_The Happy Ending_
Beffa had not been able to hold the foragers any longer away from that
part of the garden where Nuova and Hero were. The flowers here were more
abundant and sweeter with honey, and the bees soon forgot their fright
of the toad they had not seen--and that Beffa had not, either.
Hero and Nuova were still concealed by the bush, behind which they
stood, from the returning bees, but it was only a matter of a short time
before they would certainly be seen. Beffa, therefore, came hopping
toward them and singing. He could at least warn them of the approach of
the others. So he sang loudly:
"Ah, well, who knows?
Ah, well, who knows?
The old world for the old bee;
The new world for the new;
For who may know the real truth?
The untrue may be true.
Ah, well, who knows?
Ah, well, who knows?"
Hero turned triumphantly to Nuova. "Yes, yes, you hear?" he said. "Beffa
knows. Say it; say it. Beffa knows: not Saggia; not the others; but
Beffa. They are all blind. They only see what has been, but Beffa sees
what may be. And you see it, Nuova, and I see it. You are a new bee,
Nuova, and so is Beffa, and so am I. And we shall do new things; live a
new life. Ah, Nuova, my little Nuova! I love you, and you love me. My
little Nuova!"
Nuova could say nothing, do nothing. It was too much. She could only
look up through a mist of tears into Hero's face and smile happily at
him; it was half-smiling, half-crying, but unmistakable to Hero for what
it truly was; the full revelation of Nuova's consent to all he had said.
They stood together, silent in their great happiness. And thus Uno saw
them. Uno was the first of the returned foragers to come, in seeking new
flowers, around the bush and in sight of them. She stared at them
amazed. Then, angry and malevolent, she beckoned, without calling out,
to her companions to come to her. They crowded up and looked where Uno
pointed. They were astounded and outraged. Uno first spoke up.
"They call themselves bees!" she said with scorn and malice.
"Beasts, rather!" said Due similarly.
"No, human beings," said Tre. "Like the daughter of the owner of the
garden and her lover. In secret, and against all the customs. Shame and
scandal!"
"Drive them out! Kill them!" burst out all the other bees, who had come
crowding up at the words of Uno, Due, and Tre. "Call the Amazons! Sting
them to death! Hero, the faithless one! Nuova, the silly new bee! Hero,
our finest drone! Nuova, the pretty little nurse! Traitors! Kill them!"
It was a terrible moment for Nuova and Hero, for death looked them in
the face. But they stood quietly side by side realizing their impending
fate, yet fearless in their exaltation. Neither one spoke. They looked
at each other with great eyes shining with love and happiness.
Death--together--was such a little thing. It was even a thing, under the
circumstances, to be courted. There seemed, indeed, nothing else that
could be a "happy ending" for Nuova and Hero's romance. And as the
Amazons pressed forward with lances set and already almost touching the
devoted pair, it seemed to be the inevitable and immediate end. Yet,
just at the moment when Nuova, with one last look of love and joy to
Hero, turned full toward the shining lance points as if to say,
"Welcome, sweet Death!" something happened.
A cry from the air just above them was heard. A messenger bee, greatly
excited and almost breathless, was dropping down to them and gasping:
"The Princess! The Princess! The Princess is lost! The Bee-Bird has
caught the Princess!"
The mob about Hero and Nuova stopped in its attack and stood still,
thunderstruck by the news. The messenger dropped to the grass just
between the foremost Amazons and the pair of lovers, and there collapsed
with fatigue and grief. She was caught and supported by Saggia and
Beffa, who had pushed forward out of the crowd at the first cry from the
messenger.
The horror-stricken bees were dumb for a moment, overwhelmed by the
catastrophe. Then they began to call out, all speaking confusedly
together: "The Princess is lost! The Bee-Bird has killed Principessa!
Our only Princess! The old Queen gone, the new Queen killed! Our hive is
doomed! We are queenless! No more children in our hive! It is our end!"
[Illustration: "The Princess is lost!"]
All the while they were speaking they surged back and forth, turning to
each other. They seemed utterly at a loss what to do. None any longer
paid any attention to Nuova and Hero standing there, still silent and
motionless together, as if with no more thought of their present
momentary escape from the death that was so close to them than they had
had for their apparent certain destruction a moment before.
Saggia had not called out with the other bees. Nor had she moved away
from her position near Hero and Nuova, where she was still supporting
the messenger. But she had been looking keenly first at the shouting
bees and then at Nuova and Hero. Her face was alight with a new thought
and strong purpose. As the cries of the bees died down from exhaustion
for a moment, she lifted her head and began to speak in a loud, clear
voice.
"Bees," she said, "a terrible thing has happened to us!" Some of the
bees cried out again in lamentation. Saggia paused a moment till there
was silence again. Then she went on.
"But we stand before a wonderful happening that may be our saving." As
she said this, she half-turned toward Hero and Nuova so as to call the
attention of the bees to them. As she did this a few bees, notably Uno,
Due, and Tre, began to gesture angrily again toward the couple, and to
mutter against them. But Saggia paid no attention to this, except
perhaps to lift her voice a little higher and to speak more rapidly.
"I am an old bee," she said, "and know the lore of bees better than any
others of you. And I tell you plainly that the death of the Princess
does not mean that all is lost. I tell you that we have a means of
saving our hive. Sometimes a bee is born, who is not a Princess, but who
is of a different sort from the rest of us workers; a bee who can not
only work, but _love_; who can love and be loved and be the mother of
bees."
She turned now swiftly to Nuova, stretched out her antennae and wings
dramatically, and spoke as with the voice of an oracle.
"Nuova is such a bee!" she exclaimed solemnly. "Nuova can be a Queen for
us! She loves Hero. Do you, Nuova?" Nuova turned a rapt face up to
Hero's.
"And Hero loves Nuova. Do you, Hero?" Hero leaned down to Nuova and
kissed her.
Saggia turned again to the bees. "That Hero loves Nuova proves that she
can be loved; that Nuova loves Hero proves that she can be our Queen.
Let Nuova, the new bee, be our new Queen!"
The bees were already buzzing and fluttering about in great excitement
again. They were not able to comprehend immediately all that Saggia's
words implied, but they saw in them a hope for their hive, and some of
the bees already began to call out joyously. Just then Beffa began
dancing vigorously and waving his wings and antennae in triumph and
singing loudly and clearly:
"Bee-Bird may yet be beaten;
We yet may peal the wedding bell,
Although our Queen is eaten!"
Then he made a grand whirl which brought him squarely in front of Nuova,
and with a deep curtsy and elaborate gesture he called out to all the
bees, like a herald:
"The Queen has passed. Long live the Queen!"
And Saggia immediately echoed him, also bowing low before Nuova: "The
Queen has passed. Long live the Queen!"
Other bees took up the shout, which soon spread to all. Beffa beckoned
all to follow him in a triumphal march and dance around the amazed and
happy pair, and altogether they set up a great song of joy and triumph.
Nuova and Hero were not only saved, but they were become in a second
King and Queen of the hive. It was breath-taking. They could only look
at each other in utter thanksgiving and love. But as Beffa, tiring of
the exertion of the dance, stopped by the side of Nuova, she put out an
antenna caressingly to him and then turned to Hero.
"Hero, my King," she said proudly.
"Hero, our King!" proudly shouted all the bees.
And then she turned to Beffa.
"Beffa, my jester," she said lovingly.
"Beffa, our jester!" shouted all the bees.
Beffa gave a little hop; then looking up at Nuova, he sang:
"Ah, well, who knows?
Ah, well, who knows?"
THE END