By-And-By One Rushed At
Her - A Too Eager Caress, For She Lost Her Balance And Fell Out Of The
Flower On To The Ground.
Up she got and pursued him for a few angry
circles, and then settled to work again.
Presently the rivals darted at
each other and whirled about, and in the midst of the battle off went the
lady in velvet to another part of the garden, and the combatants
immediately rushed after her. Every morning that the tulip opened its
great yellow bell, these black humble-bees came, almost always followed
by one lover, sometimes, as on the first occasion, by two. A bright row
of polyanthus and oxlips seemed to be the haunt of the male bees. There
they waited, some on the leaves and some on the dry clods heated by the
sun, in ambush till a dark lady should come. The yellow tulip was a
perfect weather-meter; if there was the least bit of harshness in the
air, the least relic of the east wind, it remained folded. Sunshine alone
was not sufficient to tempt it, but the instant there was any softness in
the atmosphere open came the bell, and as if by a magic key all the bees
and humble-bees of the place were unlocked, and forth they came with
joyous note - not to visit the tulip, which is said to be a fatal cup of
poison to them.
Any one delicate would do well to have a few such flowers in spring under
observation, and to go out of doors or stop in according to their
indications.
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