake that slid across his road. His +contempt for anything that couldn't hop was so great that he +threw away his pipe. And reverends, you know, cannot live +without their pipes. I have known grasshoppers--members of my +own family--who could hop to a height three hundred times their +length. _Now_ you're impressed. You haven't a word to say. And +you're inwardly regretting the remarks you made and the remarks +you intended to make. Three hundred times their own length! Just +imagine. Even the elephant, the largest animal in the world, +can't hop as high as that. Well? You're not saying anything. +Didn't I tell you you wouldn't have anything to say?" + +"But how _can_ I say anything if you don't give me a chance?" + +"All right, then, talk," said the grasshopper pleasantly. +"Hoppety-hop." He was gone. + +Maya had to laugh in spite of her irritation. + +The fellow had certainly furnished her with a strange +experience. Buffoon though he was, still she had to admire his +wide information and worldly wisdom; and though she could not +agree with his views of hopping, she was amazed by all the new +things he had taught her in their brief conversation. If he had +been more reliable she would have been only too glad to ask him +questions about a number of different things. It occurred +to her that often people who are least equipped to profit by +experiences are the very ones who have them. + +He knew the names of human beings. Did he, then, understand +their language? If he came back, she'd ask him. And she'd also +ask him what he thought of trying to go near a human being or of +entering a human being's house. + +"Mademoiselle!" A blade of grass beside Maya was set swaying. + +"Goodness gracious! Where do you keep coming from?" + +"The surroundings." + +"But do tell, do you hop out into the world just so, without +knowing where you mean to land?" + +"Of course. Why not? Can _you_ read the future? No one can. Only +the tree-toad, but he never tells." + +"The things you know! Wonderful, simply wonderful!-- Do you +understand the language of human beings?" + +"That's a difficult question to answer, mademoiselle, because it +hasn't been proved as yet whether human beings have a language. +Sometimes they utter sounds by which they seem to reach an +understanding with each other--but such awful sounds! So +unmelodious! Like nothing else in nature that I know of. +However, there's one thing you must allow them: they do seem to +try to make their voices pleasanter. Once I saw two boys take a +blade of grass between their thumbs and blow on it. The result +was a whistle which may be compared with the chirping of a +cricket, though far inferior in quality of tone, far inferior. +However, human beings make an honest effort.-- Is there anything +else you'd like to ask? I know a thing or two." + +He grinned his almost-audible grin. + +But the next time he hopped off, Maya waited for him in vain. +She looked about in the grass and the flowers; he was nowhere to +be seen. + + [Illustration] + + + + + [Illustration] + +CHAPTER VI + +PUCK + + +Maya, drowsy with the noonday heat, flew leisurely past the +glare on the bushes in the garden, into the cool, broad-leaved +shelter of a great chestnut-tree. + +On the trodden sward in the shade under the tree stood chairs +and tables, evidently for an out-door meal. A short distance +away gleamed the red-tiled roof of a peasant's cottage, with +thin blue columns of smoke curling up from the chimneys. + +Now at last, thought Maya, she was bound to see a human being. +Had she not reached the very heart of his realm? The tree must +be his property, and the curious wooden contrivances in the +shade below must belong to his hive. + +Something buzzed; a fly alighted on the leaf beside her. It ran +up and down the green veining in little jerks. You couldn't see +its legs move, and it seemed to be sliding about excitedly. Then +it flew from one finger of the broad leaf to another, but so +quickly and unexpectedly that you might have thought it hadn't +flown but hopped. Evidently it was looking for the most +comfortable place on the leaf. Every now and then, in the +suddennest way, it would swing itself up in the air a short +space and buzz vehemently, as though something dreadfully +untoward had occurred, or as though it were animated by some +tremendous purpose. Then it would drop back to the leaf, as if +nothing had happened, and resume its jerky racing up and down. +Lastly, it would sit quite still, like a rigid image. + +Maya watched its antics in the sunshine, then approached it and +said politely: + +"How do you do? Welcome to my leaf. You are a fly, are you not?" + +"What else do you take me for?" said the little one. "My name is +Puck. I am very busy. Do you want to drive me away?" + +"Why, not at all. I am glad to make your acquaintance." + +"I believe you," was all Puck said, and with that he tried to +pull his head off. + +"Mercy!" cried Maya. + +"I must do this. You don't understand. It's something you know +nothing about," Puck rejoined calmly, and slid his legs over his +wings till they curved round the tip of his body. "I'm more than +a fly," he added with some pride. "I'm a housefly. I flew out +here for the fresh air." + +"How interesting!" exclaimed Maya gleefully. "Then you must know +all about human beings." + +"As well as the pockets of my trousers," Puck threw out +disdainfully. "I sit on them every day. Didn't you know _that_? +I thought you bees were so _clever_. You pretend to be at any +rate." + +"My name is Maya," said the little bee rather shyly. Where the +other insects got their self-assurance, to say nothing of their +insolence, she couldn't understand. + +"Thanks for the information. Whatever your name, you're a +simpleton." + +Puck sat there tilted like a cannon in position to be fired off, +his head and breast thrust upward, the hind tip of his body +resting on the leaf. Suddenly he ducked his head and squatted +down, so that he looked as if he had no legs. + +"You've got to watch out and be careful," he said. "That's the +most important thing of all." + +But an angry wave of resentment was surging in little Maya. The +insult Puck had offered her was too much. Without really knowing +what made her do it, she pounced on him quick as lightning, +caught him by the collar and held him tight. + +"I will teach you to be polite to a bee," she cried. + +Puck set up an awful howl. + +"Don't sting me," he screamed. "It's the only thing you can do, +but it's killing. Please remove the back of your body. That's +where your sting is. And let me go, please let me go, if you +possibly can. I'll do anything you say. Can't you understand a +joke, a mere joke? Everybody knows that you bees are the most +respected of all insects, and the most powerful, and the most +numerous. Only don't kill me, please don't. There won't be any +bringing me back to life. Good God! No one appreciates my +humor!" + +"Very well," said Maya with a touch of contempt in her heart, +"I'll let you live on condition that you tell me everything you +know about human beings." + +"Gladly," cried Puck. "I'd have told you anyhow. But please let +me go now." + +Maya released him. She had stopped caring. Her respect for the +fly and any confidence she might have had in him were gone. Of +what value could the experiences of so low, so vulgar a creature +be to serious-minded people? She would have to find out about +human beings for herself. + +The lesson, however, had not been wasted. Puck was much more +endurable now. Scolding and growling he set himself to rights. +He smoothed down his feelers and wings and the minute hairs on +his black body--which were fearfully rumpled; for the girl-bee +had laid on good and hard--and concluded the operation by +running his proboscis in and out several times--something new +to Maya. + +"Out of joint, completely out of joint!" he muttered in a pained +tone. "Comes of your excited way of doing things. Look. See for +yourself. The sucking-disk at the end of my proboscis looks like +a twisted pewter plate." + +"Have you a sucking-disk?" asked Maya. + +"Goodness gracious, of course!-- Now tell me. What do you want +to know about human beings?-- Never mind about my proboscis +being out of joint. It'll be all right.-- I think I had best +tell you a few things from my own life. You see, I grew up among +human beings, so you'll hear just what you want to know." + +"You grew up among human beings?" + +"Of course. It was in the corner of their room that my mother +laid the egg from which I came. I made my first attempts to walk +on their window-shades, and I tested the strength of my wings by +flying from Schiller to Goethe." + +"What are Schiller and Goethe?" + +"Statues," explained Puck, very superior, "statues of two men +who seem to have distinguished themselves. They stand under the +mirror, one on the right hand and one on the left hand, and +nobody pays any attention to them." + +"What's a mirror? And why do the statues stand under the +mirror?" + +"A mirror is good for seeing your belly when you crawl on it. +It's very amusing. When human beings go up to a mirror, they +either put their hands up to their hair, or pull at their +beards. When they are alone, they smile into the mirror, but if +somebody else is in the room they look very serious. What the +purpose of it is, I could never make out. Seems to be some +useless game of theirs. I myself, when I was still a child, +suffered a good deal from the mirror. I'd fly into it and of +course be thrown back violently." + +Maya plied Puck with more questions about the mirror, which he +found very difficult to answer. + +"Here," he said at last, "you've certainly flown over the smooth +surface of water, haven't you? Well, a mirror is something like +it, only hard and upright." + +The little fly, seeing that Maya listened most respectfully and +attentively to the tale of his experiences, became a good deal +pleasanter in his manners. And as for Maya's opinion of Puck, +although she didn't believe everything he told her, still she +was sorry she had thought so slightingly of him earlier in their +meeting. + +"Often people are far more sensible than we take them to be at +first," she told herself. + +Puck went on with his story. + +"It took a long time for me to get to understand their language. +Now at last I know what they want. It isn't much, because they +usually say the same thing every day." + +"I can scarcely believe it," said Maya. "Why, they have so many +interests, and think so many things, and do so many things. +Cassandra told me that they build cities so big that you can't +fly round them in one day, towers as high as the nuptial flight +of our queen, houses that float on the water, and houses that +glide across the country on two narrow silver paths and go +faster than birds." + +"Wait a moment!" said Puck energetically. "Who is Cassandra? Who +is she, if I may make so bold as to ask? Well?" + +"Oh, she was my teacher." + +"Teacher!" repeated Puck contemptuously. "Probably also a bee. +Who but a bee would overestimate human beings like that? Your +Miss Cassandra, or whatever her name is, doesn't know her +history. Those cities and towers and other human devices you +speak of are none of them any good to us. Who would take such an +impractical view of the world as you do? If you don't accept the +premise that the earth is dominated by the flies, that the flies +are the most widespread and most important race on earth, you'll +scarcely get a real knowledge of the world." + +Puck took a few excited zigzag turns on the leaf and pulled at +his head, to Maya's intense concern. However, the little bee had +observed by this time that there wasn't much sense to be got out +of his head any way. + +"Do you know how you can tell I am right?" asked Puck, rubbing +his hands together as if to tie them in a knot. "Count the +number of people and the number of flies in any room. The result +will surprise you." + +"You may be right. But that's not the point." + +"Do you think I was born this year?" Puck demanded all of a +sudden. + +"I don't know." + +"I passed through a winter," Puck announced, all pride. "My +experiences date back to the ice age. In a sense they take me +_through_ the ice age. That's why I'm here--I'm here to +recuperate." + +"Whatever else you may be, you certainly are spunky," remarked +Maya. + +"I should say so," exclaimed Puck, and made an airy leap out +into the sunshine. "The flies are the boldest race in creation. +We never run away unless it is better to run away, and then we +always come back.-- Have you ever sat on a human being?" + +"No," said Maya, looking at the fly distrustfully out of the +corner of her eye. She still didn't know quite what to make of +him. "No, I'm not interested in sitting on human beings." + +"Ah, dear child, that's because you don't know what it is. If +ever you had seen the fun I have with the man at home, you'd +turn green with envy. I'll tell you.-- In my room there lives an +elderly man who cherishes the color of his nose by means of a +peculiar drink, which he keeps hidden in the corner cupboard. +It has a sweet, intoxicating smell. When he goes to get it he +smiles, and his eyes grow small. He takes a little glass, and he +looks up to the ceiling while he drinks, to see if I am there. +I nod down to him, and he passes his hand over his forehead, +nose and mouth to show me where I am to sit later on. Then he +blinks, and opens his mouth as wide as he can, and pulls down +the shade to keep the afternoon sun from bothering us. Finally +he lays himself down on a something called a sofa, and in a +short while begins to make dull snuffling sounds. I suppose he +thinks the sounds are beautiful. We'll talk about them some +other time. They are man's slumber song. For me they are the +sign that I am to come down. The first thing I do is to take my +portion from the glass, which he left for me. There's something +tremendously stimulating about a drop like that. I understand +human beings. Then I fly over and take my place on the forehead +of the sleeping man. The forehead lies between the nose and the +hair and serves for thinking. You can tell it does from the long +furrows that go from right to left. They must move whenever a +man thinks if something worth while is to result from his +thinking. The forehead also shows if human beings are annoyed. +But then the folds run up and down, and a round cavity forms +over the nose. As soon as I settle on his forehead and begin to +run to and fro in the furrows, the man makes a snatch in the air +with his hands. He thinks I'm somewhere in the air. That's +because I'm sitting on his think-furrows, and he can't work out +so quickly where I really am. At last he does. He mutters and +jabs at me. Now then, Miss Maya, or whatever your name is, now +then, you've got to have your wits about you. I see the hand +coming, but I wait until the last moment, then I fly nimbly to +one side, sit down, and watch him feel to see if I am still +there.-- We kept the game up often for a full half hour. You have +no idea what a lot of endurance the man has. Finally he jumps up +and pours out a string of words which show how ungrateful he is. +Well, what of it? A noble soul seeks no reward. I'm already up +on the ceiling listening to his ungrateful outburst." + +"I can't say I particularly like it," observed Maya. "Isn't it +rather useless?" + +"Do you expect me to erect a honeycomb on his nose?" exclaimed +Puck. "You have no sense of humor, dear girl. What do _you_ do +that's useful?" + +Little Maya went red all over, but quickly collected herself to +hide her embarrassment from Puck. + +"The time is coming," she flashed, "when I shall do something +big and splendid, and good and useful too. But first I want to +see what is going on in the world. Deep down in my heart I feel +that the time is coming." + +As Maya spoke she felt a hot tide of hope and enthusiasm flood +her being. + +Puck seemed not to realize how serious she was, and how deeply +stirred. He zigzagged about in his flurried way for a while, +then asked: + +"You don't happen to have any honey with you, do you, my dear?" + +"I'm so sorry," replied Maya. "I'd gladly let you have some, +especially after you've entertained me so pleasantly, but I +really haven't got any with me.-- May I ask you one more +question?" + +"Shoot," said Puck. "I'll answer, I'll always answer." + +"I'd like to know how I could get into a human being's house." + +"Fly in," said Puck sagaciously. + +"But how, without running into danger?" + +"Wait until a window is opened. But be sure to find the way out +again. Once you're inside, if you can't find the window, the +best thing to do is to fly toward the light. You'll always find +plenty of windows in every house. You need only notice where the +sun shines through. Are you going already?" + +"Yes," replied Maya, holding out her hand. "I have some things +to attend to. Good-by. I hope you quite recover from the effects +of the ice age." + +And with her fine confident buzz that yet sounded slightly +anxious, little Maya raised her gleaming wings and flew out into +the sunshine across to the flowery meadows to cull a little +nourishment. + +Puck looked after her, and carefully meditated what might still +be said. Then he observed thoughtfully: + +"Well, now. Well, well.