_Hero and Nuova once more, and the Great Courting Chase_
"My brave little Nuova," said Saggia, joyfully and tenderly. And Beffa
hopped happily about, singing softly to her:
"For a new bee
A new way;
From nurse to warrior
All in a day.
What's for to-morrow?
Who can say?
For the newest bee,
The newest way."
The other bees about her were all talking confusedly together. "She
saved our stores! Who is she?" they cried. "She is Nuova, the nurse!
Nuova, the wax-maker! She is Nuova, the honey-gatherer! She was not even
an Amazon! Is she hurt? She is killed! She is wounded! What a brave
bee!"
Hero had said nothing yet, but now, as he leaned over her with his face
close to hers and her eyes opened slowly, he murmured tenderly, "Little
Nuova!"
Nuova looked languidly up at him and around at Saggia and Beffa; then
closed her eyes again with a weak but happy smile, and spoke in a low,
trembling voice: "She struck me, but I hit her back; I hit her harder."
"You killed her, Nuova," broke in Hero, proudly. "You were wonderful."
Nuova shuddered. "Killed her!" she said sadly. "Dreadful! I am sorry."
"Sorry?" cried Saggia. "You silly! You saved us! You won the victory by
killing her!"
"Who was she?" asked Nuova, still sadly.
"Why, the Chief of the Black Bees," said Hero, proudly and tenderly.
"Their greatest fighter! And you, little Nuova, alone, killed her."
Nuova looked up at him thoughtfully. "Are you glad?" she asked.
Hero turned with stupefaction to Saggia. She could only lift her hands
in amazement. Nuova's mental processes were too much for them, although
Beffa, hopping near, nodded his head wisely to himself.
"Glad? I glad? Of course, you absurd warrior!" said Hero. "We are all
glad, aren't we?" he asked of the others about.
"Glad? Of course, we are glad! You saved us!" said they all.
"Well," said Nuova, smiling gently, and looking up at Hero, "if you are
glad, I am glad." And then she let her head sink down again and closed
her eyes.
While Saggia and Beffa and Hero had been caring for Nuova and talking to
her, most of the other bees had gradually resumed their normal
occupations, the guards moving watchfully about over the platform, the
foragers coming and going, and two or three cleaners scrubbing the floor
here and there to remove all stains of the battle.
But Uno, Due, and Tre had not yet gone back into the hive to resume
their nursing work, but with a few other bees had formed a group
standing a little way off from the group about Nuova. They were
whispering and looking and pointing toward Nuova. Uno finally left her
group and came over and joined the bees about Nuova. She whispered to a
few of them, and finally spoke out loud enough to be generally heard.
"Nuova was not an Amazon," she said. "Why should she fight? Is this the
way of bees?"
Due and Tre shook their heads vigorously and murmured, "No, no."
And several other bees of their group shook their heads dubiously.
"No," spoke up Due, "this is not the bee custom. A good bee does the
thing she is set to do. For a nurse to use a lance! No, that is unheard
of."
"No, no, it isn't done, you know," said a drone near by, wagging his
head wisely.
"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."
All the bees were growing more and more excited. The drones began to
form in a line. Their attendants worked feverishly at cleaning and
preparing them. The other bees cleared a space near the entrance, in
front of the drones, whose eagerness was betrayed by their bending
forward like runners on the starting-line. Hero started forward to take
his place at the nearest end of the line. Nuova tried to stand, Saggia
helping her. She tottered as if to fall, but regained her balance. Her
face was drawn and tears welled from her eyes. She pushed Saggia to one
side and totteringly followed Hero. As he moved to his place, as if in a
sort of daze and hypnotized and driven by another will than his, Nuova
staggered into place behind him, as attendant, and made feeble attempts
to brush his wings. He did not seem to see her nor even to realize her
presence, but kept his eyes fixed on the entrance.
The commotion among the bees increased. All watched incessantly the
opening of the hive. Suddenly the Princess was seen to be coming slowly
and proudly out, still cold and set of face, but beautiful in figure and
carriage, truly queenly in all her seeming.
Three or four attendants were busy behind her, brushing her long,
slender wings, and removing every speck or stain from her body. The
drones all leaned farther forward, their eagerness infecting her. For
she became more animated and began spreading out and fluttering her
wings. The drones did the same.
Beffa was hopping about with ridiculous activity and awkwardness,
humming inaudible words. Suddenly, with a jerk, Hero turned his eyes
from the Princess and let them wander about as if seeking something.
They rested on Beffa, who in response made motions in his dancing that
unmistakably directed Hero to look behind him. He did so and saw Nuova.
He stared fixedly at her a moment. Then he leaned toward her and said
in a curious, tense, but almost appealing tone, as if he were asking her
for advice or help:
"The Great Courting Chase is on! A Queen is to be won! The prize is to
be a King!"
Nuova called on all her strength, physical and spiritual.
"Yes, yes," she gasped. "Be ready! Lean forward! They are starting! You
will win!" Her voice broke a little. "You can't lose, Hero--wonderful
Hero. You will be King--our King--my King. Good-bye!" She stifled a sob.
"Good luck! Good-bye!"
She could say no more. She turned her face away from his, sobbing
unrestrainedly. Saggia, who had come to her side, caught her and
supported her just as the Princess, with wings outspread and eyes fixed
outward and upward, ran quickly to the outer edge of the platform,
followed a little way behind by the drones in a group. As the Princess
reached the platform's edge, she launched herself beautifully into the
air and flew swiftly, first straight out and up and then curving gently
away to the left. One after another the drones flew after her.
Nuova gazed fixedly after the following drones. Hero's delay with Nuova
made him the last to spring into the air. But he flew so strongly that
it seemed certain that he would quickly make up for this handicap in the
great race. Indeed, some of the onlooking bees began to call out, "See
how Hero is gaining! He will surely win! Hero will be King!"
Nuova had strained her gaze after Hero until he with all the others had
passed from sight far out and up in the bright sky. As she gazed she had
lifted on tiptoe and had even spread out her wings as if she would fly
after him, but now as he disappeared she collapsed and fell back heavily
with closed eyes and a pitiful sob into Saggia's supporting embrace.
Just then Beffa came hopping and humming over to them and sang, as if
mockingly, but really with sympathetic and comforting meaning:
"Ha, ha, the sad attendant!
Her champion is too slow.
He'll never win the Princess,
Her kiss he'll never know."