However, the inhabitants of this second country were so cruel and
tormenting in their dispositions, and the children so teased the
bees, which were stingless and could not defend themselves, that they
rebelled. They stopped making honey, and one day they swarmed, and
flew in a body across the river in spite of the frantic waving of the
ostrich-feather brooms.
The other King was overjoyed. He ordered beautiful hives to be built
for them, and instituted a national festival in their honor, which
ever since had been observed regularly on the sixteenth day of May.
Up to this day there were no bees in the kingdom across the river. Not
one would return to where its ancestors had been so hardly treated;
here everybody was kind to them, and even paid them honor. The present
King had established an order of the "Golden Bee." The Knights of the
Golden Bee wore ribbons studded with golden bees on their breasts, and
their watchword was a sort of a "buzz-z-z," like the humming of a bee.
When they were in full regalia they wore also some curious wings made
of gold wire and lace. The Knights of the Golden Bee comprised the
finest nobles of the court.
In addition to them were the "Bee Guards." They were the King's own
body-guards. Their uniform was white with green cuffs and collar and
facings. On the green were swarms of embroidered bees.
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