-- Why not?" + + [Illustration] + + + + + [Illustration] + +CHAPTER VII + +IN THE TOILS + + +After her meeting with Puck the fly Maya was not in a +particularly happy frame of mind. She could not bring herself to +believe that he was right in everything he had said about human +beings, or right in his relations to them. She had formed an +entirely different conception--a much finer, lovelier picture, +and she fought against letting her mind harbor low or ridiculous +ideas of mankind. Yet she was still afraid to enter a human +dwelling. How was she to know whether or not the owner would +like it? And she wouldn't for all the world make herself a +burden to anyone. + +Her thoughts went back once more to the things Cassandra had +told her. + +"They are good and wise," Cassandra had said. "They are strong +and powerful, but they never abuse their power. On the contrary, +wherever they go they bring order and prosperity. We bees, +knowing they are friendly to us, put ourselves under their +protection and share our honey with them. They leave us enough +for the winter, they provide us with shelter against the cold, +and guard us against the hosts of our enemies among the animals. +There are few creatures in the world who have entered into such +a relation of friendship and voluntary service with human +beings. Among the insects you will often hear voices raised to +speak evil of man. Don't listen to them. If a foolish tribe of +bees ever returns to the wild and tries to do without human +beings, it soon perishes. There are too many beasts that hanker +for our honey, and often a whole bee-city--all its buildings, +all its inhabitants--has been ruthlessly destroyed, merely +because a senseless animal wanted to satisfy its greed for +honey." + +That is what Cassandra had told Maya about human beings, and +until Maya had convinced herself of the contrary, she wanted to +keep this belief in them. + +It was now afternoon. The sun was dropping behind the fruit +trees in a large vegetable garden through which Maya was flying. +The trees were long past flowering, but the little bee still +remembered them in the shining glory of countless blossoms, +whiter than light, lovely, pure, and exquisite against the blue +of the heavens. The delicious perfume, the gleam and the +shimmer--oh, she'd never forget the rapture of it as long as +she lived. + +As she flew she thought of how all that beauty would come again, +and her heart expanded with delight in the glory of the great +world in which she was permitted to live. + +At the end of the garden shone the starry tufts of the +jasmine--delicate yellow faces set in a wreath of pure +white--sweet perfume wafted to Maya on the soft wings of the +breeze. + +And weren't there still some trees in bloom? Wasn't it the +season for lindens? Maya thought delightedly of the big serious +lindens, whose tops held the red glow of the setting sun to the +very last. + +She flew in among the stems of the blackberry vines, which were +putting forth green berries and yielding blossoms at the same +time. As she mounted again to reach the jasmine, something +strange to the touch suddenly laid itself across her forehead +and shoulders, and just as quickly covered her wings. It was the +queerest sensation, as if her wings were crippled and she were +suddenly restrained in her flight, and were falling, helplessly +falling. A secret, wicked force seemed to be holding her +feelers, her legs, her wings in invisible captivity. But she did +not fall. Though she could no longer move her wings, she still +hung in the air rocking, caught by a marvelously yielding +softness and delicacy, raised a little, lowered a little, tossed +here, tossed there, like a loose leaf in a faint breeze. + +Maya was troubled, but not as yet actually terrified. Why should +she be? There was no pain nor real discomfort of any sort. +Simply that it was so peculiar, so very peculiar, and something +bad seemed to be lurking in the background. She must get on. If +she tried very hard, she could, assuredly. + +But now she saw a thread across her breast, an elastic silvery +thread finer than the finest silk. She clutched at it quickly, +in a cold wave of terror. It clung to her hand; it wouldn't +shake off. And there ran another silver thread over her +shoulders. It drew itself across her wings and tied them +together--her wings were powerless. And there, and there! +Everywhere in the air and above her body--those bright, +glittering, gluey threads! + +Maya screamed with horror. Now she knew! Oh--oh, now she knew! +She was in a spider's web. + +Her terrified shrieks rang out in the silent dome of the summer +day, where the sunshine touched the green of the leaves into +gold, and insects flitted to and fro, and birds swooped gaily +from tree to tree. Nearby, the jasmine sent its perfume into the +air--the jasmine she had wanted to reach. Now all was over. + +A small bluish butterfly, with brown dots gleaming like copper +on its wings, came flying very close. + +"Oh, you poor soul," it cried, hearing Maya's screams and seeing +her desperate plight. "May your death be an easy one, lovely +child. I cannot help you. Some day, perhaps this very night, +I shall meet with the same fate. But meanwhile life is still +lovely for me. Good-by. Don't forget the sunshine in the deep +sleep of death." + +And the blue butterfly rocked away, drugged by the sunshine and +the flowers and its own joy of living. + +The tears streamed from Maya's eyes; she lost her last shred of +self-control. She tossed her captive body to and fro, and buzzed +as loud as she could, and screamed for help--from whom she did +not know. But the more she tossed the tighter she enmeshed +herself in the web. Now, in her great agony, Cassandra's +warnings went through her mind: + +"Beware of the spider and its web. If we bees fall into the +spider's power we suffer the most gruesome death. The spider is +heartless and tricky, and once it has a person in its toils, it +never lets him go." + +In a great flare of mortal terror Maya made one huge desperate +effort. Somewhere one of the long, heavier suspension threads +snapped. Maya felt it break, yet at the same time she sensed the +awful doom of the cobweb. This was, that the more one struggled +in it, the more effectively and dangerously it worked. She gave +up, in complete exhaustion. + +At that moment she saw the spider herself--very near, under a +blackberry leaf. At sight of the great monster, silent and +serious, crouching there as if ready to pounce, Maya's horror +was indescribable. The wicked shining eyes were fastened on the +little bee in sinister, cold-blooded patience. + +Maya gave one loud shriek. This was the worst agony of all. +Death itself could look no worse than that grey, hairy monster +with her mean fangs and the raised legs supporting her fat body +like a scaffolding. She would come rushing upon her, and then +all would be over. + +Now a dreadful fury of anger came upon Maya, such as she had +never felt before. Forgetting her great agony, intent only upon +one thing--selling her life as dearly as possible--she uttered +her clear, alarming battle-cry, which all beasts knew and +dreaded. + +"You will pay for your cunning with death," she shouted at the +spider. "Just come and try to kill me, you'll find out what a +bee can do." + +The spider did not budge. She really was uncanny and must have +terrified bigger creatures than little Maya. + +Strong in her anger, Maya now made another violent, desperate +effort. Snap! One of the long suspension threads above her +broke. The web was probably meant for flies and gnats, not for +such large insects as bees. + +But Maya got herself only more entangled. + +In one gliding motion the spider drew quite close to Maya. She +swung by her nimble legs upon a single thread with her body +hanging straight downward. + +"What right have you to break my net?" she rasped at Maya. "What +are you doing here? Isn't the world big enough for you? Why do +you disturb a peaceful recluse?" + +That was not what Maya had expected to hear. Most certainly not. + +"I didn't mean to," she cried, quivering with glad hope. Ugly as +the spider was, still she did not seem to intend any harm. +"I didn't see your web and I got tangled in it. I'm so sorry. +Please pardon me." + +The spider drew nearer. + +"You're a funny little body," she said, letting go of the thread +first with one leg, then with the other. The delicate thread +shook. How wonderful that it could support the great creature. + +"Oh, do help me out of this," begged Maya, "I should be so +grateful." + +"That's what I came here for," said the spider, and smiled +strangely. For all her smiling she looked mean and deceitful. +"Your tossing and tugging spoils the whole web. Keep quiet one +second, and I will set you free." + +"Oh, thanks! Ever so many thanks!" cried Maya. + +The spider was now right beside her. She examined the web +carefully to see how securely Maya was entangled. + +"How about your sting?" she asked. + +Ugh, how mean and horrid she looked! Maya fairly shivered with +disgust at the thought that she was going to touch her, but +replied as pleasantly as she could: + +"Don't trouble about my sting. I will draw it in, and nobody can +hurt himself on it then." + +"I should hope not," said the spider. "Now, then, look out! Keep +quiet. Too bad for my web." + +Maya remained still. Suddenly she felt herself being whirled +round and round on the same spot, till she got dizzy and sick +and had to close her eyes.-- But what was that? She opened her +eyes quickly. Horrors! She was completely enmeshed in a fresh +sticky thread which the spider must have had with her. + +"My God!" cried little Maya softly, in a quivering voice. That +was all she said. Now she saw how tricky the spider had been; +now she was really caught beyond release; now there was +absolutely no chance of escape. She could no longer move any +part of her body. The end was near. + +Her fury of anger was gone, there was only a great sadness in +her heart. + +"I didn't know there was such meanness and wickedness in the +world," she thought. "The deep night of death is upon me. +Good-by, dear bright sun. Good-by, my dear friend-bees. Why did +I leave you? A happy life to you. I must die." + +The spider sat wary, a little to one side. She was still afraid +of Maya's sting. + +"Well?" she jeered. "How are you feeling, little girl?" + +Maya was too proud to answer the false creature. She merely +said, after a while when she felt she couldn't bear any more: + +"Please kill me right away." + +"Really!" said the spider, tying a few torn threads together. +"Really! Do you take me to be as big a dunce as yourself? You're +going to die anyhow, if you're kept hanging long enough, and +that's the time for me to suck the blood out of you--when you +can't sting. Too bad, though, that you can't see how dreadfully +you've damaged my lovely web. Then you'd realize that you +deserve to die." + +She dropped down to the ground, laid the end of the newly spun +thread about a stone, and pulled it in tight. Then she ran up +again, caught hold of the thread by which little enmeshed Maya +hung, and dragged her captive along. + +"You're going into the shade, my dear," she said, "so that you +shall not dry up out here in the sunshine. Besides, hanging here +you're like a scarecrow, you'll frighten away other nice little +mortals who don't watch where they're going. And sometimes the +sparrows come and rob my web.-- To let you know with whom you're +dealing, my name is Thekla, of the family of cross-spiders. You +needn't tell me your name. It makes no difference. You're a fat +bit, and you'll taste just as tender and juicy by any name." + +So little Maya hung in the shade of the blackberry vine, close +to the ground, completely at the mercy of the cruel spider, who +intended her to die by slow starvation. Hanging with her little +head downward--a fearful position to be in--she soon felt she +would not last many more minutes. She whimpered softly, and her +cries for help grew feebler and feebler. Who was there to hear? +Her folk at home knew nothing of this catastrophe, so _they_ +couldn't come hurrying to her rescue. + +Suddenly down, in the grass, she heard some one growling: + +"Make way! _I'm_ coming." + +Maya's agonized heart began to beat stormily. She recognized the +voice of Bobbie, the dung-beetle. + +"Bobbie," she called, as loud as she could, "Bobbie, dear +Bobbie!" + +"Make way! _I'm_ coming." + +"But I'm not in your way, Bobbie," cried Maya. "Oh dear, I'm +hanging over your head. The spider has caught me." + +"Who are you?" asked Bobbie. "So many people know me. You know +they do, don't you?" + +"I am Maya--Maya, the bee. Oh please, please help me!" + +"Maya? Maya?-- Ah, now I remember. You made my acquaintance +several weeks ago.-- The deuce! You _are_ in a bad way, if I +must say so myself. You certainly do need my help. As I happen +to have a few moments' time, I won't refuse." + +"Oh, Bobbie, can you tear these threads?" + +"Tear those threads! Do you mean to insult me?" Bobbie slapped +the muscles of his arm. "Look, little girl. Hard as steel. No +match for _that_ in strength. I can do more than smash a few +cobwebs. You'll see something that'll make you open your eyes." + +Bobbie crawled up on the leaf, caught hold of the thread by +which Maya was hanging, clung to it, then let go of the leaf. +The thread broke, and they both fell to the ground. + +"That's only the beginning," said Bobbie.-- "But Maya, you're +trembling. My dear child, you poor little girl, how pale you +are! Now who would be so afraid of death? You must look death +calmly in the face as I do. So. I'll unwrap you now." + +Maya could not utter a syllable. Bright tears of joy ran down +her cheeks. She was to be free again, fly again in the sunshine, +wherever she wished. She was to live. + +But then she saw the spider coming down the blackberry vine. + +"Bobbie," she screamed, "the spider's coming." + +Bobbie went on unperturbed, merely laughing to himself. He +really was an extraordinarily strong insect. + +"She'll think twice before she comes nearer," he said. + +But there! The vile voice rasped above them: + +"Robbers! Help! I'm being robbed. You fat lump, what are you +doing with my prey?" + +"Don't excite yourself, madam," said Bobbie. "I have a right, +haven't I, to talk to my friend. If you say another word to +displease me, I'll tear your whole web to shreds. Well? Why so +silent all of a sudden?" + +"I am defeated," said the spider. + +"That has nothing to do with the case," observed Bobbie. "Now +you'd better be getting away from here." + +The spider cast a look at Bobbie full of hate and venom; but +glancing up at her web she reconsidered, and turned away slowly, +furious, scolding and growling under her breath. Fangs and +stings were of no avail. They wouldn't even leave a mark on +armor such as Bobbie wore. With violent denunciations against +the injustice in the world, the spider hid herself away inside a +withered leaf, from which she could spy out and watch over her +web. + +Meanwhile Bobbie finished the unwrapping of Maya. He tore the +network and released her legs and wings. The rest she could do +herself. She preened herself happily. But she had to go slow, +because she was still weak from fright. + +"You must forget what you have been through," said Bobbie. "Then +you'll stop trembling. Now see if you can fly. Try." + +Maya lifted herself with a little buzz. Her wings worked +splendidly, and to her intense joy she felt that no part of her +body had been injured. She flew slowly up to the jasmine +flowers, drank avidly of their abundant scented honey-juice, and +returned to Bobbie, who had left the blackberry vines and was +sitting in the grass. + +"I thank you with my whole heart and soul," said Maya, deeply +moved and happy in her regained freedom. + +"Thanks are in place," observed Bobbie. "But that's the way I +always am--always doing something for other people. Now fly +away. I'd advise you to lay your head on your pillow early +to-night. Have you far to go?" + +"No," said Maya. "Only a short way. I live at the edge of the +beech-woods. Good-by, Bobbie, I'll never forget you, never, +never, so long as I live. Good-by." + + [Illustration] + + + + + [Illustration] + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE BUG AND THE BUTTERFLY + + +Her adventure with the spider gave Maya something to think +about. She made up her mind to be more cautious in the future, +not to rush into things so recklessly. Cassandra's prudent +warnings about the greatest dangers that threaten the bees, were +enough to give one pause; and there were all sorts of other +possibilities, and the world was such a big place--oh, there +was a good deal to make a little bee stop and think. + +It was in the evening particularly, when twilight fell and the +little bee was all by herself, that one consideration after +another stirred her mind. But the next morning, if the sun +shone, she usually forgot half the things that had bothered her +the night before, and allowed her eagerness for experiences to +drive her out again into the gay whirl of life. + +One day she met a very curious creature. It was angular and flat +as a pancake, but had a rather neat design on its sheath; and +whether its sheath were wings or what, you couldn't really tell. +The odd little monster sat absolutely still on the shaded leaf +of a raspberry bush, its eyes half closed, apparently sunk in +meditation. The scent of the raspberries spread around it +deliciously. Maya wanted to find out what sort of an animal it +was. She flew to the next-door leaf and said how-do-you-do. The +stranger made no reply. + +"How do you do, again?" And Maya gave its leaf a little tap. The +flat object peeled one eye open, turned it on Maya, and said: + +"A bee. The world is full of bees," and closed its eye again. + +"Unique," thought Maya, and determined to get at the stranger's +secret. For now it excited her curiosity more than ever, as +people often do who pay no attention to us. She tried honey. +"I have plenty of honey," she said. "May I offer you some?" The +stranger opened its one eye and regarded Maya contemplatively a +moment or two. "What is it going to say this time?" Maya +wondered. + +This time there was no answer at all. The one eye merely closed +again, and the stranger sat quite still, tight on the leaf, so +that you couldn't see its legs and you'd have thought it had +been pressed down flat with a thumb. + +Maya realized, of course, that the stranger wanted to ignore +her, but--you know how it is--you don't like being snubbed, +especially if you haven't found out what you wanted to find out. +It makes you feel so cheap. + +"Whoever you are," cried Maya, "permit me to inform you that +insects are in the habit of greeting each other, especially when +one of them happens to be a bee." The bug sat on without +budging. It did not so much as open its one eye again. "It's +ill," thought Maya. "How horrid to be ill on a lovely day like +this. That's why it's staying in the shade, too." She flew over +to the bug's leaf and sat down beside it. "Aren't you feeling +well?" she asked, so very friendly. + +At this the funny creature began to move away. "Move" is the +only word to use, because it didn't walk, or run, or fly, or +hop. It went as if shoved by an invisible hand. + +"It hasn't any legs. That's why it's so cross," thought Maya. + +When it reached the stem of the leaf it stopped a second, moved +on again, and, to her astonishment, Maya saw that it had left +behind a little brown drop. + +"How _very_ singular," she thought--and clapped her hand to her +nose and held