admirable trunk, she saw a pretty large mouth open to receive the honey.

The little observer was willing to give up all her breakfast to the little winged gormand for the sake of the satisfaction she received from seeing how he managed to eat.

"Do not let all your honey be swallowed by those greedy flies," said Linette, who was the economist of the family.

"O, it is only just that they should have part, if they have made it," said Piccolissima, still watching them. "These are larger than those other bees who carry away the golden powder. Are they not satisfied? How their antennae come down! Does it not seem as if they were tasting thus the perfume of the honey which their wonderful trunks draw up?"

"They are just the same flies; they belong to our neighbor Thomas; one is not larger than another. I have seen them ever since I was born. I don't see any thing wonderful in them," said Linette. "It is because you are so little that you are astonished at every thing."

"O Linette, it is true that every thing I see seems to me every day more curious. All that I look at seems to grow more wonderful and beautiful as I look at it; but surely these flies that are eating my breakfast are larger than those that are opening the boxes of sweetmeats in the flowers. Ah, look! there is one still bigger than the others, so funny, so hairy, so cross, and he scolds and hums all around this sweet pea."

"That is a drone; we must chase him away; he is good for nothing; he never makes any honey." And Linette drove away the shaggy drone bee.

Just at this moment, the greedy flies who were eating the honey, and their more temperate companions who were gathering the harvest of the pollen of the flowers, all flew away at once, as if by common consent.

"Ah, you have driven them all away!" said Piccolissima; and without perceiving that the sky had clouded over, she followed the insects with her eyes. Presently there began to fall some large drops of rain.

"It rains, it rains! there is a shower coming," cried Linette.

"Can it be that these cunning bees have foreseen it?" asked Piccolissima.

"What there is no question of is," said Linette, "that my poor frock will be spoiled. It is going to rain pitchforks. There will be water enough to drown you before we reach the house, and your mites of shoes will be lost; but come along. There, do you think the leaf of that cabbage will do for a shelter for you?"

"Sorores, sorores!" said a thundering voice; and in a moment Mimi was between his two sisters, whom he sheltered under a large umbrella; taking up Piccolissima and hiding her little feet in his waistcoat pocket, and asking as he went towards the house, what had kept her out so long.

"I know what you have seen," said he, with the air of a professor. "Insects of the order hymenopteres; if you ever learn Greek, Piccolissima, you will know that that means insects with membranous wings. Imagine what a fine thing it is to understand Greek. Every word contains in itself many others. For example, honey bees have a name still longer than the others; they are called mellificae. What do you say to that? They also call them anthophilai, which means lovers of flowers."

"Your new friends, in particular the domestic bees, were among the Egyptians the emblem of royalty. Are you not pleased with that, Piccolissima? The ancient kings of France had them on their arms; bees were embroidered on their shields, and on their standards; and it was very proper that they adopted them. Have they not the royal prerogative—honey and a sting? They amass treasures, and they know how to keep them. In truth I agree with you, sisterkin; I love bees and honey; finish your bread and honey or I shall eat it."

From this day Piccolissima dreamed ever of bees; her most earnest desire was to go and see a kingdom of apis mellifica, which her brother Mimi told her was in the possession of their neighbor Thomas, who kept twenty bee hives.