Nuova; or, The New Bee

With Songs by CHARLOTTE KELLOGG
Illustrated by Milo Winter
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY Boston and New York
COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY VERNON KELLOGG AND HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
TO JEAN WHO IS FIVE

Most of this that I have written about bees is true: what is not, does not pretend to be. Some of the true part sounds almost like a description of what human life might in some respects be, if certain social movements of to-day were followed out to their logical extreme. I suppose that in this likeness lies the moral of the book.
V. K.
As all the bees of this story are Italian bees, they all, except one, have Italian names. And they should really be spoken as the Italians speak them. Besides, they are prettier that way. Therefore, a list of them, with the proper way to pronounce them, is given here.
Nuova (noo-o'va) Uno (oo'no) Due (doo'ay) Tre (tray) Saggia (saj'jia) Mela (may'la) Cera (chay'ra) Fessa (fess'sa) Aria (ah'ri-a) Principessa (prin-chee-pess'sa) Lotta (lawt'ta)
Nuova seemed to be gradually awakening. It would have seemed that way to any one who could have seen her just at this moment, and it seemed that way to Nuova herself. It was just as if one were in a comfortable, warm bed, and began to be conscious of a faint light outside and of soft voices and of other subdued sounds. The light and sounds grow stronger and louder, until, with a start, one is really awake, and sees that the light is the sunlight of a beautiful morning coming in at the curtained window, and recognizes the sounds to be those of the household already busy with a new day's work.