You are on page 1of 17

Royal Jelly

It worries me to death, Albert, it really does, Mrs Taylor said. She kept her eyes fixed on the baby who was now lying absolutely motionless in the rook of her left arm. I !ust know there"s something wrong. The skin on the baby"s fa e had a pearly translu ent #uality, and was stret hed $ery tightly o$er the bones. Try again, Albert Taylor said. It won"t do any good. %ou ha$e to keep trying, Mabel, he said. She lifted the bottle out of the sau epan of hot water and shook a few drops of milk on to the inside of her wrist, testing for temperature. &ome on, she whispered. &ome on, my baby. 'ake up and take a bit more of this. There was a small lamp on the table lose by that made a soft yellow glow all around her. (lease, she said. Take !ust a weeny bit more. The husband wat hed her o$er the top of his maga)ine. She was half dead with exhaustion, he ould see that, and the pale o$al fa e, usually so gra$e and serene, had taken on a kind of pin hed and desperate look. *ut e$en so, the drop of her head as she ga)ed down at the hild was uriously beautiful. %ou see, she murmured. It"s no good. She won"t ha$e it. She held the bottle up to the light, s#uinting at the alibrations. +ne oun e again. That"s all she"s taken. ,o-it isn"t e$en that. It"s only three. #uarters. It"s not enough to keep body and soul together, Albert, it really isn"t. It worries me to death. I know, he said. If only they ould find out what was wrong. There"s nothing wrong, Mabel. It"s !ust a matter of time. +f ourse there"s something wrong. /r 0obinson says no. 1ook, she said, standing up. %ou an"t tell me it"s natural for a six.weeks.old hild to weigh less, less by more than two whole pounds than she did when she was born2 3ust look at those legs2 They"re nothing but skin and bone2 The tiny baby lay limply on her arm, not mo$ing. /r 0obinson said you was to stop worrying, Mabel. So did that other one. 4a2 she said. Isn"t that wonderful2 I"m to stop worrying2 ,ow, Mabel. 'hat does he want me to do5 Treat it as some sort of a !oke5 4e didn"t say that. I hate do tors2 I hate them all2 she ried, and she swung away from him and walked #ui kly out of the room towards the stairs, arrying the baby with her. Albert Taylor stayed where he was and let her go. In a little while he heard her mo$ing about in the bedroom dire tly o$er his head, #ui k ner$ous footsteps going tap tap tap on the linoleum abo$e. Soon the footsteps would stop, and then he would ha$e to get up and follow her, and when he went into the bedroom he would find her sitting beside the ot as usual, staring at the hild and rying softly to herself and refusing to mo$e. She"s star$ing, Albert, she would say.

+f ourse she"s not star$ing. She is star$ing. I know she is. And Albert5 %es5 I belie$e you know it too, but you won"t admit it. Isn"t that right5 6$ery night now it was like this. 1ast week they had taken the hild ba k to the hospital, and the do tor had examined it arefully and told them that there was nothing the matter. It took us nine years to get this baby, /o tor, Mabel had said. I think it would kill me if anything should happen to her. That was six days ago and sin e then it had lost another fi$e oun es. *ut worrying about it wasn"t going to help anybody, Albert Taylor told himself. +ne simply had to trust the do tor on a thing like this. 4e pi ked up the maga)ine that was still lying on his lap and glan ed idly down the list of ontents to see what it had to offer this week7
AM+,8 T46 *66S I, MA% 4+,6% &++960% T46 *66 :A0M60 A,/ T46 *. (4A0M. 6;(60I6,&6S I, T46 &+,T0+1 +: ,+S6MA T46 1AT6ST +, 0+%A1 3611% T4IS '669 I, T46 A(IA0% T46 46A1I,8 (+'60 +: (0+(+1IS 068<08ITATI+,S *0ITIS4 *66966(60S A,,<A1 /I,,60 ASS+&IATI+, ,6'S

All his life Albert Taylor had been fas inated by anything that had to do with bees. As a small boy he used often to at h them in his bare hands and go running with them into the house to show to his mother, and sometimes he would put them on his fa e and let them rawl about o$er his heeks and ne k, and the astonishing thing about it all was that he ne$er got stung. +n the ontrary, the bees seemed to en!oy being with him. They ne$er tried to fly away, and to get rid of them he would ha$e to brush them off gently with his fingers. 6$en then they would fre#uently return and settle again on his arm or hand or knee, any pla e where the skin was bare. 4is father, who was a bri klayer, said there must be some wit h"s sten h about the boy, something noxious that ame oo)ing out through the pores of the skin, and that no good would e$er ome of it, hypnotising inse ts like that. *ut the mother said it was a gift gi$en him by 8od, and e$en went so far as to ompare him with St :ran is and the birds. As he grew older, Albert Taylor"s fas ination with bees de$eloped into an obsession, and by the time he was twel$e he had built his first hi$e. The following summer he had aptured his first swarm. Two years later, at the age of fourteen, he had no less than fi$e hi$es standing neatly in a row against the fen e in his father"s small ba k yard, and already-apart from the normal task of produ ing honey-he was pra tising the deli ate and ompli ated business of rearing his own #ueens, grafting lar$ae into artifi ial ell ups, and all the rest of it. 4e ne$er had to use smoke when there was work to do inside a hi$e, and he ne$er wore glo$es on his hands or a net o$er his head. &learly there was some strange sympathy between this boy and the bees, and down in the $illage, in the shops and pubs, they began to speak about him with a ertain kind of respe t, and people started oming up to the house to buy his honey. 'hen he was eighteen, he had rented one a re of rough pasture alongside a herry

