They carried a
banner of green silk worked with bees and roses.
So the bee might fairly have been considered the national emblem of
Romalia, for that was the name of the country. The first word which
the children learned to spell in school was "b-e-e, bee," instead of
"b-o-y, boy." The poorest citizen had a bush of roses and a bee-hive
in his yard, and the people were very forlorn who could not have a bit
of honey-comb at least once a day. The court preferred it to any other
food. Indeed it was this particular Queen who was in the kitchen
eating bread and honey, in the song.
[Illustration: A KNIGHT OF THE GOLDEN BEE.]
But to return to the Bee Festival, on this especial sixteenth of May.
At sunset when the bees flew back to their hives for the last time
with their loads of honey, the court also went home. They danced along
in a splendid merry procession. The cream-colored ponies the King and
Queen rode pranced lightly in advance, their slender hoofs keeping
time to the flutes and the bells; and the gallants, leading the ladies
by the tips of their dainty fingers, came after them with gay waltzing
steps. The nurses who carried the Princess Rosetta held their heads
high, and danced along as bravely as the others, waving their
peacock-feather fans in their unoccupied hands. They bore the little
Princess in her basket between them as lightly as a feather.
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