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Illustrated by Homer Boss
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Title: The Adventures of Maya the Bee
Author: Waldemar Bonsels
Release Date: August 19, 2007 [eBook #22354]
Language: English
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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 Libellulidæ."
"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 larvæ. 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***
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