Nuova; or, The New Bee by Marion Ames Taggart

  Produced by David Edwards, Mary Meehan and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (Thisfile was produced from images generously made availableby The Internet Archive)

  NUOVA

  or THE NEW BEE

  A Story for Children of Five to Fifty by

  VERNON KELLOGG

  With Songs by CHARLOTTE KELLOGG

  Illustrated by Milo Winter

  HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY Boston and New York

  COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY VERNON KELLOGG AND HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  TO JEAN WHO IS FIVE

  "Nuova, I love you"]

  PREFATORY NOTE

  Most of this that I have written about bees is true: what is not, doesnot pretend to be. Some of the true part sounds almost like adescription of what human life might in some respects be, if certainsocial movements of to-day were followed out to their logical extreme. Isuppose that in this likeness lies the moral of the book.

  V. K.

  CONTENTS

  I. Nuova Appears 1

  II. Nuova's First Experiences 7

  III. Nuova as Nurse 16

  IV. Nuova sees Some Other Things Done 29

  V. Nuova sees Bee Moth and gets acquainted with Beffa 44

  VI. Nuova and Hero, and the Birth of the Princess 60

  VII. Nuova goes Outside 78

  VIII. Nuova and Hero again, and a Battle 93

  IX. Hero and Nuova once more, and the Great Courting Chase 106

  X. Nuova in the Beautiful Garden 115

  XI. Hero finds Nuova in the Garden 130

  XII. The Happy Ending 142

  ILLUSTRATIONS

  "Nuova, I love you" _Colored Frontispiece_

  The beginning of a new life for Nuova 4

  Industriously cleaning the floor 12

  "I am so tired," replied poor Nuova 26

  She would like that kind of work 32

  "What?" she cried. "Well, you really are a stupid bee" 42

  "The stupid one! The faithless one!" 48

  "Drones work? It isn't done, you know" 62

  There came slowly forth ... the new Princess 74

  "Beffa, you are sad," said Saggia 80

  Nuova began to clean his wings 96

  Nuova was among the fallen 104

  In the Garden 116

  Beffa settled down comfortably 128

  "The Princess is lost!" 146

  THE NAMES OF THE BEES

  As all the bees of this story are Italian bees, they all, except one,have Italian names. And they should really be spoken as the Italiansspeak them. Besides, they are prettier that way. Therefore, a list ofthem, with the proper way to pronounce them, is given here.

  _Nuova_ (noo-o'va) _Uno_ (oo'no) _Due_ (doo'ay) _Tre_ (tray) _Saggia_ (saj'jia) _Mela_ (may'la) _Cera_ (chay'ra) _Fessa_ (fess'sa) _Aria_ (ah'ri-a) _Principessa_ (prin-chee-pess'sa) _Lotta_ (lawt'ta)

  _NUOVA_