it tight shut. The veriest stench came from the +little brown drop. Maya almost fainted. She flew away as fast as +she could and seated herself on a raspberry, where she held on +to her nose and shivered with disgust and excitement. + +"Serves you right," someone above her called, and laughed. "Why +take up with a stink-bug?" + +"Don't laugh!" cried Maya. + +She looked up. A white butterfly had alighted overhead on a +slender, swaying branch of the raspberry bush, and was slowly +opening and closing its broad wings--slowly, softly, silently, +happy in the sunshine--black corners to its wings, round black +marks in the centre of each wing, four round black marks in all. +Ah, how beautiful, how beautiful! Maya forgot her vexation. And +she was glad, too, to talk to the butterfly. She had never made +the acquaintance of one before even though she had met a great +many. + +"Oh," she said, "you probably are right to laugh. Was that a +stink-bug?" + +"It was," he replied, still smiling. "The sort of person to keep +away from. You're probably very young still?" + +"Well," observed Maya, "I shouldn't say I was--exactly. I've +been through a great deal. But that was the first specimen of +the kind I had ever come across. Can you imagine doing such a +thing?" + +The butterfly had to laugh again. + +"You see," he explained, "stink-bugs like to keep to themselves. +They are not very popular, so they use the odoriferous drop to +make people take notice of them. We'd probably soon forget the +fact of their existence if it were not for the drop: it serves +as a reminder. And they want to be remembered, no matter how." + +"How lovely, how exquisitely lovely your wings are," said Maya. +"So delicate and white. May I introduce myself? Maya, of the +nation of bees." + +The butterfly laid his wings together to look like only one wing +standing straight up in the air. He gave a slight bow. + +"Fred," he said laconically. + +Maya couldn't gaze her fill. + +"Fly a little," she asked. + +"Shall I fly away?" + +"Oh no. I just want to see your great white wings move in the +blue air. But never mind. I can wait till later. Where do you +live?" + +"Nowhere specially. A settled home is too much of a nuisance. +Life didn't get to be really delightful until I turned into a +butterfly. Before that, while I was still a caterpillar, +I couldn't leave the cabbage the livelong day, and all one did +was eat and squabble." + +"Just what do you mean?" asked Maya, mystified. + +"I used to be a caterpillar," explained Fred. + +"Never!" cried Maya. + +"Now, now, now," said Fred, pointing both feelers straight at +Maya. "Everyone knows a butterfly is first a caterpillar. Even +human beings know it." + +Maya was utterly perplexed. Could such a thing be? + +"You must really explain more clearly," she said. "I couldn't +accept what you say just so, could I? You wouldn't expect +me to." + +The butterfly perched beside the little bee on the slender +swaying branch of the raspberry bush, and they rocked together +in the morning wind. He told her how he had begun life as a +caterpillar and then, one day, when he had shed his last +caterpillar skin, he came out a pupa or chrysalis. + +"At the end of a few weeks," he continued, "I woke up out of my +dark sleep and broke through the wrappings or pupa-case. I can't +tell you, Maya, what a feeling comes over you when, after a time +like that, you suddenly see the sun again. I felt as though I +were melting in a warm golden ocean, and I loved my life so that +my heart began to pound." + +"I understand," said Maya, "I understand. I felt the same way +the first time I left our humdrum city and flew out into the +bright scented world of blossoms." The little bee was silent a +while, thinking of her first flight.-- But then she wanted to +know how the butterfly's large wings could grow in the small +space of the pupa-case. + +Fred explained. + +"The wings are delicately folded together like the petals of a +flower in the bud. When the weather is bright and warm, the +flower must open, it cannot help itself, and its petals unfold. +So with my wings, they were folded up, then unfolded. No one can +resist the sun when it shines." + +"No, no--one cannot--one cannot resist the sunshine." Maya +mused, watching the butterfly as he perched in the golden light +of the morning, pure white against the blue sky. + +"People often charge us with being frivolous," said Fred. "We're +really happy--just that--just happy. You wouldn't believe how +seriously I sometimes think about life." + +"Tell me what all you think." + +"Oh," said Fred, "I think about the future. It's very +interesting to think about the future.-- But I should like to +fly now. The meadows on the hillside are full of yarrow and +canterbury bells; everything's in bloom. I'd like to be there, +you know." + +This Maya understood, she understood it well, and they said +good-by and flew away in different directions, the white +butterfly rocking silently as if wafted by the gentle wind, +little Maya with that uneasy zoom-zoom of the bees which we hear +upon the flowers on fair days and which we always recall when we +think of the summer. + + [Illustration] + + + + + [Illustration] + +CHAPTER IX + +THE LOST LEG + +Near the hole where Maya had set herself up for the summer lived +a family of bark-boring beetles. Fridolin, the father, was an +earnest, industrious man who wanted many children and took +immense pains to bring up a large family. He had done very well: +he had fifty energetic sons to fill him with pride and high +hopes. Each had dug his own meandering little tunnel in the bark +of the pine-tree and all were getting on and were comfortably +settled. + +"My wife," Fridolin said to Maya, after they had known each +other some time, "has arranged things so that none of my sons +interferes with the others. They are not even acquainted; each +goes his own way." + +Maya knew that human beings were none too fond of Fridolin and +his people, though she herself liked him and liked his opinions +and had found no reason to avoid him. In the morning before the +sun arose and the woods were still asleep, she would hear his +fine tapping and boring. It sounded like a delicate trickling, +or as if the tree were breathing in its sleep. Later she would +see the thin brown dust that he had emptied out of his corridor. + +Once he came at an early hour, as he often did, to wish her +good-morning and ask if she had slept well. + +"Not flying to-day?" he inquired. + +"No, it's too windy." + +It was windy. The wind rushed and roared and flung the branches +into a mad tumult. The leaves looked ready to fly away. After +each great gust the sky would brighten, and in the pale light +the trees seemed balder. The pine in which Maya and Fridolin +lived shrieked with the voices of the wind as in a fury of anger +and excitement. + +Fridolin sighed. + +"I worked all night," he told Maya, "all night. But what can you +do? You've got to do _some_thing to get _some_where. And I'm not +altogether satisfied with this pine; I should have tackled a +fir-tree." He wiped his brow and smiled in self-pity. + +"How are your children?" asked Maya pleasantly. + +"Thank you," said Fridolin, "thank you for your interest. +But"--he hesitated--"but I don't supervise the way I used to. +Still, I have reason to believe they are all doing well." + +As he sat there, a little brown man with slightly curtailed +wing-sheaths and a breastplate that looked like a head too large +for its body, Maya thought he was almost comical; but she knew +he was a dangerous beetle who could do immense harm to the mighty +trees of the forest, and if his tribe attacked a tree in numbers +then the green needles were doomed, the tree would turn sear and +die. It was utterly without defenses against the little marauders +who destroyed the bark and the sap-wood. And the sap-wood is +necessary to the life of a tree because it carries the sap up to +the very tips of the branches. There were stories of how whole +forests had fallen victims to the race of boring-beetles. Maya +looked at Fridolin reflectively; she was awed into solemnity at +the thought of the great power these little creatures possessed +and of how important they could become. + +Fridolin sighed and said in a worried tone: + +"Ah, life would be beautiful if there were no woodpeckers." + +Maya nodded. + +"Yes, indeed, you're right. The woodpecker gobbles up every +insect he sees." + +"If it were only that," observed Fridolin, "if it were only that +he got the careless people who fool around on the outside, on +the bark, I'd say, 'Very well, a woodpecker must live too.' But +it seems all wrong that the bird should follow us right into our +corridors into the remotest corners of our homes." + +"But he can't. He's too big, isn't he?" + +Fridolin looked at Maya with an air of grave importance, lifting +his brows and shaking his head two or three times. It seemed to +please him that he knew something she didn't know. + +"Too big? What difference does his size make? No, my dear, it's +not his size we are afraid of; it's his tongue." + +Maya made big eyes. + +Fridolin told her about the woodpecker's tongue: that it was +long and thin, and round as a worm, and barbed and sticky. + +"He can stretch his tongue out ten times my length," cried the +bark-beetle, flourishing his arm. "You think: 'now--now he has +reached the limit, he can't make it the tiniest bit longer.' But +no, he goes on stretching and stretching it. He pokes it deep +into all the cracks and crevices of the bark, on the chance that +he'll find somebody sitting there. He even pushes it into our +passageways--actually, into our corridors and chambers. Things +stick to it, and that's the way he pulls us out of our homes." + +"I am not a coward," said Maya, "I don't think I am, but what +you say makes me creepy." + +"Oh, _you're_ all right," said Fridolin, a little envious, "you +with your sting are safe. A person'll think twice before he'll +let you sting his tongue. Anybody'll tell you that. But how +about us bark-beetles? How do you think we feel? A cousin of +mine got caught. We had just had a little quarrel on account +of my wife. I remember every detail perfectly. My cousin was +paying us a visit and hadn't yet got used to our ways or our +arrangements. All of a sudden we heard a woodpecker scratching +and boring--one of the smaller species. It must have begun +right at our building because as a rule we hear him beforehand +and have time to run to shelter before he reaches us. + +"Suddenly I heard my poor cousin scream in the dark: 'Fridolin, +I'm sticking!' Then all I heard was a short desperate scuffle, +followed by complete silence, and in a few moments the woodpecker +was hammering at the house next door. My poor cousin! Her name +was Agatha." + +"Feel how my heart is beating," said Maya, in a whisper. +"You oughtn't to have told it so quickly. My goodness, the +things that do happen!" And the little bee thought of her own +adventures in the past and the accidents that might still happen +to her. + +A laugh from Fridolin interrupted her reflections. She looked up +in surprise. + +"See who's coming," he cried, "coming up the tree. Here's the +fellow for you! I tell you, he's a--but you'll see." + +Maya followed the direction of his gaze and saw a remarkable +animal slowly climbing up the trunk. She wouldn't have believed +such a creature was possible if she had not seen it with her own +eyes. + +"Hadn't we better hide?" she asked, alarm getting the better of +astonishment. + +"Absurd," replied the bark-beetle, "just sit still and be polite +to the gentleman. He is very learned, really, very scholarly, +and what is more, kind and modest and, like most persons of his +type, rather funny. See what he's doing now!" + +"Probably thinking," observed Maya, who couldn't get over her +astonishment. + +"He's struggling against the wind," said Fridolin, and laughed. +"I hope his legs don't get entangled." + +"Are those long threads really his legs?" asked Maya, opening +her eyes wide. "I've never seen the like." + +Meanwhile the newcomer had drawn near, and Maya got a better +view of him. He looked as though he were swinging in the air, +his rotund little body hung so high on his monstrously long +legs, which groped for a footing on all sides like a movable +scaffolding of threads. He stepped along cautiously, feeling his +way; the little brown sphere of his body rose and sank, rose and +sank. His legs were so very long and thin that one alone would +certainly not have been enough to support his body. He needed +all at once, unquestionably. As they were jointed in the middle, +they rose high in the air above him. + +Maya clapped her hands together. + +"Well!" she cried. "Did you ever? Would you have dreamed that +such delicate legs, legs as fine as a hair, could be so nimble +and useful--that one could really use them--and they'd know +what to do? Fridolin, I think it's wonderful, simply wonderful." + +"Ah, bah," said the bark-beetle. "Don't take things so +seriously. Just laugh when you see something funny; that's all." + +"But I don't feel like laughing. Often we laugh at something and +later find out it was just because we haven't understood." + +By this time the stranger had joined them and was looking down +at Maya from the height of his pointed triangles of legs. + +"Good-morning," he said, "a real wind-storm--a pretty strong +draught, don't you think, or--no? You are of a different +opinion?" He clung to the tree as hard as he could. + +Fridolin turned to hide his laughing, but little Maya replied +politely that she quite agreed with him and that was why she had +not gone out flying. Then she introduced herself. The stranger +squinted down at her through his legs. + +"Maya, of the nation of bees," he repeated. "Delighted, really. +I have heard a good deal about bees.-- I myself belong to the +general family of spiders, species daddy-long-legs, and my name +is Hannibal." + +The word spider has an evil sound in the ears of all smaller +insects, and Maya could not quite conceal her fright, especially +as she was reminded of her agony in Thekla's web. Hannibal +seemed to take no notice, so Maya decided, "Well if need be I'll +fly away, and he can whistle for me; he has no wings and his web +is somewhere else." + +"I am thinking," said Hannibal, "thinking very hard.-- If you +will permit me, I will come a little closer. That big branch +there makes a good shield against the wind." + +"Why, certainly," said Maya, making room for him. + +Fridolin said good-by and left. Maya stayed; she was eager to +get at Hannibal's personality. + +"The many, many different kinds of animals there are in the +world," she thought. "Every day a fresh discovery." + +The wind had subsided some, and the sun shone through the +branches. From below rose the song of a robin redbreast, filling +the woods with joy. Maya could see it perched on a branch, could +see its throat swell and pulse with the song as it held its +little head raised up to the light. + +"If only I could sing like that robin redbreast," she said, "I'd +perch on a flower and keep it up the livelong day." + +"You'd produce something lovely, you would, with your humming +and buzzing." + +"The bird looks so happy." + +"You have great fancies," said the daddy-long-legs. "Supposing +every animal were to wish he could do something that nature had +not fitted him to do, the world would be all topsy-turvy. +Supposing a robin redbreast thought he had to have a sting--a +sting above everything else--or a goat wanted to fly about +gathering honey. Supposing a frog were to come along and +languish for my kind of legs." + +Maya laughed. + +"That isn't just what I mean. I mean, it seems lovely to be able +to make all beings as happy as the bird does with his song.-- But +goodness gracious!" she exclaimed suddenly. "Mr. Hannibal, you +have one leg too many." + +Hannibal frowned and looked into space, vexed. + +"Well, you've noticed it," he said glumly. "But as a matter of +fact--one leg too few, not too many." + +"Why? Do you usually have eight legs?" + +"Permit me to explain. We spiders have eight legs. We need them +all. Besides, eight is a more aristocratic number. One of my +legs got lost. Too bad about it. However you manage, you make +the best of it." + +"It must be dreadfully disagreeable to lose a leg," Maya +sympathized. + +Hannibal propped his chin on his hand and arranged his legs to +keep them from being easily counted. + +"I'll tell you how it happened. Of course, as usual when there's +mischief, a human being is mixed up in it. We spiders are +careful and look what we're doing, but human beings are +careless, they grab you sometimes as though you were a piece of +wood. Shall I tell you?" + +"Oh, do please," said Maya, settling herself comfortably. "It +would be awfully interesting. You must certainly have gone +through a good deal." + +"I should say so," said Hannibal. "Now listen. We daddy-long-legs, +you know, hunt by night. I was then living in a green garden-house. +It was overgrown with ivy, and there were a number of broken +window-panes, which made it very convenient for me to crawl +in and out. The man came at dark. In one hand he carried +his artificial sun, which he calls lamp, in the other hand +a small bottle, under his arm some paper, and in his pocket +another bottle. He put everything down on the table and began +to think, because he wanted to write his thoughts on the +paper.-- You must certainly have come across paper in the +woods or in the garden. The black on the paper is what man +has excogitated--excogitated." + +"Marvelous!" cried Maya, all a-glow that she was to learn so +much. + +"For this purpose," Hannibal continued, "man needs both bottles. +He inserts a stick into the one and drinks out of the other. The +more he drinks, the better it goes. Of course it is about us +insects that he writes, everything he knows about us, and he +writes strenuously, but the result is not much to boast of, +because up to now man has found out very little in regard to +insects. He is absolutely ignorant of our soul-life and hasn't +the least consideration for our feelings. You'll see." + +"Don't you think well of human beings?" asked Maya. + +"Oh, yes, yes. But the loss of a leg"--the daddy-long-legs +looked down slantwise--"is apt to embitter one, rather." + +"I see," said Maya. + +"One evening I was sitting on a window-frame as usual, prepared +for the chase, and the man was sitting at the table, his two +bottles before him, trying to produce something. It annoyed me +dreadfully that a whole swarm of little flies and gnats, upon +which I depend for my subsistence, had settled upon the +artificial sun and were staring into it in that crude, stupid, +uneducated way of theirs." + +"Well," observed Maya, "I think I'd look at a thing like that +myself." + +"Look, for all I care. But to look and to stare like an idiot +are two entirely different things. Just watch once and see the +silly jig they dance around a lamp. It's nothing for them to +butt their heads about twenty times. Some of them keep it up +until they burn their wings. And all the time they stare and +stare at the light." + +"Poor creatures! Evidently they lose their wits." + +"Then they had better stay outside on the window-frame or under +the leaves. They're safe from the lamp there, and that's where I +can catch them.