Page:Letters of Life.djvu/397

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GOOD-BYE.
385

well the arcana of Nature and the phases of the human heart, erred in applying the masculine gender to the chief sovereignty of the hive, the Salique law not being in operation there:


"So work the honey-bees—
Creatures that by a ruling instinct teach
The arts of order to a peopled kingdom.
—They have a king, and officers of sort—
Where some like magistrates correct at home—
Others, like merchant-princes trade abroad—
Others, like soldiers armed in their stings
Make war upon the summer's velvet buds,
Which pillage they with merry march bring home
To the tent royal of their emperor:—
Who busied in his majesty, surveys
The singing mason building roofs of gold,
The civil citizens heading up the honey,
The poor, mechanic porters crowding in
Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate,
The sad-eyed justice with his surly hum
Delivering o'er to execution dire
The lazy, yawning drone."


Snugly sheltered in a southern nook is a vigorous hop-vine, which, taking hold with its thousand hands, mantles the wall and a portion of the roof in its graceful drapery. Its beautiful clusters of a delicate green are gathered in autumn, and their odor always touches my reminiscences of the vast fields devoted to their