or hard down the $alley about a mile from the $illage, and there he had set out to establish his own business. ,ow, ele$en years later, he was still in the same spot, but he had six a res of ground instead of one, two hundred and forty well.sto ked hi$es, and a small house that he"d built mainly with his own hands. 4e had married at the age of twenty and that, apart from the fa t that it had taken them o$er nine years to get a hild, had also been a su ess. In fa t, e$erything had gone pretty well for Albert until this strange little baby girl ame along and started frightening them out of their wits by refusing to eat properly and losing weight e$ery day. 4e looked up from the maga)ine and began thinking about his daughter. That e$ening, for instan e, when she had opened her eyes at the beginning of the feed, he had ga)ed into them and seen something that frightened him to death-a kind of misty $a ant stare, as though the eyes themsel$es were not onne ted to the brain at all but were !ust lying loose in their so kets like a ouple of small grey marbles. /id those do tors really know what they were talking about5 4e rea hed for an ashtray and started slowly pi king the ashes out from the bowl of his pipe with a mat hsti k. +ne ould always take her along to another hospital, somewhere in +xford perhaps. 4e might suggest that to Mabel when he went upstairs. 4e ould still hear her mo$ing around in the bedroom, but she must ha$e taken off her shoes now and put on slippers be ause the noise was $ery faint. 4e swit hed his attention ba k to the maga)ine and went on with his reading. 4e finished an arti le alled 6xperien es in the &ontrol of ,osema, then turned o$er the page and began reading the next one, The 1atest on 0oyal 3elly. 4e doubted $ery mu h whether there would be anything in this that he didn"t know already7 'hat is this wonderful substan e alled royal !elly5 4e rea hed for the tin of toba o on the table beside him and began filling his pipe, still reading. 0oyal !elly is a glandular se retion produ ed by the nurse bees to feed the lar$ae immediately they ha$e hat hed from the egg. The pharyngeal glands of bees produ e this substan e in mu h the same way as the mammary glands of $ertebrates produ e milk. The fa t is of great biologi al interest be ause no other inse ts in the world are known to ha$e e$ol$ed su h a pro ess. All old stuff, he told himself, but for want of anything better to do, he ontinued to read. 0oyal !elly is fed in on entrated form to all bee lar$ae for the first three days after hat hing from the egg= but beyond that point, for all those who are destined to be ome drones or workers, this pre ious food is greatly diluted with honey and pollen. +n the other hand, the lar$ae whi h are destined to be ome #ueens are fed throughout the whole of their lar$al period on a on entrated diet of pure royal !elly. 4en e the name. Abo$e him, up in the bedroom, the noise of the footsteps had stopped altogether. The house was #uiet. 4e stru k a mat h and put it to his pipe.

0oyal !elly must be a substan e of tremendous nourishing power, for on this diet alone, the honey.bee lar$a in reases in weight fifteen hundred times in fi$e days. That was probably about right, he thought, although for some reason it had ne$er o urred to him to onsider lar$al growth in terms of weight before. This is as if a se$en.and.a.half.pound baby should in rease in that time to fi$e tons. Albert Taylor stopped and read that senten e again. 4e read it a third time. This is as if a se$en.and.a.half.pound baby . . . Mabel2 he ried, !umping up from his hair. Mabel2 &ome here2 4e went out into the hall and stood at the foot of the stairs alling for her to ome down. There was no answer. 4e ran up the stairs and swit hed on the light on the landing. The bedroom door was losed. 4e rossed the landing and opened it and stood in the doorway looking into the dark room. Mabel, he said. &ome downstairs a moment, will you please5 I"$e !ust had a bit of an idea. It"s about the baby. The light from the landing behind him ast a faint glow o$er the bed and he ould see her dimly now, lying on her stoma h with her fa e buried in the pillow and her arms up o$er her head. She was rying again. Mabel, he said, going o$er to her, tou hing her shoulder. (lease ome down a moment. This may be important. 8o away, she said. 1ea$e me alone. /on"t you want to hear about my idea5 +h, Albert, I"m tired, she sobbed. I"m so tired I don"t know what I"m doing any more. I don"t think I an go on. I don"t think I an stand it. There was a pause. Albert Taylor turned away from her and walked slowly o$er to the radle where the baby was lying, and peered in. It was too dark for him to see the hild"s fa e, but when he bent down lose he ould hear the sound of breathing, $ery faint and #ui k. 'hat time is the next feed5 he asked. Two o" lo k, I suppose. And the one after that5 Six in the morning. I"ll do them both, he said. %ou go to sleep. She didn"t answer. %ou get properly into bed, Mabel, and go straight to sleep, you understand5 And stop worrying. I"m taking o$er ompletely for the next twel$e hours. %ou"ll gi$e yourself a ner$ous breakdown going on like this. %es, she said. I know. I"m taking the nipper and myself and the alarm lo k into the spare room this $ery moment, so you !ust lie down and relax and forget all about us. 0ight5 Already he was pushing the radle out through the door. +h, Albert, she sobbed. /on"t you worry about a thing. 1ea$e it to me. Albert . . . %es5 I lo$e you, Albert.

