11. There are some bees that are real robbers. These are called Cuckoo-bees, because, like the cuckoo, they make no nests of their own, but lay their eggs in the cells of their more industrious neighbors.

12. Other kinds of bees are the Mason-bees, which build their dwellings of sand and cement, the Carpenter-bees, and the Mining-bees. The latter bore holes in sunny banks, to the depth of six or eight inches, where they form a smooth chamber, and there lay their eggs, placing near by a ball of pollen for the young to feed upon.

a FRAM'ED, formed; made.
b STRICT'-EST, most complete.
POP'-U-LOUs, full of people.

d TREAT-ED, waited upon.
e MA-JES'-TIC, noble; dignified.

f RING-LET, a small ring. The hind body of the bee consists of six scaly ringlets. DOME, an arched roof.

h CEILING (seel'-ing), the covering of the inner roof, or top of a room.

[LESSON LXXV. is a brief description of the dwellings and the habits of some of the families of the bees. The honey-bee; its cells; their arrangement; number of bees in a hive; working-bees; drones; and queen. Battles of the honey-bees. Humble-bees, carder-bees; cuckoo-bees; mason-bees; carpenter-bees; mining-bees.]

LESSON LXXVI.

HONEYBALL AND VIOLETTA; OR, THE HIVE-BEE AND THE CARPENTER-BEE.

1. Honeyball was a good-natured, easy kind of creature, who belonged to the city of the Honeybees. She was very ready to do a kindness if it cost her but little trouble; but she was as lazy as any drone in the hive.

2. Honeyball would have liked to live all day in the bell of a foxglove, with nothing to disturb her in her idle feast. It was said, in the hive, that

more than once she had been known to sip so much, that at last she had been unable to rise, and for hours had lain helpless on the ground.

3. One bright sunny morning, when the bees were early abroad, Honeyball shook her lazy wings, and crept to the door of the hive: there she stood for a few moments, jostled by the passing throng, when she finally flew off in quest of food.

4. How delightful was the air'! how fragrant the breeze! The buttercups spread their carpet of gold, and the daisies their mantle of silver over the meadows, all glittering with the drops of bright dew.

5. Honeyball soon found a flower to her taste, and never thought of quitting it till she had sipped away all its honeyed store. She had a dima idea that it was her duty to help fill the honey-cells of the hive; but poor Honeyball was too apt to prefer pleasure to duty.

6. "I should like to have nothing to do'!" she murmured, little thinking that a listener was near. 7. "Like to have nothing to do'! Is it from a hive-bee that I hear such words'! From one whose labor is itself all play'!"

8. Honeyball turned to view the speaker, and beheld, on a sign-post near her, the most beautiful bee she had ever seen. She knew her, at once, to be a carpenter-bee. Her body was larger than that of a hive-bee, and her wings were of a lovely violet color, like the softest tint of the rainbow.

9. Honeyball was a little ashamed of what she had said, and a little confused by the speech of the

stranger: but as all bees consider each other as cousins, she thought it best to put on a frank, easy air.

10. "Why, certainly," said she, "flying about upon a morning like this, and sipping honey from flowers, is pleasant enough for a time. But may I ask, lady-bee, if you do not think it hard to work in wax' ?"

11. "To work in wax'!" scornfully replied Violetta-"a soft thing which you can bend and twist any way, and knead into any shape that you choose'! Come and look at my home here', and then ask yourself if you have any reason to complain of your work'!"

12. Honeyball looked forward with her two honey-combed eyes, and upward and backward with her three others, but not the shadow of a hive could she see any where. "May I venture to ask where you live'?" said she at last.

13. "This way," cried Violetta, waving her feeler, and pointing to a little round hole in the post, which Honeyball had not noticed before.. It looked gloomy, and dark, and strange; but Violetta, who took some pride in her mansion, requested Honeyball to step in.

14. "You can not doubt my honor," said she, observing that the hive-worker hesitated, "or be suspicious of a cousin'?" Honeyball assured her that she had never dreamed of such a thing, and entered the hole in the post.

15. For about an inch the way sloped gently downward, then suddenly became straight as a

well, and so dark, and so deep, that Honeyball would never have attempted to reach the bottom, had she not feared to offend her new acquaintance.

16. She had some hopes that this deep passage might be only a long entrance, leading to some cheerful hive; but after having gone to the very end, and finding nothing but wood to reward her search, she crept again up the steep narrow way, and with joy found herself once more in the sunshine.

17. "What do you think of it?" asked Violetta, rather proudly.

“I—I—do not think that your hive would hold many bees. Is it perfectly finished, may I inquire'?"

18. "No'; I have yet to divide it into chambers for my children, each chamber filled with a mixture of pollen and honey, and divided from the next by a ceiling of glue and sawdust. But the boring was finished to-day."

19. "You do not mean to say," exclaimed Honeyball in surprise," that that long gallery was ever bored by bees'?"

20. "Not by bees," replied Violetta, with a dig nified" bow, "but by one' bee; I bored it all myself."

21. The indolent Honeyball could not conceal her amazement. "Is it possible that you sawed it all out with your teeth' ?"

"Every inch of the depth," Violetta replied, 22. "And that you can gather honey and pollen enough to fill it' ?"

"I must provide1 for my children, or they would

starve,” replied Violetta. "Away down there I lay my little eggs."

23. "And you can make ceilings of such a thing as sawdust to divide the home of your children into cells' ?"

"This is perhaps the hardest part of my task, but yet it must be done."

24. "Where will you find sawdust for this carpenter's work?" asked Honeyball.

"See yonder little heap which I have gathered -these are my cuttings, from my tunnel in the wood."

25. "You are, without doubt, a most wonderful bee, my fair cousin! And you really labor all alone' ?"

"Yes, all alone," replied Violetta.

26. Honeyball thought of her own cheerful hive, with its thousands of workers, and divisions of labor, and waxen cells dripping with golden honey. She could scarcely believe her own five eyes when she saw what one industrious insect, but little lar ger than herself, could do!

27. Her surprise, and her praise, pleased the violet bee, who took pride in showing every part of her work, describing her difficulties, and explaining her manner of working.

28. "One thing strikes me," said Honeyball, glancing down the tunnel. "I should not like to have the place of the eldest of your children, imprisoned down there in the lowest cell, and unable to stir till all her sisters have eaten their way into daylight."