-- Well, on that fateful night I saw from my +position on the window-frame that some gnats were lying +scattered on the table beside the lamp drawing their last +breath. The man did not seem to notice or care about them, so I +decided to go and take them myself. That's perfectly natural, +isn't it?" + +"Perfectly." + +"And yet, it was my undoing. I crept up the leg of the table, +very softly, on my guard, until I could peep over the edge. The +man seemed dreadfully big. I watched him working. Then, slowly, +very slowly, carefully lifting one leg at a time, I crossed over +to the lamp. As long as I was covered by the bottle all went +well, but I had scarcely turned the corner, when the man looked +up and grabbed me. He lifted me by one of my legs, dangled me in +front of his huge eyes, and said: 'See what's here, just see +what's here.' And he grinned--the brute!--he grinned with his +whole face, as though it were a laughing matter." + +Hannibal sighed, and little Maya kept quite still. Her head was +in a whirl. + +"Have human beings such immense eyes?" she asked at last. + +"Please think of _me_ in the position _I_ was in," cried +Hannibal, vexed. "Try to imagine how I felt. Who'd like to be +hanging by the leg in front of eyes twenty times as big as his +own body and a mouth full of gleaming teeth, each fully twice as +big as himself? Well, what do you think?" + +"Awful! Perfectly awful!" + +"Thank the Lord, my leg broke off. There's no telling what might +have happened if my leg had not broken off. I fell to the table, +and then I ran, I ran as fast as my remaining legs would take +me, and hid behind the bottle. There I stood and hurled threats +of violence at the man. They saved me, my threats did, the man +was afraid to run after me. I saw him lay my leg on the white +paper, and I watched how it wanted to escape--which it can't do +without me." + +"Was it still moving?" asked Maya, prickling at the thought. + +"Yes. Our legs always do move when they're pulled out. My leg +ran, but I not being there it didn't know where to run to, so it +merely flopped about aimlessly on the same spot, and the man +watched it, clutching at his nose and smiling--smiling, the +heartless wretch!--at my leg's sense of duty." + +"Impossible," said the little bee, quite scared, "an offen leg +can't crawl." + +"An offen leg? _What_ is an offen leg?" + +"A leg that has come off," explained Maya, staring at him. +"Don't you know? At home we children used the word offen for +anything that had come off." + +"You should drop your nursery slang when you're out in the world +and in the presence of cultured people," said Hannibal severely. +"But it _is_ true that our legs totter long after they have been +torn from our bodies." + +"I can't believe it without proof." + +"Do you think I'll tear one of my legs off to satisfy you?" +Hannibal's tone was ugly. "I see you're not a fit person to +associate with. Nobody, I'd like you to know, _no_body has ever +doubted my word before." + +Maya was terribly put out. She couldn't understand what had +upset the daddy-long-legs so, or what dreadful thing she had +done. + +"It isn't altogether easy to get along with strangers," she +thought. "They don't think the way we do and don't see that we +mean no harm." She was depressed and cast a troubled look at the +spider with his long legs and soured expression. + +"Really, someone ought to come and eat you up." + +Hannibal had evidently mistaken Maya's good nature for weakness. +For now something unusual happened to the little bee. Suddenly +her depression passed and gave way, not to alarm or timidity, +but to a calm courage. She straightened up, lifted her lovely, +transparent wings, uttered her high clear buzz, and said with a +gleam in her eyes: + +"I am a bee, Mr. Hannibal." + +"I beg your pardon," said he, and without saying good-by turned +and ran down the tree-trunk as fast as a person can run who has +seven legs. + +Maya had to laugh, willy-nilly. From down below Hannibal began +to scold. + +"You're bad. You threaten helpless people, you threaten them with +your sting when you know they're handicapped by a misfortune and +can't get away fast. But your hour is coming, and when you're +in a tight place you'll think of me and be sorry." Hannibal +disappeared under the leaves of the coltsfoot on the ground. +His last words had not reached the little bee. + +The wind had almost died away, and the day promised to be fine. +White clouds sailed aloft in a deep, deep blue, looking happy +and serene like good thoughts of the Lord. Maya was cheered. She +thought of the rich shaded meadows by the woods and of the sunny +slopes beyond the lake. A blithe activity must have begun there +by this time. In her mind she saw the slim grasses waving and +the purple iris that grew in the rills at the edge of the woods. +From the flower of an iris you could look across to the +mysterious night of the pine-forest and catch its cool breath of +melancholy. You knew that its forbidding silence, which +transformed the sunshine into a reddish half-light of sleep, was +the home of the fairy tale. + +Maya was already flying. She had started off instinctively, in +answer to the call of the meadows and their gay carpeting of +flowers. It was a joy to be alive. + + [Illustration] + + + + [Illustration] + +CHAPTER X + +THE WONDERS OF THE NIGHT + + +Thus the days and weeks of her young life passed for little Maya +among the insects in a lovely summer world--a happy roving in +garden and meadow, occasional risks and many joys. For all that, +she often missed the companions of her early childhood and now +and again suffered a pang of homesickness, an ache of longing +for her people and the kingdom she had left. There were hours, +too, when she yearned for regular, useful work and association +with friends of her own kind. + +However, at bottom she had a restless nature, little Maya had, +and was scarcely ready to settle down for good and live in the +community of the bees; she wouldn't have felt comfortable. Often +among animals as well as human beings there are some who cannot +conform to the ways of the others. Before we condemn them we +must be careful and give them a chance to prove themselves. For +it is not always laziness or stubbornness that makes them +different. Far from it. At the back of their peculiar urge is a +deep longing for something higher or better than what every-day +life has to offer, and many a time young runaways have grown up +into good, sensible, experienced men and women. + +Little Maya was a pure, sensitive soul, and her attitude to the +big, beautiful world came of a genuine eagerness for knowledge +and a great delight in the glories of creation. + +Yet it is hard to be alone even when you are happy, and the +more Maya went through, the greater became her yearning for +companionship and love. She was no longer so very young; she had +grown into a strong, superb creature with sound, bright wings, +a sharp, dangerous sting, and a highly developed sense of both +the pleasures and the hazards of her life. Through her own +experience she had gathered information and stored up wisdom, +which she now often wished she could apply to something of real +value. There were days when she was ready to return to the hive +and throw herself at the queen's feet and sue for pardon and +honorable reinstatement. But a great, burning desire held her +back--the desire to know human beings. She had heard so many +contradictory things about them that she was confused rather +than enlightened. Yet she had a feeling that in the whole of +creation there were no beings more powerful or more intelligent +or more sublime than they. + +A few times in her wanderings she had seen people, but only from +afar, from high up in the air--big and little people, black +people, white people, red people, and such as dressed in many +colors. She had never ventured close. Once she had caught the +glimmer of red near a brook, and thinking it was a bed of +flowers had flown down. She found a human being fast asleep +among the brookside blossoms. It had golden hair and a pink face +and wore a red dress. It was dreadfully large, of course, but +still it looked so good and sweet that Maya thrilled, and tears +came to her eyes. She lost all sense of her whereabouts; she +could do nothing but gaze and gaze upon the slumbering presence. +All the horrid things she had ever heard against man seemed +utterly impossible. Lies they must have been--mean lies that +she had been told against creatures as charming as this one +asleep in the shade of the whispering birch-trees. + +After a while a mosquito came and buzzed greetings. + +"Look!" cried Maya, hot with excitement and delight. "Look, just +look at that human being there. How good, how beautiful! Doesn't +it fill you with enthusiasm?" + +The mosquito gave Maya a surprised stare, then turned slowly +round to glance at the object of her admiration. + +"Yes, it _is_ good. I just tasted it. I stung it. Look, my body +is shining red with its blood." + +Maya had to press her hand to her heart, so startled was she by +the mosquito's daring. + +"Will it die?" she cried. "Where did you wound it? How could +you? How could you screw up your courage to sting it? And how +vile! Why, you're a beast of prey!" + +The mosquito tittered. + +"Why, it's only a very little human being," it answered in its +high, thin voice. "It's the size called girl--the size at which +the legs are covered half way up with a separate colored casing. +My sting, of course, goes through the casing but usually doesn't +reach the skin.-- Your ignorance is really stupendous. Do you +actually think that human beings are good? I haven't come across +one who willingly let me take the tiniest drop of his blood." + +"I don't know very much about human beings, I admit," said Maya +humbly. + +"But of all the insects you bees have most to do with human +beings. That's a well-known fact." + +"I left our kingdom," Maya confessed timidly. "I didn't like it. +I wanted to learn about the outside world." + +"Well, well, what do you think of that!" The mosquito drew a +step nearer. "How do you like your free-lancing? I must say, +I admire you for your independence. I for one would never +consent to serve human beings." + +"But they serve us too!" said Maya, who couldn't bear a slight +to be put upon her people. + +"Maybe.-- To what nation do you belong?" + +"I come of the nation in the castle park. The ruling queen is +Helen VIII." + +"Indeed," said the mosquito, and bowed low. "An enviable +lineage. My deepest respects.-- There was a revolution in your +kingdom not so long ago, wasn't there? I heard it from the +messengers of the rebel swarm. Am I right?" + +"Yes," said Maya, proud and happy that her nation was so +respected and renowned. Homesickness for her people awoke again, +deep down in her heart, and she wished she could do something +good and great for her queen and country. Carried away on the +wings of this dream, she forgot to ask about human beings. Or, +like as not, she refrained from questions, feeling that the +mosquito would not tell her things she would be glad to hear. +The mite of a creature impressed her as a saucy Miss, and people +of her kind usually had nothing good to say of others. Besides, +she soon flew away. + +"I'm going to take one more drink," she called back to Maya. +"Later I and my friends are going flying in the light of +the westering sun. Then we'll be sure to have good weather +to-morrow." + +Maya made off quickly. She couldn't bear to stay and see the +mosquito hurt the sleeping child. And how could she do this +thing and not perish? Hadn't Cassandra said: "If you sting a +human being, you will die?" + +Maya still remembered every detail of this incident with the +child and the mosquito, but her craving to know human beings +well had not been stilled. She made up her mind to be bolder and +never stop trying until she had reached her goal. + + +At last Maya's longing to know human beings was to be satisfied, +and in a way far, far lovelier and more wonderful than she had +dreamed. + +Once, on a warm evening, having gone to sleep earlier than usual, +she woke up suddenly in the middle of the night--something that +had never happened to her before. When she opened her eyes, her +astonishment was indescribable: her little bedroom was all +steeped in a quiet bluish radiance. It came down through the +entrance, and the entrance itself shone as if hung with a +silver-blue curtain. + +Maya did not dare to budge at first, though not because she was +frightened. No. Somehow, along with the light came a rare, +lovely peacefulness, and outside her room the air was filled +with a sound finer, more harmonious than any music she had ever +heard. After a time she rose timidly, awed by the glamour and +the strangeness of it all, and looked out. The whole world +seemed to lie under the spell of an enchantment. Everything was +sparkling and glittering in pure silver. The trunks of the +birch-trees, the slumbering leaves were overlaid with silver. +The grass, which from her height seemed to lie under delicate +veils, was set with a thousand pale pearls. All things near and +far, the silent distances, were shrouded in this soft, bluish +sheen. + +"This must be the night," Maya whispered and folded her hands. + +High up in the heavens, partly veiled by the leaves of a +beech-tree, hung a full clear disk of silver, from which the +radiance poured down that beautified the world. And then Maya +saw countless bright, sharp little lights surrounding the moon +in the heavens--oh, so still and beautiful, unlike any shining +things she had ever seen before. To think she beheld the night, +the moon, and the stars--the wonders, the lovely wonders of the +night! She had heard of them but never believed in them. It was +almost too much. + +Then the sound rose again, the strange night sound that must +have awakened her. It came from nearby, filling the welkin, +a soaring chirp with a silvery ring that matched the silver on +the trees and leaves and grass and seemed to come rilling down +from the moon on the beams of silver light. + +Maya looked about for the source, in vain; in the mysterious +drift of light and shadow it was difficult to make out objects +in clear outline, everything was draped so mysteriously; and yet +everything showed up true and in such heroic beauty. + +Her room could keep her no longer; out she had to fly into this +new splendor, the night splendor. + +"The good Lord will take care of me," she thought, "I am not +bent upon wrong." + +As she was about to fly off through the silver light to her +favorite meadow, now lying full under the moon, she saw a winged +creature alight on a beech-tree leaf not far away. Scarcely +alighted, it raised its head to the moon, lifted its narrow +wings, and drew the edge of one against the other, for all the +world as though it were playing on a violin. And sure enough, +the sound came, the silvery chirp that filled the whole moonlit +world with melody. + +"Exquisite," whispered Maya, "heavenly, heavenly, heavenly." + +She flew over to the leaf. The night was so mild and warm that +she did not notice it was cooler than by day. When she touched +the leaf, the chirper broke off playing abruptly, and to Maya it +seemed as if there had never been such a stillness before, so +profound was the hush that followed. It was uncanny. Through the +dark leaves filtered the light, white and cool. + +"Good night," said Maya, politely, thinking "good night" was the +greeting for the night like "good morning" for the morning. +"Please excuse me for interrupting, but the music you make is so +fascinating that I had to find out where it came from." + +The chirper stared at Maya, wide-eyed. + +"What sort of a crawling creature are you?" it asked after some +moments had passed. "I have never met one like you before." + +"I am not a crawling insect. I am Maya, of the nation of bees." + +"Oh, of the nation of bees. Indeed ... you live by day, don't +you? I have heard of your race from the hedgehog. He told me +that in the evening he eats the dead bodies that are thrown out +of your hive." + +"Yes," said Maya, with a faint chill of apprehension, "that's +so; Cassandra told me about him; she heard of him from the +sentinels. He comes when twilight falls and snouts in the grass +looking for dead bodies.-- But do you associate with the +hedgehog? Why, he's an awful brute." + +"I don't think so. We tree-crickets get along with him +splendidly. We call him Uncle. Of course he always tries to +catch us, but he never succeeds, so we have great fun teasing +him. Everybody has to live, doesn't he? Just so he doesn't live +off me, what do I care?" + +Maya shook her head. She didn't agree. But not caring to insult +the cricket by contradicting, she changed the subject. + +"So you're a tree-cricket?" + +"Yes, a snowy tree-cricket.-- But I must play, so please don't +keep me any longer. It's full moon, a wonderful night. I must +play." + +"Oh, do make an exception this once. You play all the time.-- Tell +me about the night." + +"A midsummer night is the loveliest in the world," answered the +cricket. "It fills the heart with rapture.