alone, and only took their garden from them, and drove them away, without attempting to seize and compel them to work, as they had done with the brown.

All this while the very old hive was becoming exceedingly full of bees, and the garden, too, people said, was beginning to be a little worked out. Indeed all sorts of complaints were constantly made, some not liking their sovereign, and some not liking his laws; besides which, others, who had fallen into disgrace, naturally liked to fly away from their old acquaintance, so they flew over faster and faster into the new garden, where there was no queenbee, but every hive managed its own affairs without.

Under these circumstances, it was scarcely possible that the messages from the old hive should be very acceptable. Indeed the bees of the new garden, grown great in their own esteem, began to think they could make their own laws, better than a sovereign a great way off could make them; and perhaps they were right: but, more especially, when the king of the old hive sent over for some of their honey and wax, they grew extremely indignant, many of them venturing to declare that kings were of no use, especially so far away from their people.

Great was the buzzing in all the little hives of the new garden about this time, for they had grown a very independent community, and as proud as the yellowest bee in the old. It is true, they also had bought brown bees in great numbers, and compelled them to work;

but what of that? They had a right to do as they liked, and they would do so too. So they stretched out their wings, and sharpened up their stings, and prepared to fight for the privilege of doing as they liked, with any one who should attempt to control them.

Great was the conflict which followed this independent resolution on the part of the bees of the new gardengreat was the fighting, the boasting, and the destruction on both sides; and great was the astonishment of the old hive, that the rebellious bees held out so long. The fact was, they were very wise bees, and they had a right to be so, for many of them had gone to that garden from a great distance, and had gone purely because they were dissatisfied with old things, with what they believed to be bad laws, or at least laws which did not suit them, with oppressive rulers, and with a wrong system of things altogether. So they had gone to a new garden to set themselves up in new hives, and to make new laws, all of their own choosing, and to have everything as it ought to be, and just as they liked. It was nothing less than presumption in the old hive to pretend to meddle with them. They were the independent bees, and they would teach the world what independence was. They would have no king to rule over them—not they. No bees with proud names, to give themselves airs. The beauty of their government was, that all should be considered alike-all should have equal rights, and the power of sharing in the govern

ment should rest only with those who deserved to be trusted.

After a great deal of fighting and disputing, it was at last agreed, that some at least of the hives of the new garden, should possess this independence for which they strove so nobly; and as disappointment often brings men, as well as bees, to think seriously, the bees of the old hive began to consider what independence really was, and how far all had a right to enjoy it.

Now this was a very respectable old hive. The bees in it were hard fighters, and hard workers too. In their industrious avocations they were accustomed to look abroad upon the world, and consider what was right, and what was wrong; but what is still more to their credit, when they saw distinctly what was right, they sometimes set about as a body to do it. We have said that these bees, amongst other wise thoughts, took up the idea of independence. But they did not therefore, as some hives. have done, murder their king, and seize each other's property, calling that independence. They did not set about to destroy all who were above them, and trample on all who were beneath, calling that independence either. They thought very seriously, and very wisely, and they saw that independence is, to a certain extent, a sort of natural right, belonging equally to the bees of all gardens, and of all hives. They saw that the life and the property of one bee, were as much to be respected as those of another; and

consequently that no hive, however powerful, had a right to seize upon other bees by violence, to make them do its work.

What then did the noble bees of this old hive resolve to do? They determined from that time forward never to steal any more brown bees from their distant garden, and they used all their influence to induce other hives to adopt the same noble resolution. Nor was this all. As time passed on, and good thoughts grew amongst them, they saw that to do right, they must not stop here. They had been great stealers of brown bees for some of their own hives at a distance, where much honey was made by the work of these bees alone, and they did not know but that by declaring all these to be free, the honey-making would cease altogether. They had many other difficulties also to meet, as every one has who resolves to do right after having for a long time done wrong; and the greatest of them was a question of property, for the brown bees had been bought like cattle, and it is easy to see, that a family whose father had bought a flock of sheep and bequeathed it to his children, would consider it very unjust to be deprived of the possession of the flock all at once, even by his sovereign.

So the bees of the old hive were quite puzzled what to do, the more so because all were not of the same mind, because some received a great deal of honey from the work of the brown bees, and did not like to give it up,

and

because they and others raised up the cry of danger against meddling with what had gone on very well for so

many years.

But the wisest bees in this hive knew very well that things had not gone on well-that they never can go on well, where one portion of a community is oppressed and ill-treated to serve the purposes of the other. They knew also, that if the brown bees were mean, and stupid, and deserved to be despised, they would remain so as long as they were bought and sold, and in all respects treated like inferior creatures. What, then, were they to do? Must they still go on doing this great wrong, and was there really no escape without doing another? When either men or bees set about, in good earnest, to do what is right, they always find out a way; and a plan at last was formed, though it cost them a great deal of honey, for making all their brown bees equal to the yellow, giving them the same privileges, allowing them a fair remuneration of honey for their labour, and an equal chance with themselves of becoming wise and happy. This was understanding independence in the right way. Of course the bees in the new garden understood it quite as well, or better.

Not they, indeed! They looked upon this great giving up of the old hive, for the sake of doing what was right, as a most absurd and foolish act; and if any wandering