The Adventures of Maya the Bee

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THE ADVENTURES OF MAYA THE BEE

[Illustration: "Won't You Come In?"]

THE ADVENTURES OF MAYA THE BEE

by

WALDEMAR BONSELS

Illustrated by Homer Boss

[Publisher's Device]

New York Thomas Seltzer 1922

Copyright, 1922, by Thomas Seltzer, Inc. All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America

The Translation of this book was made by ADELE SZOLD SELTZER

The Poems were done into English by ARTHUR GUITERMAN

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. First Flight 1 II. The House of the Rose 14 III. The Lake 25 IV. Effie and Bobbie 43 V. The Acrobat 60 VI. Puck 72 VII. In the Toils 87 VIII. The Bug and the Butterfly 104 IX. The Lost Leg 113 X. The Wonders of the Night 133 XI. With the Sprite 153 XII. Alois, Ladybird and Poet 163 XIII. The Fortress 172 XIV. The Sentinel 182 XV. The Warning 194 XVI. The Battle 204 XVII. The Queen's Friend 218

LIST OF COLORED ILLUSTRATIONS

"Won't you come in?" FRONTISPIECE

Facing Page Maya lifted her wings, buzzed farewell to the lake, and flew inland 42

A human being in miniature was coming up out of the iris 146

The Queen came without her court, attended only by her aide and two ladies-in-waiting 200

[Illustration]

CHAPTER I

FIRST FLIGHT

The elderly lady-bee who helped the baby-bee Maya when she awoke to life and slipped from her cell was called Cassandra and commanded great respect in the hive. Those were exciting days. A rebellion had broken out in the nation of bees, which the queen was unable to suppress.

While the experienced Cassandra wiped Maya's large bright eyes and tried as best she could to arrange her delicate wings, the big hive hummed and buzzed like a threatening thunderstorm, and the baby-bee found it very warm and said so to her companion.

Cassandra looked about troubled, without replying. It astonished her that the child so soon found something to criticize. But really the child was right: the heat and the pushing and crowding were almost unbearable. Maya saw an endless succession of bees go by in such swarming haste that sometimes one climbed up and over another, or several rolled past together clotted in a ball.

Once the queen-bee approached. Cassandra and Maya were jostled aside. A drone, a friendly young fellow of immaculate appearance, came to their assistance. He nodded to Maya and stroked the shining hairs on his breast rather nervously with his foreleg. (The bees use their forelegs as arms and hands.)

"The crash will come," he said to Cassandra. "The revolutionists will leave the city. A new queen has already been proclaimed."