-- But what my music +doesn't tell you I shan't be able to explain. Why _need_ +everything be explained? Why _know_ everything? We poor +creatures can find out only the tiniest bit about existence. Yet +we can _feel_ the glory of the whole wide world." And the +cricket set up its happy silvery strumming. Heard from close by, +where Maya sat, the music was overpowering in its loudness. + +The little bee sat quite still in the blue summer night +listening and musing deeply about life and creation. + +Silence fell. There was a faint whirr, and Maya saw the cricket +fly out into the moonlight. + +"The night makes one feel sad," she reflected. + +Her flowery meadow drew her now. She flew off. + +At the edge of the brook stood the tall irises brokenly +reflected in the running water. A glorious sight. The moonlight +was whirled along in the braided current, the wavelets winked +and whispered, the irises seemed to lean over asleep. "Asleep +from sheer delight," thought the little bee. She dropped down on +a blue petal in the full light of the moon and could not take +her eyes from the living waters of the brook, the quivering +flash, the flashing come and go of countless sparks. On the bank +opposite, the birch-trees glittered as if hung with the stars. + +"Where is all that water flowing to?" she wondered. "The cricket +is right. We know so little about the world." + +Of a sudden a fine little voice rose in song from the flower of +an iris close beside her, ringing like a pure, clear bell, +different from any earthly sound that Maya knew. Her heart +throbbed, she held her breath. + +"Oh, what is going to happen? What am I going to see now?" + +The iris swayed gently. One of the petals curved in at the edge, +and Maya saw a tiny snow-white human hand holding on to the +flower's rim with its wee little fingers. Then a small blond +head arose, and then a delicate luminous body in white garments. +A human being in miniature was coming up out of the iris. + +Words cannot tell Maya's awe and rapture. She sat rigid. + +The tiny being climbed to the edge of the blossom, lifted its +arms up to the moonlight, and looked out into the bright shining +night with a smile of bliss lighting up its face. Then a faint +quiver shook its luminous body, and from its shoulders two wings +unfolded, whiter than the moonlight, pure as snow, rising above +its blond head and reaching down to its feet. How lovely it was, +how exquisitely lovely. Nothing that Maya had ever seen compared +with it in loveliness. + +Standing there in the moonlight, holding its hands up to heaven, +the luminous little being lifted its voice again and sang. The +song rang out in the night, and Maya understood the words. + + My home is Light. The crystal bowl + Of Heaven's blue, I love it so! + Both Death and Life will change, I know, + But not my soul, my living soul. + + My soul is that which breathes anew + From all of loveliness and grace; + And as it flows from God's own face, + It flows from His creations, too. + +Maya burst into sobs. What it was that made her so sad and yet +so happy, she could not have told. + +The little human being turned around. + +"Who is crying?" he asked in his chiming voice. + +"It's only me," stammered Maya. "Excuse me for interrupting +you." + +"But why are you crying?" + +"I don't know. Perhaps just because you are so beautiful. Who +are you? Oh, do tell me, if I am not asking too much. You are an +angel, aren't you? You must be." + +"Oh, no," said the little creature, quite serious. "I am only a +sprite, a flower-sprite.-- But, dear little bee, what are you +doing out here in the meadow so late at night?" + +The sprite flew over to a curving iris blade beside Maya and +regarded her long and kindly from his swaying perch in the +moonlight. + +Maya told him all about herself, what she had done, what she +knew, and what she longed for. And while she spoke, his eyes +never left her, those large dark eyes glowing in the white fairy +face under the golden hair that ever and anon shone like silver +in the moonlight. + +When she finished he stroked her head and looked at her so +warmly and lovingly that the little bee, beside herself with +joy, had to lower her gaze. + +"We sprites," he explained, "live seven nights, but we must stay +in the flower in which we are born, else we die at dawn." + +Maya opened her eyes wide in terror. + +"Then hurry, hurry! Fly back into your flower!" + +The, sprite shook his head sadly. + +"Too late.-- But listen. I have more to tell you. Most of us +sprites are glad to leave our flowers never to return, because a +great happiness is connected with our leaving. We are endowed +with a remarkable power: before we die, we can fulfill the +dearest wish of the first creature we meet. It is when we make +up our minds seriously to leave the flower for the purpose of +making someone happy that our wings grow." + +"How wonderful!" cried Maya. "I'd leave the flower too, then. It +must be lovely to fulfill another person's wish." That _she_ was +the first being whom the sprite on his flight from the flower +had met, did not occur to her. "And then--must you die?" + +The sprite nodded, but not sadly this time. + +"We live to see the dawn still," he said, "but when the dew +falls, we are drawn into the fine cobwebby veils that float +above the grass and the flowers of the meadows. Haven't you +often noticed that the veils shine white as though a light were +inside them? It's the sprites, their wings and their garments. +When the light rises we change into dew-drops. The plants drink +us and we become a part of their growing and blooming until in +time we rise again as sprites from out their flowers." + +"Then you were once another sprite?" asked Maya, tense, +breathless with interest. + +The earnest eyes said yes. + +"But I have forgotten my earlier existence. We forget everything +in our flower-sleep." + +"Oh, what a lovely fate!" + +"It is the same as that of all earthly creatures, when you +really come to think of it, even if it isn't always flowers out +of which they wake up from their sleep of death. But we won't +talk of that to-night." + +"Oh, I'm so happy!" cried Maya. + +"Then you haven't got a wish? You're the first person I've met, +you know, and I possess the power to grant your dearest wish." + +"I? But I'm only a bee. No, it's too much. It would be too great +a joy. I don't deserve it, I don't deserve that you should be so +good to me." + +"No one deserves the good and the beautiful. The good and the +beautiful come to us like the sunshine." + +Maya's heart beat stormily. Oh, she did have a wish, a burning +wish, but she didn't dare confess it. The elf seemed to guess; +he smiled so you couldn't keep anything a secret from him. + +"Well?" He stroked his golden hair off his pure forehead. + +"I'd like to know human beings at their best and most +beautiful," said the little bee. She spoke quickly and hotly. +She was afraid she would be told that so great a wish could not +be granted. + +But the sprite drew himself up, his expression was serious and +serene, his eyes shone with confidence. He took Maya's trembling +hand and said: + +"Come. We'll fly together. Your wish shall be granted." + + [Illustration] + + + + + [Illustration] + +CHAPTER XI + +WITH THE SPRITE + + +And so Maya and the flower-sprite started off together in the +bright mid-summer night, flying low over the blossomy meadow. +His white reflection crossing the brook shone as though a star +were gliding through the water. + +How happy the little bee was to confide herself to this gracious +being! Whatever he were to do, wherever he were to lead her +would be good and right, she felt. She would have liked to ask +him a thousand questions had she dared. + +As they were passing between a double row of high poplar-trees, +something whirred above them; a dark moth, as big and strong as +a bird, crossed their way. + +"One moment, wait one moment, please," the sprite called. + +Maya was surprised to see how readily the moth responded. + +All three alighted on a high poplar branch, from which there was +a far view out upon the tranquil, moonlit landscape. The quaking +leaves whispered delicately. The moth, perching directly +opposite Maya in the full light of the moon, slowly lifted his +spread wings and dropped them again, softly, as if gently +fanning--fanning a cool breath upon someone. Broad, diagonal +stripes of a gorgeous bright blue marked his wings, his black +head was covered as with dark velvet, his face was like a +strangely mysterious mask, out of which glowed a pair of dark +eyes. How wonderful were the creatures of the night! A little +cold shiver ran through Maya, who felt she was dreaming the +strangest dream of her life. + +"You are beautiful," she said to the moth, "beautiful, really." +She was awed and solemn. + +"Who is your companion?" the moth asked the sprite. + +"A bee. I met her just as I was leaving my flower." + +The moth seemed to realize what that meant. He looked at Maya +almost enviously. + +"You fortunate creature!" he said in a low, serious, musing +tone, shaking his head to and fro. + +"Are you sad?" asked Maya out of the warmth of her heart. + +The moth shook his head. + +"No, not sad." His voice sounded friendly and grateful, and he +gave Maya such a kind look that she would have liked to strike +up a friendship with him then and there. + +"Is the bat still abroad, or has he gone to rest?" This was the +question for which the sprite had stopped the moth. + +"Oh, he's gone to rest long ago. You want to know, do you, on +account of your companion?" + +The sprite nodded. Maya was dying to find out what a bat was, +but the sprite seemed to be in a hurry. With a charming gesture +of restlessness he tossed his shining hair back from his +forehead. + +"Come, Maya," he said, "we must hurry. The night is so short." + +"Shall I carry you part of the way?" asked the moth. + +The sprite thanked him but declined. "Some other time!" he +called. + +"Then it will be never," thought Maya as they flew away, +"because at dawn the flower-sprite must die." + +The moth remained on the leaf looking after them until the +glimmer of the fairy garments grew smaller and smaller and +finally sank into the depths of the blue distance. Then he +turned his face slowly and surveyed his great dark wings with +their broad blue stripes. He sank into revery. + +"So often I have heard that I am gray and ugly," he said to +himself, "and that my dress is not to be compared with the +superb robes of the butterfly. But the little bee saw only what +is beautiful in me.-- And she asked me if I was sad. I wonder +whether I am or not.-- No, I am not sad," he decided, "not now." + +Meanwhile Maya and the flower-sprite flew through the dense +shrubbery of a garden. The glory of it in the dimmed moonlight +was beyond the power of mortal lips to say. An intoxicatingly +sweet cool breath of dew and slumbering flowers transformed all +things into unutterable blessings. The lilac grapes of the +acacias sparkled in freshness, the June rose-tree looked like a +small blooming heaven hung with red lamps, the white stars of +the jasmine glowed palely, sadly, and poured out their perfume +as if, in this one hour, to make a gift of their all. + +Maya was dazed. She pressed the sprite's hand and looked at him. +A light of bliss shone from his eyes. + +"Who could have dreamed of this!" whispered the little bee. + +Just then she saw something that sent a pang through her. + +"Oh," she cried, "look! A star has fallen! It's straying about +and can't find its way back to its place in the sky." + +"That's a firefly," said the flower-sprite, without a smile. + +Now, in the midst of her amazement, Maya realized for the first +time why the sprite seemed so dear and kind. He never laughed at +her ignorance; on the contrary, he helped her when she went +wrong. + +"They are odd little creatures," the sprite continued. "They +carry their own light about with them on warm summer nights and +enliven the dark under the shrubbery where the moonlight doesn't +shine through. So firefly can keep tryst with firefly even in +the dark. Later, when we come to the human beings, you will make +the acquaintance of one of them." + +"Why?" asked Maya. + +"You'll soon see." + +By this time they had reached an arbor completely overgrown with +jasmine and woodbine. They descended almost to the ground. From +close by, within the arbor, came the sound of faint whispering. +The flower-sprite beckoned to a firefly. + +"Would you be good enough," he asked, "to give us a little +light? We have to push through these dark leaves here; we want +to get to the inside of the jasmine-arbor." + +"But your glow is much brighter than mine." + +"I think so, too," put in Maya, more to hide her excitement than +anything else. + +"I must wrap myself up in a leaf," explained the sprite, "else +the human beings would see me and be frightened. We sprites +appear to human beings only in their dreams." + +"I see," said the firefly. "I am at your service. I will do what +I can.-- Won't the great beast with you hurt me?" + +The sprite shook his head no, and the firefly believed him. + +The sprite now took a leaf and wrapped himself in it; the gleam +of his white garments was completely hidden. Then he picked a +little bluebell from the grass and put it on his shining head +like a helmet. The only bit of him left exposed was his face, +which was so small that surely no one would notice it. He asked +the firefly to perch on his shoulder and with its wing to dim +its lamp on the one side so as to keep the dazzle out of his +eyes. + +"Come now," he said, taking Maya's hand. "We had better climb up +right here." + +The little bee was thinking of something the sprite had said, +and as they clambered up the vine, she asked: + +"Do human beings dream when they sleep?" + +"Not only then. They dream sometimes even when they are awake. +They sit with their bodies a little limp, their heads bent a +little forward, and their eyes searching the distance, as if to +see into the very heavens. Their dreams are always lovelier than +life. That's why we appear to them in their dreams." + +The sprite now laid his tiny finger on his lips, bent aside a +small blooming sprig of jasmine, and gently pushed Maya ahead. + +"Look down," he said softly, "you'll see what you have been +wishing to see." + +The little bee looked and saw two human beings sitting on a +bench in the shadows cast by the moonlight--a boy and a girl, +the girl with her head leaning on the boy's shoulder, and the +boy holding his arm around the girl as if to protect her. They +sat in complete stillness, looking wide-eyed into the night. +It was as quiet as if they had both gone to sleep. Only from a +distance came the chirping of the crickets, and slowly, slowly +the moonlight drifted through the leaves. + +Maya, transported out of herself, gazed into the girl's face. +Although it looked pale and wistful, it seemed to be transfused +by the hidden radiance of a great happiness. Above her large +eyes lay golden hair, like the golden hair of the sprite, and +upon it rested the heavenly sheen of the midsummer night. From +her red lips, slightly parted, came a breath of rapture and +melancholy, as if she wanted to offer everything that was hers +to the man by her side for his happiness. + +And now she turned to him, pulled his head down, and whispered a +magical something that brought a smile to his face such as Maya +thought no earthly being could wear. In his eyes gleamed a +happiness and a vigor as if the whole big world were his to own, +and suffering and misfortune were banished forever from the face +of the earth. + +Maya somehow had no desire to know what he said to the girl in +reply. Her heart quivered as though the ecstasy that emanated +from the two human beings was also hers. + +"Now I have seen the most glorious thing that my eyes will ever +behold," she whispered to herself. "I know now that human beings +are most beautiful when they are in love." + +How long Maya stayed behind the leaves without stirring, lost in +looking at the boy and girl, she did not know. When she turned +round, the firefly's lamp had been extinguished, the sprite was +gone. Through the doorway of the arbor far across the country on +the distant horizon showed a narrow streak of red. + + [Illustration] + + + + + [Illustration] + +CHAPTER XII + +ALOIS, LADYBIRD AND POET + + +The sun was risen high above the tops of the beech-trees when +Maya awoke in her woodland retreat. In the first moments, the +moonlight, the chirping of the cricket, the midsummer night +meadow, the lovely sprite, the boy and the girl in the arbor, +all seemed the perishing fancies of a delicious dream. Yet here +it was almost midday; and she remembered slipping back into her +chamber in the chill of dawn. So it had all been real, she _had_ +spent the night with the flower-sprite and _had_ seen the two +human beings, with their arms round each other, in the arbor of +woodbine and jasmine. + +The sun outside was glowing hot on the leaves, a warm wind was +stirring, and Maya heard the mixed chorus of thousands of +insects. Ah, what these knew, and what _she_ knew! So proud was +she of the great thing that had happened to her that she +couldn't get out to the others fast enough; she thought they +must read it in her very looks. + +But in the sunlight everything was the same as ever. Nothing was +changed; nothing recalled the blue moonlit night. The insects +came, said how-do-you-do, and left; yonder, the meadow was a +scene of bustling activity; the insects, birds and butterflies +hopped, flew and flitted in the hot flickering air around the +tall, gay midsummer flowers. + +Sadness fell upon Maya. There was no one in the world to share +her joys and sorrows. She couldn't make up her mind to fly over +and join the others in the meadow. No, she would go to the +woods. The woods were serious and solemn. They suited her mood. + +How many mysteries and marvels lie hidden in the dim depths +of the woods, no one suspects who hurries unobservant along +the beaten tracks. You must bend aside the branches of the +underbrush, or lean down and peep between the blackberry briars +through the tall grasses and across the thick moss. Under the +shaded leaves of the plants, in holes in the ground and +tree-trunks, in the decaying bark of stumps, in the curl and +twist of the roots that coil on the ground like serpents, there +is an active, multiform life by day and by night, full of joys +and dangers, struggles and sorrows and pleasures. + +Maya divined only a little of this as she flew low between the +dark-brown trunks under the leafy roof of green. She followed a +narrow trail in the grass, which made a clear path through +thicket and clearing. Now and then the sun seemed to disappear +behind clouds, so deep was the shade under the high foliage and +in the close shrubbery; but soon she was flying again through a +bright shimmer of gold and green above the broad-leaved +miniature forests of bracken and blackberry. + +After a long stretch the woods opened their columned and +over-arched portals; before Maya's eyes lay a wide field of +grain in the golden sunshine. Butterfly-weed flamed on the +grassy borders. She alighted on the branch of a birch-tree at +the edge of the field and gazed upon the sea of gold that spread +out endlessly in the tranquillity of the placid day. It rippled +softly under the shy summer breeze, which blew gently so as not +to disturb the peace of the lovely world. + +Under the birch-tree a few small brown butterflies, using the +butterfly-weed for corners, were playing puss-in-the-corner, +a favorite game with butterfly-children. Maya watched them a +while. + +"It must be lots of fun," she thought, "and the children in the +hive might be taught to play it, too. The cells would do for +corners.