"Now let us go on with the building," commanded the queen bee, and they perspired wax and built for all they were worth.
"And now my work begins," said the queen, and she heaved a deep sigh; for her work was the hardest work of all.
She sat down in the middle of the hive and began to lay her eggs. She laid great heaps of them, and the bees were kept very busy running with the little eggs in their mouths and carrying them into the new cells. Each egg had a little cell to itself; and when they had all been put in their places, the queen gave orders to fix doors to all the cells and shut them fast.
"Good!" she said, when this was done. "I want you now to build me ten fine big rooms in the out-of-the-way parts of the hive."
The bees had them ready in no time, and then the queen laid ten pretty eggs, one in each of the big rooms, and the doors were fixed as before.
Every day the bees flew in and out, gathering great heaps of honey and flower-dust; but in the evening, when their work was done, they would open the doors just a crack and have a peep at the eggs.
"Take care," the queen said one day. "They are coming!"
And all the eggs burst at once, and in every cell lay a pretty little bee-baby.