THE BEES AND THE SNAIL.
A snail, one day, made his way through the hole of a bee hive, where, in a great rage, the bees flew round him, and stung him to death. But soon they found that the snail, when dead, was all the more a foe than when he had life, for the air in the hive was not fit to breathe. What was to be done? He was of too great bulk for the bees to turn him out, so they had to leave the hive; and they found, to their cost, that they ought to have let the poor snail just crawl out as he had come in. The bees made a long search for a new home, but in vain, so they went back to their old hive, to see what could be done with the dead snail. And, in the end, they all set to work to build a case of wax round the shell of their guest, so as to close him in a sort of tomb, and thus they made the hive as sweet as the stores that were laid up in the combs.
When things come to the worst, they must mend.