"If it hadn't been done, you loafer," cried Saggia angrily, "you would have starved to death before we could have refilled our pantries again after the Black Bees had taken all our food!"
"But it is not the bee way," interjected Tre; then adding boldly and tauntingly to Saggia, "Are you a new bee, too?"
"No," replied Saggia vigorously, "I am an old bee—old enough to have learned a little more than I knew when I was a nurse bee—a loafing nurse bee," she added, looking significantly and hard at Uno, Due, and Tre in turn.
They all started guiltily and began to move slowly toward the entrance, but all the time looking back malevolently at Saggia and Nuova.
"It's not the right bee way," they muttered. "It isn't the usual way."
Several other bees joined them in their muttering and head-shaking.
Just then, however, a new excitement became manifest at the hive entrance. Those drones who had gone back into the hive were issuing now post-haste, while those still outside joined those coming out. To them hastened their attendants, and in a moment all was busy preparation and expectation again.
Beffa, who had moved over to the entrance as the drones began to come out, now came hopping and humming across the platform toward Saggia, Nuova, and Hero. As he came near he was singing:
"She comes; she comes;
Principessa now would wed;
She seeks the sky for marriage-bed.
Let drones aside their languor fling;
Bethink the prize; to be a King."
Hero started up, infected by the excitement and driven by the still potent bee tradition. "She is coming," he murmured, "the Princess."