Part 25 (1/2)

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, olden ar he was still alive, she hurried away to bring water and honey--to cheer the dying ht 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 youofficer se 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 _so I could do,” she said, and burst into tears

The dying hornet ain and heaved a deep breath--for the last tirass outside the hive along with his dead coot what she had learned from this brief farewell She kne for all ti 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 blossoed to knohether the other creatures would, like the sprite, coht of life after they had died the death of the earth

”I will believe it is so,” she said softly

A er now came and summoned her to the queen's presence

She found the full court asses shook, she scarcely dared to raise her eyes before her nitaries A nu, and the gathering was unusually soleht every brow--as if the consciousness of triulory won encircled everyone like an invisible halo

The queen arose, e, went up to little Maya and took her in her arms

This Maya had never expected, not this The ; she broke down and wept

The bees were deeply stirred There was not one a therateful for the little bee's valiant deed

Maya now had to tell her whole story Everybody wanted to kno 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 res 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 hus, 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 s, as people ho long for beauty