You must know that, at the door of every beehive, there are always a number of bees on watch, to see that no insects but bees get into the hive. These policemen, as a rule, are old bees, with a great deal of experience in life. Their backs are quite bald, because all the hair gets worn off from rubbing against the hive as they walk in and out of the door.
One day when the lazy bee was just dropping in to see what was going on in the hive, these policemen called her to one side:
“Sister,” said they, “it is time you did a little work. All us bees have to work!”
The little bee was quite scared when the policemen spoke to her, but she answered:
“I go flying about all day long, and get very tired!”
“We didn’t ask you how tired you got! We want to see how much work you can do! This is Warning Number 1!”
And they let her go on into the hive.
But the lazy little bee did not mend her ways. On the next evening the policemen stopped her again:
“Sister, we didn’t see you working today!”
The little bee was expecting something of the kind, and she had been thinking up what she would say all the way home.