Alice and Beatrice

								

cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: and I
will remember my covenant between me and you and every living creature
of all flesh: and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all
flesh.’
‘So you see, dear children, that God has made a covenant, which means an
agreement or promise, never to destroy the earth again by a flood, and
the rainbow is a sign of His promise, and reminds us of it.’
‘I am very glad to know about the rainbow, and I will think of God’s
promise when I see one again.’

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CHAPTER VI.



            BEES SWARMING—FABLE OF THE ANT AND GRASSHOPPER.

IT was just after the children’s dinner, one very hot day towards the
end of May, that the gardener came to the verandah where the two little
girls were sitting with their grandmamma, and said—
‘Please, ma’am, the bees are swarming.’
‘Swarming, grandmamma,’ said Alice and Beatrice, ‘what is that? May we
come and see?’
Grandmamma gave leave, and they ran and put on their hats and followed
their grandmamma into the garden, to that part where the bee-house was.
When they came there, the gardener showed them a large black lump, that
looked like a great bag, hanging from a rose-tree, and the rose-tree was
bent down by the weight of it.
Grandmamma explained to the children that the black lump or mass was all
bees; that there had been too many bees in the hive, so that there was
not room enough for all of them to work, and that the hive was too hot
in this very hot weather, and the queen bee wished to seek another home
for herself, and had flown out accompanied by the older bees, leaving
all the young ones and a young queen in the old hive with its store of
honey.
When the queen bee had settled on this rose-tree, all the other bees
that were flying about in the air had come to her, and collected round
her, hanging one over another. Grandmamma told the children, too, that
every bee had provided itself with a quantity of honey, in case they
should not find a shelter that night, and were not able to provide
themselves with food the next day; each bee carried a little bag of
honey.
The children were very much interested in hearing this, and were not
afraid, because grandmamma told them that the bees rarely sting people
when they are swarming; so they went nearer, and liked to see the
gardener take a board and place it on a flower-pot just under the
rose-tree; then he took a hive and turned it up and held it under the
swarm of bees, and he shook the rose-tree very sharply twice, and the
lump of bees fell off into the hive, or at least the greater part of it:
and the gardener turned the hive down with all the bees that were in it
on to the board. A number of bees that had not fallen into the hive,
began to buzz and fly about; but the gardener said—