-- But Cassandra, I suppose, wouldn't permit it. She's +so strict." + +Ah, now Maya felt sad again. Because she had thought of home. +And she was about to drift off into homesick revery when she +heard someone beside her say: + +"Good morning. You're a beast, it seems to me." + +Maya turned with a start. + +"No," she said, "decidedly not." + +There sitting on her leaf was a little polished terra-cotta +half-sphere with seven black dots on its cupola of a back, +a minute black head and bright little eyes. Peeping from under +the dotted dome and supporting it as best they could Maya +detected thin legs fine as threads. In spite of his queer +figure, she somehow took a great liking to the stout little +fellow; he had distinct charm. + +"May I ask who you are? I myself am Maya of the nation of bees." + +"Do you mean to insult me? You have no reason to." + +"But why should I? I don't know you, really I don't." Maya was +quite upset. + +"It's easy to _say_ you don't know me.-- Well, I'll jog your +memory. Count." And the little rotundity began to wheel round +slowly. + +"You mean I'm to count your dots?" + +"Yes, if you please." + +"Seven," said Maya. + +"Well?-- Well? You still don't know. All right then, I'll tell +you. I'm called exactly according to what you counted. The +scientific name of our family is Septempunctata. _Septem_ is +Latin for seven, _punctata_ is Latin for dots, points, you see. +Our common name is ladybird, my own name is Alois, I am a poet +by profession. You know our common name, of course." + +Maya, afraid of hurting Alois' feelings, didn't dare to say no. + +"Oh," said he, "I live by the sunshine, by the peace of the day, +and by the love of mankind." + +"But don't you eat, too?" asked Maya, quite astonished. + +"Of course. Plant-lice. Don't you?" + +"No. That would be--that is...." + +"Is what? Is what?" + +"Not--usual," said Maya shyly. + +"Of course, of course!" cried Alois, trying to raise one +shoulder, but not succeeding, on account of the firm set of his +dome. "As a bourgeoise you would, of course, do only what is +usual. We poets would not get very far that way.-- Have you +time?" + +"Why, yes," said Maya. + +"Then I'll recite you one of my poems. Sit real still and close +your eyes, so that nothing distracts your attention. The poem is +called _Man's Finger_, and is about a personal experience. Are +you listening?" + +"Yes, to every word." + +"Well, then: + + "'Since you did not do me wrong, + That you found me, doesn't matter. + You are rounded, you are long; + Up above you wear a flatter, + Pointed, polished sheath or platter + Which you move as swift as light, + But below you're fastened tight!'" + +"Well?" asked Alois after a short pause. There were tears in his +eyes and a quaver in his voice. + +"_Man's Finger_ gripped me very hard," replied Maya in some +embarrassment. She really knew much lovelier poems. + +"How do you find the form?" Alois questioned with a smile of +fine melancholy. He seemed to be overwhelmed by the effect he +had produced. + +"Long and round. You yourself said so in the poem." + +"I mean the artistic form, the form of my verse." + +"Oh--oh, yes. Yes, I thought it was very good." + +"It is, isn't it!" cried Alois. "What you mean to say is that +_Man's Finger_ may be ranked among the best poems you know of, +and one must go way back in literature before one comes across +anything like it. The prime requisite in art is that it should +contain something new, which is what most poets forget. And +bigness, too. Don't you agree with me?" + +"Certainly," said Maya, "I think...." + +"The firm belief you express in my importance as a poet really +overwhelms me. I thank you.-- But I must be going now, for +solitude is the poet's pride. Farewell." + +"Farewell," echoed Maya, who really didn't know just what the +little fellow had been after. + +"Well," she thought, "_he_ knows. Perhaps he's not full grown +yet; he certainly isn't large." She looked after him, as he +hastened up the branch. His wee legs were scarcely visible; +he looked as though he were moving on low rollers. + +Maya turned her gaze away, back to the golden field of grain +over which the butterflies were playing. The field and the +butterflies gave her ever so much more pleasure than the poetry +of Alois, ladybird and poet. + + [Illustration] + + + + + [Illustration] + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE FORTRESS + + +How happily the day had begun and how miserably it was to end! + +Before the horror swept upon her, Maya had formed a very +remarkable acquaintance. It was in the afternoon near a big old +water-butt. She was sitting amid the scented elder blossoms, +which lay mirrored in the placid dark surface of the butt, and a +robin redbreast was warbling overhead, so sweetly and merrily +that Maya thought it was a shame, a crying shame that she, +a bee, could not make friends with the charming songsters. The +trouble was, they were too big and ate you up. + +She had hidden herself in the heart of the elder blossoms and +was listening and blinking under the pointed darts of the +sunlight, when she heard someone beside her sigh. Turning round +she saw--well, now it really _was_ the strangest of all the +strange creatures she had ever met. It must have had at least a +hundred legs along each side of its body--so she thought at +first glance. It was about three times her size, and slim, low, +and wingless. + +"For goodness sake! Mercy on me!" Maya was quite startled. "You +must certainly be able to run!" + +The stranger gave her a pondering look. + +"I doubt it," he said. "I doubt it. There's room for +improvement. I have too many legs. You see, before all my legs +can be set in motion, too much time is lost. I didn't use to +realize this, and often wished I had a few more legs. But God's +will be done.-- Who are you?" + +Maya introduced herself. The other one nodded and moved some of +his legs. + +"I am Thomas of the family of millepeds. We are an old race, and +we arouse admiration and astonishment in all parts of the globe. +No other animals can boast anything like our number of legs. +Eight is _their_ limit, so far as I know." + +"You are tremendously interesting. And your color is so queer. +Have you got a family?" + +"Why, no! Why should I? What good would a family do me? We +millepeds crawl out of our eggs; that's all. If _we_ can't stand +on our own feet, who should?" + +"Of course, of course," Maya observed thoughtfully. "But have +you no relations?" + +"No, dear child. I earn my living, and doubt. I doubt." + +"Oh! _What_ do you doubt?" + +"I was born doubting. I must doubt." + +Maya stared at him in wide-eyed bewilderment. What did he mean, +what could he possibly mean? She couldn't for the life of her +make out, but she did not want to pry too curiously into his +private affairs. + +"For one thing," said Thomas after a pause, "for one thing I +doubt whether you have chosen a good place to rest in. Don't you +know what's over there in the big willow?" + +"No." + +"You see! I doubted right away if you knew. The city of the +hornets is over there." + +Maya turned deathly white and nearly fell off the elder +blossoms. In a voice shaking with fright, she asked just where +the city was. + +"Do you see that old nesting-box for starlings, there in the +shrubbery near the trunk of the willow-tree? It's so poorly +placed that I doubted from the first whether starlings would +ever move in. If a bird-house isn't set with its door facing the +sunrise, every decent bird will think twice before taking +possession. Well, the hornets have entrenched themselves in it. +It's the biggest hornets' fortress in the country. You as a bee +certainly ought to know of the place. Why, the hornets are +brigands who lie in wait for you bees. So, at least, I have +observed." + +Maya scarcely heard what he was saying. There, showing clear +against the green, she saw the brown walls of the fortress. She +almost stopped breathing. + +"I must fly away," she cried. + +Too late! Behind her sounded a loud, mean laugh. At the same +moment the little bee felt herself caught by the neck, so +violently that she thought her joints were broken. It was a +laugh she would never forget, like a vile taunt out of hellish +darkness. Mingling with it was another gruesome sound, the awful +clanking of armor. + +Thomas let go with all his legs at once and tumbled head over +heels through the branches into the water-butt. + +"I doubt if you get away alive," he called back. But the poor +little bee no longer heard. + +She couldn't see her assailant, her neck was caught in too firm +a grip, but a gilt-sheathed arm passed before her eyes, and a +huge head with dreadful pincers suddenly thrust itself above her +face. She took it at first to belong to a gigantic wasp, but +then realized that she had fallen into the clutches of a hornet. +The black-and-yellow striped monster was surely four times her +size. + +Maya lost sight, hearing, speech; every nerve in her body went +faint. At length her voice came back, and she screamed for help. + +"Never mind, girlie," said the hornet in a honey-sweet tone that +was sickening. "Never mind. It'll last until it's over." He +smiled a baleful smile. + +"Let go!" cried Maya. "Let me go! Or I'll sting you in your +heart." + +"In my heart right away? Very brave. But there's time for that +later." + +Maya went into a fury. Summoning all her strength, she twisted +herself around, uttered her shrill battle-cry, and directed her +sting against the middle of the hornet's breast. To her +amazement and horror, the sting, instead of piercing his breast, +swerved on the surface. The brigand's armor was impervious. + +Wrath gleamed in his eyes. + +"I could bite your head off, little one, to punish you for your +impudence. And I would, too, I would indeed, but for our queen. +She prefers fresh bees to dead carcasses. So a good soldier +saves a juicy morsel like you to bring to her alive." + +The hornet, with Maya still in his grip, rose into the air and +made directly for the fortress. + +"This is too awful," thought the poor little bee. "No one can +stand this." She fainted. + +When she came to her senses, she found herself in half darkness, +in a sultry dusk permeated by a horrid, pungent smell. Slowly +everything came back to her. A great paralyzing sadness settled +in her heart. She wanted to cry: the tears refused to come. + +"I haven't been eaten up yet, but I may be, any moment," she +thought in a tremble. + +Through the walls of her prison she caught the distinct sound of +voices, and soon she noticed that a little light filtered +through a narrow chink. The hornets make their walls, not of wax +like the bees, but of a dry mass resembling porous grey paper. +By the one thread of light she managed bit by bit to make out +her surroundings. Horror of horrors! Maya was almost congealed +with fright: the floor was strewn with the bodies of dead +insects. At her very feet lay a little rose-beetle turned over +on its back; to one side was the skeleton of a large locust +broken in two, and everywhere were the remains of slaughtered +bees, their wings and legs and sheaths. + +"Oh, oh, to think this had to happen to me," whimpered little +Maya. She did not dare to stir the fraction of an inch and +pressed herself shivering into the farthest corner of this +chamber of horrors. + +Again she heard voices on the other side of the wall. Impelled +by mortal fear, she crept up to the chink and peeped through. +What she saw was a vast hall crowded with hornets and +magnificently illuminated by a number of captive glow-worms. +Enthroned in their midst sat the queen, who seemed to be holding +an important council. Maya caught every word that was said. + +If those glittering monsters had not inspired her with such +unspeakable horror, she would have gone into raptures over their +strength and magnificence. It was the first time she had had a +good view of any of the race of brigands. Tigers they looked +like, superb tigers of the insect world, with their tawny +black-barred bodies. A shiver of awe ran through the little bee. + +A sergeant-at-arms went about the walls of the hall ordering the +glow-worms to give all the light they could; they must strain +themselves to the utmost. He muttered his commands in a low +voice, so as not to interrupt the deliberations, and thrust at +them with a long spear, hissing as he did so: + +"Light up, or I'll eat you!" + +Terrible the things that were done in the fortress of the +hornets! + +Then Maya heard the queen say: + +"Very well, we shall abide by the arrangements we have made. +To-morrow, one hour before dawn, the warriors will assemble and +sally forth to the attack on the city of the bees in the castle +park. The hive is to be plundered and as many prisoners taken as +possible. He who captures Queen Helen VIII and brings her to me +alive will be dubbed a knight. Go forth and be brave and +victorious and bring back rich booty.-- The meeting is herewith +adjourned. Sleep well, my warriors. I bid you good-night." + +The queen-hornet rose from her throne and left the hall +accompanied by her body-guard. + +Maya nearly cried out loud. + +"My country!" she sobbed, "my bees, my dear, dear bees!" She +pressed her hands to her mouth to keep herself from screaming. +She was in the depths of despair. "Oh, would that I had died +before I heard this. No one will warn my people. They will be +attacked in their sleep and massacred. O God, perform a miracle, +help me, help me and my people. Our need is great!" + +In the hall the glow-worms were put out and devoured. Gradually +the fortress was wrapped in a hush. Maya seemed to have been +forgotten. A faint twilight crept into her cell, and she +thought she caught the strumming of the crickets' night song +outside.-- Was anything more horrible than this dungeon with +its carcasses strewn on the ground! + + [Illustration] + + + + + [Illustration] + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE SENTINEL + + +Soon, however, the little bee's despair yielded to a definite +resolve. It was as though she once more called to mind that she +was a bee. + +"Here I am weeping and wailing," she thought, "as if I had no +brains and as if I were a weakling. Oh, I'm not much of an honor +to my people and my queen. They are in danger. I am doomed +anyhow. So since death is certain one way or another, I may as +well be proud and brave and do everything I can to try to save +them." + +It was as though Maya had completely forgotten the long time +that had passed since she left her home. More strongly than ever +she felt herself one of her people; and the great responsibility +that suddenly devolved upon her, through the knowledge of the +hornets' plot, filled her with fine courage and determination. + +"If my people are to be vanquished and killed, I want to be +killed, too. But first I must do everything in my power to save +them." + +"Long live my queen!" she cried. + +"Quiet in there!" clanged harshly from the outside. + +Ugh, what an awful voice!-- The watchman making his rounds.