Being a Bee.
No one could understand it. The cherry-trees were loaded with magnificent fruit, and they had not borne fruit for years past. Some of them had never borne fruit. It was just the same way with the apple-trees. They had been condemned to the ax, but the farmer had been too busy to cut them down. And now, as if they understood that they must do something to save their lives, here was this wonder of splendid fruit!
The secret was discovered at last. Indeed, it was very apparent—when it was discovered. It was bees.
A number of beehives had been introduced to the farm that year, and this was one of the results. The busy little insects had carried to the trees just the pollen that they needed to fructify them, and the fertilized blossoms had become a glorious harvest.
This is what is happening all the time in the world of men, as well as in the world of trees. The bees are those industrious folk that are not original themselves, but know how to prompt and feed originality in others. They carry intellectual pollen.
Sometimes it is a bright saying to which they give currency. Sometimes it is a witty anecdote which they pass around. Sometimes it is a noble book which they praise and lend and render popular. Sometimes it is a scientific discovery which they translate into un-technical language and bring into notice in newspaper articles or popular lectures.
These bees are invaluable in the home. How they make the dinner-table sparkle! What mines of information they are to the children, and of inspiration to the grown-ups!
These bees are useful in a church. They always have helpful quotations and suggestive anecdotes for the prayer meeting. They can tell the pastor and the Sunday-school superintendent about the very newest methods which they have picked up. Everywhere, indeed,—or, at least, wherever people are thinking and working,—these bees are grand assistants; just because of their lack of originality, just because they pass along the best of other people's thoughts and plans.
Oh, it is fine to be original; but sometimes I think that to be a transmitter of originality is finer still.