"'Tis true," returned the Bee, "we have this weapon, and we have often made our enemies fly by using it; but you must know, such is their cunning cowardice, that they will not attack us on equal terms; they must have the covert of the night for their cruel work, and when we are all in our hives, each enclosed in their waxen cell, they begin the horrid massacre; I should feel it more, but that I believe they take as great delight in destroying each other as they do in killing us; for I have heard them rejoicing together that so many of the enemy were slain, and I know they mean their fellow men by this appellation, for they don't dignify us with that title; their great enmity to insects arises from what they destroy; and yet, in one day, they themselves devour more than any of them, but then they think every thing that can be useful to them was only made for that purpose, and no one can say they do not take care to make it fulfill that end, whatever else is left undone."
"But the question is, whether they have any right to destroy you, after that is done?" rejoined the Butterfly.
"A question too hard for me to answer," returned the Bee; "but this I know, that we have a right to defend ourselves against them whenever we can; and I know also, that for the kindness you have shown me I'll defend you from their attacks as long as I am able: but we are arrived at my dwelling, let us rest upon this tree while the sun is taking its last peep at the horizon."
After refreshing themselves with a little of the honey the Bee had brought home, and of which the Butterfly just tasted a little, because he would not appear to refuse what was kindly meant, they parted for the night, the Bee resolving to travel farther the next day, and, if possible, to find out his old habitation, though not without assuring the Butterfly that if he should be so happy as to be re-admitted, it should make no difference in his friendship for him.
[CHAP. III.]
"And thus a never-ceasing pleasure flows,
"Or to the human, or the bestial race,
"From those ideal charms we all attach to place."
Local Attachment.