-- Then +it was already late in the night. + +As soon as the watchman's footsteps had died away, Maya began to +widen the chink through which she had peeped into the hall. It +was easy to bite away the brittle stuff of the partition, though +it took some time before the opening was large enough to admit +her body. At length, in the full knowledge that discovery would +cost her her life, she squeezed through into the hall. From +remote depths of the fortress echoed the sound of loud snoring. + +The hall lay in a subdued blue light that found its way in +through the distant entrance. + +"The moonlight!" Maya said to herself. She began to creep +cautiously toward the exit, cowering close in the deep shadows +of the walls, until she reached the high, narrow passageway that +led from the hall to the opening through which the light shone. +She heaved a deep sigh. Far, far away glimmered a star. + +"Liberty!" she thought. + +The passageway was quite bright. Softly, stepping oh so very +softly, Maya crept on. The portal came nearer and nearer. + +"If I fly now," she thought, "I'll be out in one dash." Her +heart pounded as if ready to burst. + +But there in the shadow of the doorway stood a sentinel leaning +against a column. + +Maya stood still, rooted to the spot. Vanished all her hopes. +Gone the chance of escape. There was no getting by that +formidable figure. What was she to do? Best go back where she +had come from. But the sight of the giant in the doorway held +her in a spell. He seemed to be lost in revery. He stood gazing +out upon the moon-washed landscape, his head tilted slightly +forward, his chin propped on his hand. How his golden cuirass +gleamed in the moonlight! Something in the way he stood there +stirred the little bee's emotions. + +"He looks so sad," she thought. "How handsome he is, how +superbly he holds himself, how proudly his armor shines! He +never removes it, neither by day nor by night. He is always +ready to rob and fight and die...." + +Little Maya quite forgot that this man was her enemy. Ah, how +often the same thing had happened to her--that the goodness of +her heart and her delight in beauty made her lose all sense of +danger. + +A golden dart of light shot from the bandit's helmet. He must +have turned his head. + +"My God," whispered Maya, "this is the end of me!" + +But the sentinel said quietly: + +"Just come here, child." + +"What!" cried Maya. "You saw me?" + +"All the time, child. You bit a hole through the wall, then you +crept along--crept along--tucking yourself very neatly into +the dark places--until you reached the spot where you're +standing. Then you saw me, and you lost heart. Am I right?" + +"Yes," said Maya, "quite right." Her whole body shook with +terror. The sentinel, then, had seen her the entire time. She +remembered having heard how keen were the senses of these clever +freebooters. + +"What are you doing here?" he asked good-humoredly. + +Maya still thought he looked sad. His mind seemed to be far away +and not to concern itself with what was of such moment to her. + +"I'd like to get out," she answered. "And I'm not afraid. I was +just startled. You looked so strong and handsome, and your armor +shone so. Now I'll fight you." + +The sentinel, slightly astonished, leaned forward, and looked at +Maya and smiled. It was not an ugly smile, and Maya experienced +an entirely new feeling: the young warrior's smile seemed to +exercise a mysterious power over her heart. + +"No, little one," he said almost tenderly, "you and I won't +fight. You bees belong to a powerful nation, but man for man we +hornets are stronger. To do single battle with a bee would be +beneath our dignity. If you like you may stay here a little +while and chat. But only a little while. Soon I'll have to wake +the soldiers up; then, back to your cell you must go." + +How curious! The hornet's lofty friendliness disarmed Maya more +than anger or hate could have done. The feeling with which he +inspired her was almost admiration. With great sad eyes she +looked up at her enemy, and constrained, as always, to follow +the impulses of her heart, she said: + +"I have always heard bad things about hornets. But you are not +bad. I can't believe you're bad." + +The warrior looked at Maya. + +"There are good people and bad people everywhere," he said, +gravely. "But you mustn't forget we are your enemies, and shall +always remain your enemies." + +"Must an enemy always be bad?" asked Maya. "Before, when you +were looking out into the moonlight, I forgot that you were hard +and dangerous. You seemed sad, and I have always thought that +people who were sad couldn't possibly be wicked." + +The sentinel said nothing, and Maya continued more boldly: + +"You are powerful. If you want to, you can put me back in my +cell, and I'll have to die. But you can also set me free--if +you want to." + +At this the warrior drew himself up. His armor clanked, and the +arm he raised shone in the moonlight. + +But the moonlight was turning dimmer in the passageway. Was dawn +coming already? + +"You are right," he said. "I can. My people and my queen have +entrusted me with this power. My orders are that no bee who has +set foot in this fortress shall leave it alive. I shall keep +faith with my people." + +After a pause he added softly as if to himself: "I have learned +by bitter experience how faithlessness can hurt--when Loveydear +forsook me...." + +Little Maya was overcome. She did not know what to say. Ah, the +same sentiments moved her, too--love of her own kind, loyalty +to her people. Nothing to be done here but to use force or +strategy. Each did his duty, and yet each remained an enemy to +the other. + +But hadn't the sentinel mentioned a name? Hadn't he said +something about someone's having been unfaithful to him? +Loveydear--why, she knew Loveydear--the beautiful dragon-fly +who lived at the lakeside among the waterlilies. + +Maya quivered with excitement. Here, perhaps, was her salvation. +But she wasn't quite sure how much good her knowledge would be +to her. So she said prudently: + +"Who is Loveydear, if I may ask?" + +"Never mind, little one. She's not your affair, and she's lost +to me forever. I shall never find her again." + +"I know Miss Loveydear." Maya forced herself to put the utmost +indifference into her tone. "She belongs to the family of +dragon-flies and she's the loveliest lady of all." + +A tremendous change came over the warrior. He seemed to have +forgotten where he was. He leapt over to Maya's sides as if +blown by a violent gust. + +"What! You know Loveydear? Tell me where she is. Tell me, right +away." + +"No." + +Maya spoke quietly and firmly; she glowed with secret delight. + +"I'll bite your head off if you don't tell." The warrior drew +dangerously close. + +"It will be bitten off anyhow. Go ahead. I shan't betray the +lovely dragon-fly. She's a close friend of mine.... You want to +imprison her." + +The warrior breathed hard. In the gathering dawn Maya could see +that his forehead was pale and his eyes tragic with the inner +struggle he was waging. + +"Good God!" he said wildly. "It's time to rouse the soldiers.-- No, +no, little bee, I don't want to harm Loveydear. I love her, +more dearly than my life. Tell me where I shall find her again." + +Maya was clever. She purposely hesitated before she said: + +"But I love my life." + +"If you tell me where Loveydear lives"--Maya could see that +the sentinel spoke with difficulty and was trembling all +over-- "I'll set you free. You can fly wherever you want." + +"Will you keep your word?" + +"My word of honor as a brigand," said the sentinel proudly. + +Maya could scarcely speak. But, if she was to be in time to warn +her people of the attack, every moment counted. Her heart +exulted. + +"Very well," she said, "I believe you. Listen, then. Do you know +the ancient linden-trees near the castle? Beyond them lies one +meadow after another, and finally comes a big lake. In a cove at +the south end where the brook empties into the lake the +waterlilies lie spread out on the water in the sunlight. Near +them, in the rushes, is where Loveydear lives. You'll find her +there every day at noon when the sun is high in the heavens." + +The warrior had pressed both hands to his pale brow. He seemed +to be having a desperate struggle with himself. + +"You're telling the truth," he said softly and groaned, whether +from joy or pain it was impossible to tell. "She told me she +wanted to go where there were floating white flowers. Those must +be the flowers you speak of. Fly away, then. I thank you." + +And actually he stepped aside from the entrance. + +Day was breaking. + +"A brigand keeps his word," he said. + +Not knowing that Maya had overheard the deliberations in the +council chamber, he told himself that one small bee more or less +made little difference. Weren't there hundreds of others? + +"Good-by," cried Maya, breathless with haste, and flew off +without a word of thanks. + +As a matter of fact, there was no time to spare. + + [Illustration] + + + + + [Illustration] + +CHAPTER XV + +THE WARNING + + +Little Maya summoned every bit of strength and will power she +had left. Like a bullet shot from the muzzle of a gun (bees can +fly faster than most insects), she darted through the purpling +dawn in a lightning beeline for the woods, where she knew she +would be safe for the moment and could hide herself away should +the hornet regret having let her go and follow in pursuit. + +Gossamer veils hung everywhere over the level country, big drops +fell from the trees on the dry leaves carpeting the ground, and +the cold in the woods threatened to paralyze little Maya's +wings. No ray of the dawn had as yet found its way between the +trees. The air was as hushed as if the sun had forgotten the +earth, and all creatures had laid themselves to eternal rest. + +Maya, therefore, flew high up in the air. Only one thing +mattered--to get back as quickly as strength and wits permitted +to her hive, her people, her endangered home. She must warn her +people. They must prepare against the attack which the terrible +brigands had planned for that very morning. Oh, if only the +nation of bees had the chance to arm and make ready its +defenses, it was well able to cope with its stronger opponents. +But a surprise assault at rising time! What if the queen and the +soldiers were still asleep? The success of the hornets would +then be assured. They would take prisoners and give no quarter. +The butchery would be horrible. + +Thinking of the strength and energy of her people, their +readiness to meet death, their devotion to their queen, the +little bee felt a great wrath against their enemies the hornets. +Her beloved people! No sacrifice was too great for them. Little +Maya's heart swelled with the ecstasy of self-sacrifice and the +dauntless courage of enthusiasm. + +It was not easy for her to find her way over the woods. Long +before she had ceased to observe landmarks as did the other +bees, who had great distances to come back with their loads of +nectar. She felt she had never flown as high before, the cold +hurt, and she could scarcely distinguish the objects below. + +"What can I go by?" she thought. "No one thing stands out. +I shan't be able to reach my people and help them. Oh, oh! And +here I had a chance to atone for my desertion. What shall I do? +What shall I do?"-- Suddenly some secret force steered her in a +certain direction. "_What_ is pushing and pulling me? It must be +homesickness guiding me back to my country." She gave herself up +to the instinct and flew swiftly on. Soon, in the distance, +looking like grey domes in the dim light of the dawn, showed the +mighty lindens of the castle park. She exclaimed with delight. +She knew where she was. She dropped closer to the earth. In the +meadows on one side hung the luminous wisps of fog, thicker here +than in the woods. She thought of the flower-sprites who +cheerfully died their early death inside the floating veils. +That inspired her anew with confidence. Her anxiety disappeared. +Let her people spurn her from the kingdom, let the queen punish +her for desertion, if only the bees were spared this dreadful +calamity of the hornets' invasion. + +Close to the long stone wall shone the silver-fir that shielded +the bee-city against the west wind. And there--she could see +them distinctly now--were the red, blue, and green portals of +her homeland. The stormy pounding of her heart nearly robbed her +of her breath. But on she flew toward the red entrance which led +to her people and her queen. + +On the flying-board, two sentinels blocked the entrance and laid +hands upon her. Maya was too breathless to utter a syllable, and +the sentinels threatened to kill her. For a bee to force its way +into a strange city without the queen's consent is a capital +offense. + +"Stand back!" cried one sentinel, thrusting her roughly away. +"What's the matter with you! If you don't leave this instant, +you'll die.-- Did you ever!" He turned to the other sentinel. +"Have you ever seen the like, and before daytime too?" + +Now Maya pronounced the password by which all the bees knew one +another. The sentinels instantly released her. + +"What!" they cried. "You are one of us, and we don't know you?" + +"Let me get to the queen," groaned the little bee. "Right away, +quick! We are in terrible danger." + +The sentinels still hesitated. They couldn't grasp the +situation. + +"The queen may not be awakened before sunrise," said the one. + +"Then," Maya screamed, her voice rising to a passionate yell +such as the sentinels had probably never heard from a bee +before, "then the queen will never wake up alive. Death is +following at my heels. Take me to the queen! Take me to the +queen, I say!" Her voice was so wild and wrathful that the +sentinels were frightened, and obeyed. + +The three hurried together through the warm, well-known streets +and corridors. Maya recognized everything, and for all her +excitement and the tremendous need for haste, her heart quivered +with sweet melancholy at the sight of the dear familiar scenes. + +"I am at home," she stammered with pale lips. + +In the queen's reception room she almost broke down. One of the +sentinels supported her while the other hurried with the unusual +message into the private chambers. Both of them now realized +that something momentous was taking place, and the messenger ran +as fast as his legs would carry him. + +The first wax-generators were already up. Here and there a +little head thrust itself out curiously from the openings. The +news of the incident traveled quickly. + +Two officers emerged from the private chambers. Maya recognized +them instantly. In solemn silence, without a word to her, they +took their posts, one on each side of the doorway: the queen +would soon appear. + +She came without her court, attended only by her aide and two +ladies-in-waiting. She hurried straight over to Maya. When she +saw what a state the child was in, the severe expression on her +face relaxed a little. + +"You have come with an important message? Who are you?" + +Maya could not speak at once. Finally she managed to frame two +words: + +"The hornets!" + +The queen turned pale. But her composure was unshaken, and Maya +was somewhat calmed. + +"Almighty queen!" she cried. "Forgive me for not respecting the +duties I owe Your Majesty. Later I will tell you everything I +have done. I repent. With my whole heart I repent.-- Just a +little while ago, as by a miracle, I escaped from the fortress +of the hornets, and the last I heard was that they were planning +to attack and plunder our kingdom at dawn." + +The wild dismay that the little bee's words produced was +indescribable. The ladies-in-waiting set up a loud wail, the +officers at the door turned pale and made as if to dash off and +sound the alarm, the aide said: "Good God!" and wheeled +completely round, because he wanted to see on all sides at once. + +As for the queen, it was really extraordinary to see with what +composure, what resourcefulness she received the dreadful news. +She drew herself up, and there was something in her attitude +that both intimidated and inspired endless confidence. Little +Maya was awed. Never, she felt, had she witnessed anything so +superior. It was like a great, magnificent event in itself. + +The queen beckoned the officers to her side and uttered a few +rapid sentences aloud. At the end Maya heard: + +"I give you one minute for the execution of my orders. +A fraction of a second longer, and it will cost you your heads." + +But the officers scarcely looked as if they needed this +incentive. In less time than it takes to tell they were gone. +Their instant readiness was a joy to behold. + +"O my queen!" said Maya. + +The queen inclined her head to the little bee, who once again +for a brief moment saw her monarch's countenance beam upon her +gently, lovingly. + +"You have our thanks," she said. "You have saved us. No matter +what your previous conduct may have been, you have made up for +it a thousandfold.-- But go, rest now, little girl, you look +very miserable, and your hands are trembling." + +"I should like to die for you," Maya stammered, quivering. + +"Don't worry about us," replied the queen. "Among the thousands +inhabiting this city there is not one who would hesitate a +moment to sacrifice his life for me and for the welfare of the +country. You can go to sleep peacefully." + +She bent over and kissed the little bee on her forehead. Then +she beckoned to the ladies-in-waiting and bade them see to +Maya's rest and comfort. + +Maya, stirred to the depths of her being, allowed herself to be +led away. After this, life had nothing lovelier to offer. As in +a dream she heard the loud, clear signals in the distance, saw +the high dignitaries of state assemble around the royal +chambers, heard a dull, far-echoing drone that shook the hive +from roof to foundation. + +"The soldiers! Our soldiers!" whispered the ladies-in-waiting at +her side. + +The last thing Maya heard in the little room where her +companions put her to bed was the tramp of soldiers marching +past her door and commands shouted in a blithe, resolute, +ringing voice. Into her dreams, echoing as from a great +distance, she carried the ancient song of the soldier-bees: + + Sunlight, sunlight, golden sheen, + By your glow our lives are lighted; + Bless our labors, bless our Queen, + Let us always be united. + + [Illustration] + + + + + [Illustration] + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE BATTLE + + +The kingdom of the bees was in a whirl of excitement. Not even +in the days of the revolution had the turmoil been so great. The +hive rumbled and roared. Every bee was fired by a holy wrath, +a burning ardor to meet and fight the ancient enemy to the very +last gasp. Yet there was no disorder or confusion. Marvelous the +speed with which the regiments were mobilized, marvelous the way +each soldier knew his duty and fell into his right place and +took up his right work. + +It was high time. At the queen's call for volunteers to defend +the entrance, a number of bees offered themselves, and of these +several had been sent out to see if the enemy was approaching. +Two had now returned--whizzing dots--and reported that the +hornets were drawing near. + +An awesome hush of expectancy fell upon the hive. Soldiers in +three closed ranks stood lined up at the entrance, proud, pale, +solemn, composed. No one spoke. The silence of death prevailed, +except for the low commands of the officers drawing up the +reserves in the rear. The hive seemed to be fast asleep. +The only stir came from the doorway where about a dozen +wax-generators were at work in feverish silence executing their +orders to narrow the entrance with wax. As by a miracle, two +thick partitions of wax had already gone up, which even the +strongest hornets could not batter down without great loss of +time. The hole had been reduced by almost half. + +The queen took up an elevated position inside the hive from +which she was able to survey the battle. Her aides flew +scurrying hither and thither. + +The third messenger returned. He sank down exhausted at the +queen's feet. + +"I am the last who will return," he shouted with all the +strength he had left. "The others have been killed." + +"Where are the hornets?" asked the queen. + +"At the lindens!-- Listen, listen," he stammered in mortal +terror, "the air hums with the wings of the giants." + +No sound was heard. It must have been the poor fellow's +terrified imagination, he must have thought he was still being +pursued. + +"How many are there?" asked the queen sternly. "Answer in a low +voice." + +"I counted forty." + +Although the queen was startled by the enemy's numbers, she gave +no sign of shock. + +In a ringing, confident voice that all could hear, she said: + +"Not one of them will see his home again." + +Her words, which seemed to sound the enemy's doom, had instant +effect. Men and officers alike felt their courage rise. + +But when in the quiet of the morning an ominous whirring was +heard outside the hive, first softly, then louder and louder, +and the entrance darkened, and the whispering voices of the +hornets, the most frightful robbers and murderers in the insect +world, penetrated into the hive, then the faces of the valiant +little bees turned pale as if washed over by a drab light +falling upon their ranks. They gazed at one another with eyes in +which death sat waiting, and those who were ranged at the +entrance knew full well that one moment more and all would be +over with them. + +The queen's controlled voice came clear and tranquil from her +place on high: + +"Let the robbers enter one by one until I give orders to attack. +Then those at the front throw themselves upon the invaders a +hundred at a time, and the ranks behind cover the entrance. In +that way we shall divide up the enemy's forces. Remember, you at +the front, upon your strength and endurance and bravery depends +the fate of the whole state. Have no fear; in the dusk the enemy +will not see right away how well prepared we are, and he will +enter unsuspecting...." + +She broke off. There, thrust through the doorway, was the head +of the first brigand. The feelers played about, groping, +cautious, the pincers opened and closed. It was a blood-curdling +sight. Slowly the huge black-and-gold striped body with its +strong wings crept in after the head. The light falling in from +the outside drew gleams from the warrior's cuirass. + +Something like a quiver went through the ranks of the bees, but +the silence remained unbroken. + +The hornet withdrew quietly. Outside he could be heard +announcing: + +"They're fast asleep. But the entrance is half walled up and +there are no sentinels. I do not know whether to take this as a +good or a bad sign." + +"A good sign!" rang out. "Forward!" + +At that two giants leapt in through the entrance side by side; +after them, soundlessly, pressed a throng of striped, armed, +gleaming warriors, awful to behold. Eight made their way into +the hive. Still no orders to attack from the queen. Was she dumb +with horror, had her voice failed her? + +And the brigands, did they not see in the shadow, to right and +left, the soldiers drawn up in close, glittering ranks ready for +mortal combat...? + +Now at last came the order from on high: + +"In the name of eternal right, in the name of your queen, to the +defense of the realm!" + +At that a droning roar went up. Never before had the city been +shaken by such a battle-cry. It threatened to burst the hive in +two. Where, an instant before, the hornets had been visible +singly, there were now buzzing heaps, thick, dark, rolling +knots. A young officer had scarcely awaited the end of the +queen's words. He wanted to be the first to attack. He was the +first to die. He had stood for some time ready to leap all +a-quiver with eagerness for battle, and at the first sound of +the order he rushed forward right into the clutches of the +foremost brigand. His delicately fine-pointed sting found its +way between the head and upper breast-ring of his opponent; he +heard the hornet give a yell of rage, saw him double up into a +glittering, gold-black ball. Then the bandit's fearful sting +leapt out and pierced between the young officer's breast-rings +right into his heart; and dying the bee felt himself and his +mortally wounded enemy sink under a cloud of storming bees. His +brave death inspired them all with the wild rapture that comes +from utter willingness to die for a noble cause. Fearful was +their attack upon the invaders. The hornets were sore pressed. + +But the hornets are an old race of robbers, trained to warfare. +Pillage and murder have long been their gruesome profession. +Though the initial assault of the bees had confused and divided +them, yet the damage was not so great as might have seemed at +first. For the bees' stings did not penetrate their breastplates, +and their strength and gigantic size gave them an advantage of +which they were well aware. Their sharp, buzzing battle-cry +rose high above the battle-cry of the bees. It is a sound that +fills all creatures with horror, even human beings, who dread +this danger signal, and are careful not to enter into conflict +with hornets unprotected. + +Those of the assailants who had already penetrated into the hive +quickly realized that they must make their way still deeper +inward if they were not to block up the entrance to their +comrades outside. And so the struggling knots rolled farther and +farther down the dark streets and corridors. How right the queen +had been in her tactics! No sooner was a bit of space at the +entrance cleared than the ranks in the rear leapt forward to its +defense. It was an old strategy, and a dreadful one for the +enemy. When a hornet at the entrance gave signs of exhaustion, +the bees shammed the same, and let him crawl in; but the instant +the one behind showed his head a great swarm of fresh soldiers +dashed up to defend the apparently unprotected entrance, while +the invader who had gone on ahead would find himself, already +wearied, suddenly confronted by glittering ranks of soldier-bees +who had not yet stirred a finger in battle. Generally he +succumbed to their superior numbers at the very first attack. + +Now the groans of the wounded and the shrieks of the dying +mingled in wild agony with the fierce battle-cries. The hornets' +stings worked fearful havoc among the bees. The rolling knots +left tracks of dead bodies in their wake. The hornets, whose +retreat had been cut off, realizing that they would never see +the light of day again, fought the fight of despair. Yet, +slowly, one by one, they succumbed. There was one great thing +against them. Though their strength was inexhaustible, not so +the poison of their sting. After a time their sting lost its +virulence, and the wounded bees, knowing they'd recover, fought +in the consciousness of certain victory. To this was added the +grief of the bees for their dead; it gave them the power of +divine wrath. + +Gradually the din subsided. The loud calls of the hornets on the +outside met with no response from the invaders within. + +"They are all dead," said the leader of the hornets grimly, and +summoned the combatants back from the entrance. Their numbers +had melted down to half. + +"We have been betrayed," said the leader. "The bees were +prepared." + +The hornets were assembled on the silver-fir. It had +grown lighter, and the red of dawn tinged the tops of the +linden-trees. The birds began to sing. The dew fell. Pale and +quivering with rage of battle, the warriors stood around their +leader, who was waging an awful inward struggle. Should he yield +to prudence or to his lust for pillage? The former prevailed. +There was no use anyway. His whole tribe was in danger of +destruction. Grudgingly, in a shudder of thwarted ambition, he +determined to send a messenger to the bees to sue for the return +of the prisoners. + +He chose his cleverest officer and called upon him by name. + +A depressed silence instead of an answer. The officer was among +those who had been cut off. + +The leader, overcome now by mortal dread lest those who had +entered would never return, quickly chose another officer. The +raging and roaring in the beehive could be heard in the +distance. + +"Be quick!" he cried, laying the white petal of a jasmine in the +messenger's hand, "or the human beings will soon come and we +shall be lost. Tell the bees we will go away and leave them in +peace forever if they will deliver up the prisoners." + +The messenger rushed off. At the entrance he waved his white +signal and alighted on the flying-board. + +The queen-bee was immediately informed that an emissary was +outside who wanted to make terms, and she sent her aide to +parley with him. When he returned with his report she sent back +this reply: + +"We will deliver up the dead if you want to take them away. +There are no prisoners. All of your people who invaded our +territory are dead. Your promise never to return we do not +believe. You may come again, whenever you wish. You will fare no +better than you did to-day. And if you want to go on with the +battle we are ready to fight to the last bee." + +The leader of the hornets turned pale when this message was +delivered to him. He clenched his fists, he fought with himself. +Only too gladly would he have yielded to the wishes of his +warriors who clamored for revenge. Reason prevailed. + +"We _will_ come again," he hissed. "How could this thing have +happened to us? Are we not a more powerful people than the bees? +Every campaign of mine so far has been successful and has only +added to our glory. How can I face the queen after this defeat?" +In a quiver of fury he cried again: "How could this thing have +happened to us? There must be treachery somewhere." + +An older hornet known as a friend of the queen's here took up +the word. + +"It is true, we _are_ a more powerful race, but the bees are a +unified nation, and unflinchingly loyal to their people and +their state. That is a great source of strength; it makes them +irresistible. Not one of them would turn traitor; each without +thought of self serves the weal of all." + +The leader scarcely listened. + +"My day is coming," he hissed. "What care I for the wisdom of +these bourgeois! I am a brigand and will die a brigand.-- But to +keep up the battle now would be madness. What good would it do +us if we destroyed the whole hive, and none of us came back +alive?" Turning to the messenger, he cried: + +"Give us back our dead. We will withdraw." + +A dead silence fell. The messenger flew off. + +"We must be prepared for a fresh piece of trickery, though I +don't think the hornets are in a fighting mood at present," said +the queen bee when she heard the hornets' decision. She gave +orders for the rear-guard, wax-generators, and honey-carriers to +remove the dead from the city while two fresh regiments guarded +the entrance. + +Her orders were carried out. Over mountains of the dead one +brigand's body after another was dragged to the entrance and +thrown to the ground outside. + +In gloomy silence the troop of hornets waited on the silver-fir +and saw the corpses of their fallen warriors drop one by one to +the earth. + +The sun arose upon a scene of endless desolation. Twenty-one +slain, who had died a glorious death, made a heap in the grass +under the city of the bees. Not a drop of honey, not a single +prisoner had been taken by the enemy. The hornets picked up +their dead and flew away, the battle was over, the bees had +conquered. + +But at what a cost! Everywhere lay fallen bodies, in the streets +and corridors, in the dim places before the brooders and +honey-cupboards. Sad was the work in the hive on that lovely +morning of summer sunshine and scented blossoms. The dead had to +be disposed of, the wounded had to be bandaged and nursed. But +before the hour of noon had struck, the regular tasks were +begun; for the bees neither celebrated their victory nor spent +time mourning their dead. Each bee carried his pride and his +grief locked quietly in his breast and went about his work. + + [Illustration] + + + + + [Illustration] + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE QUEEN'S FRIEND + + +The noise of battle awoke Maya out of a brief sleep. She jumped +up and straightway wanted to dash out to help defend the city, +but soon realized that she was too weak to be of any help. + +A group of struggling combatants came rolling toward her. One of +them was a strong young hornet, an officer, Maya judged by his +badge, who was defending himself unaided against an overwhelming +number of bees. The struggling knot drew nearer. To Maya's +horror it left one dead bee after another in its wake. But +numbers finally told against the giant: whole clusters of bees, +ready to die rather than let go, hung to his arms and legs and +feelers, and their stings were beginning to pierce between the +rings of his breast. Maya saw him drop down exhausted. Without +cry or complaint, fighting to the very end, neither suing for +mercy nor reviling his opponents, he went down to his brigand's +death. + +The bees left him and hurried back to the entrance to throw +themselves anew into the conflict. + +Maya's heart was beating stormily. She slipped over to the +hornet. He lay curled up in the twilight, still breathing. She +counted about twenty stings, most of them in the fore part of +his body, leaving his golden armor quite whole and sound. Seeing +he was still alive, she hurried away to bring water and +honey--to cheer the dying man, she thought. But he shook his +head and waived her off with his hand. + +"I _take_ what I want," he said proudly. "I don't care for +gifts." + +"Oh," said Maya, "I only thought you might be thirsty." + +The young officer smiled at her, then said, not sadly, but with +a strange earnestness: + +"I must die." + +The little bee could not reply. For the first time in her life +she seemed to comprehend what it meant to have to die; and death +seemed much closer when someone else was about to die than when +her own life had been imperiled in the spider's web. + +"If there were only _some_thing I could do," she said, and burst +into tears. + +The dying hornet made no answer. He opened his eyes once again +and heaved a deep breath--for the last time. Half an hour later +he was thrown down into the grass outside the hive along with +his dead comrades. + +Little Maya never forgot what she had learned from this brief +farewell. She knew now for all time that her enemies were beings +like herself, loving life as she did and having to die a hard +death without succor. She thought of the flower sprite who had +told her of his rebirth when Nature sent forth her blossoms +again in the spring; and she longed to know whether the other +creatures would, like the sprite, come back to the light of life +after they had died the death of the earth. + +"I will believe it is so," she said softly. + +A messenger now came and summoned her to the queen's presence. +She found the full court assembled in the royal reception room. +Her legs shook, she scarcely dared to raise her eyes before her +monarch and so many dignitaries. A number of the officers of +the queen's staff were missing, and the gathering was unusually +solemn. Yet a gleam of exaltation seemed to light every brow--as +if the consciousness of triumph and new glory won encircled +everyone like an invisible halo. + +The queen arose, made her way unattended through the assemblage, +went up to little Maya and took her in her arms. + +This Maya had never expected, not this. The measure of her joy +was full to overflowing; she broke down and wept. + +The bees were deeply stirred. There was not one among them who +did not share Maya's happiness, who was not deeply grateful for +the little bee's valiant deed. + +Maya now had to tell her whole story. Everybody wanted to know +how she had learned of the hornets' plans and how she had +succeeded in breaking out of the awful prison from which no bee +had ever before escaped. + +So Maya told of all the remarkable things she had seen and heard, +of Miss Loveydear with the glittering wings, of the grasshopper, +of Thekla the spider, of Puck, and of how splendidly Bobbie had +come to her rescue. When she told of the sprite and the human +beings, it was so quiet in the hall that you could hear the +generators in the back of the hive kneading the wax. + +"Ah," said the queen, "who'd have thought the sprites were so +lovely?" She smiled to herself with a look of melancholy and +longing, as people will who long for beauty. + +And all the dignitaries smiled the same smile. + +"How did the song of the sprite go?" she asked. "Say it again. +I'd like to learn it by heart." + +Maya repeated the song of the sprite. + + My soul is that which breathes anew + From all of loveliness and grace; + And as it flows from God's own face, + It flows from his creations, too. + +There was silence for a while. The only sound was a restrained +sobbing in the back of the hall--probably someone thinking of a +friend who had been killed. + +Maya went on with her story. When she came to the hornets, the +bees' eyes darkened and widened. Each imagined himself in the +situation in which one of their number had been, and quivered, +and drew a deep breath. + +"Awful," said the queen, "perfectly awful...." + +The dignitaries murmured something to the same effect. + +"And so," Maya ended, "I reached home. And I sue for your +Majesty's pardon--a thousand times." + +Oh, no one bore the little bee any ill will for having run away +from the hive. You may imagine they did not. + +The queen put her arm round Maya's neck. + +"You did not forget your home and your people," she said kindly. +"In your heart you were loyal. So we will be loyal to you. +Henceforth you shall stay by my side and help me conduct the +affairs of state. In that way, I think, your experiences, all +the things you have learned, will be made to serve the greatest +good of your people and your country." + +Cheers of approval greeted the queen's words. + +So ends the story of the adventures of Maya the bee. They say +her work contributed greatly to the good and welfare of the +nation, and she came to be highly respected and loved by her +people. Sometimes on quiet evenings she went for a brief hour's +conversation to Cassandra's peaceful little room, where the +ancient dame lived now on pension honey. There Maya told the +young bees, who listened to her eagerly, stories of the +adventures which we have lived through with her. + + [Illustration] + + + + + * * * * * + + + +Errors and Inconsistencies + + Every now and then, in the suddennest way [spelling unchanged] + + the tree would turn sear and die [spelling unchanged] + + the silvery chirp that filled the whole moonlit world with + melody. [unneeded close quote at end of paragraph] + + "else the human beings would see me and be frightened ..." + [open quote missing] + + I am Thomas of the family of millepeds [spelling unchanged] + + "I'll set you free. You can fly wherever you want." + [open quote missing] + + at work in feverish silence executing their orders [excuting] + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF MAYA THE BEE*** + + +******* This file should be named 22354.txt or 22354.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/3/5/22354 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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