I lo$e you too, Mabel. ,ow go to sleep. Albert Taylor didn"t see his wife again until nearly ele$en o" lo k the next morning. 8ood gracious me2 she ried, rushing down the stairs in dressing.gown and slippers. Albert2 3ust look at the time2 I must ha$e slept twel$e hours at least2 Is e$erything all right5 'hat happened5 4e was sitting #uietly in his arm hair, smoking a pipe and reading the morning paper. The baby was in a sort of arry. ot on the floor at his feet, sleeping. 4ullo, dear, he said, smiling. She ran o$er to the ot and looked in. /id she take anything, Albert5 4ow many times ha$e you fed her5 She was due for another one at ten o" lo k, did you know that5 Albert Taylor folded the newspaper neatly into a s#uare and put it away on the side table. I fed her at two in the morning, he said, and she took about half an oun e, no more. I fed her again at six and she did a bit better that time, two oun es . . . Two ounces! +h, Albert, that"s mar$ellous2 And we !ust finished the last feed ten minutes ago. There"s the bottle on the mantelpie e. +nly one oun e left. She drank three. 4ow"s that5 4e was grinning proudly, delighted with his a hie$ement. The woman #ui kly got down on her knees and peered at the baby. /on"t she look better5 he asked eagerly. /on"t she look fatter in the fa e5 It may sound silly, the wife said, but I a tually think she does. +h, Albert, you"re a mar$el2 4ow did you do it5 She"s turning the orner, he said. That"s all it is. 3ust like the do tor prophesied, she"s turning the orner. I pray to 8od you"re right, Albert. +f ourse I"m right. :rom now on, you wat h her go. The woman was ga)ing lo$ingly at the baby. %ou look a lot better yourself too, Mabel. I feel wonderful. I"m sorry about last night. 1et"s keep it this way, he said. I"ll do all the night feeds in future. %ou do the day ones. She looked up at him a ross the ot, frowning. ,o, she said. +h no, I wouldn"t allow you to do that. I don"t want you to ha$e a breakdown, Mabel. I won"t, not now I"$e had some sleep. Mu h better we share it. ,o, Albert. This is my !ob and I intend to do it. 1ast night won"t happen again. There was a pause. Albert Taylor took the pipe out of his mouth and examined the grain on the bowl. All right, he said. In that ase I"ll !ust relie$e you of the donkey work, I"ll do all the sterilising and the mixing of the food and getting e$erything ready. That"ll help you a bit, anyway. She looked at him arefully, wondering what ould ha$e ome o$er him all of a sudden. %ou see, Mabel, I"$e been thinking . . . %es, dear. I"$e been thinking that up until last night I"$e ne$er e$en raised a finger to help you with this baby. That isn"t true. +h yes it is. So I"$e de ided that from now on I"m going to do my share of the

work. I"m going to be the feed.mixer and the bottle.steriliser. 0ight5 It"s $ery sweet of you, dear, but I really don"t think it"s ne essary . . . &ome on2 he ried. /on"t hange the lu k2 I done it the last three times and !ust look what happened2 'hen"s the next one5 Two o" lo k, isn"t it5 %es. It"s all mixed, he said. 6$erything"s all mixed and ready and all you"$e got to do when the time omes is to go out there to the larder and take it off the shelf and warm it up. That"s some help, isn"t it5 The woman got up off her knees and went o$er to him and kissed him on the heek. %ou"re su h a ni e man, she said. I lo$e you more and more e$ery day I know you. 1ater, in the middle of the afternoon, when Albert was outside in the sunshine working among the hi$es, he heard her alling to him from the house. Albert2 she shouted. Albert, ome here2 She was running through the butter ups towards him. 4e started forward to meet her, wondering what was wrong. +h, Albert2 8uess what2 'hat5 I"$e !ust finished gi$ing her the two.o" lo k feed and she"s taken the whole lot2 ,o2 6$ery drop of it2 +h, Albert, I"m so happy2 She"s going to be all right2 She"s turned the orner !ust like you said2 She ame up to him and threw her arms around his ne k and hugged him, and he lapped her on the ba k and laughed and said what a mar$ellous little mother she was. 'ill you ome in and wat h the next one and see if she does it again, Albert5 4e told her he wouldn"t miss it for anything, and she hugged him again, then turned and ran ba k to the house, skipping o$er the grass and singing all the way. ,aturally, there was a ertain amount of suspense in the air as the time approa hed for the six.o" lo k feed. *y fi$e thirty both parents were already seated in the li$ing. room waiting for the moment to arri$e. The bottle with the milk formula in it was standing in a sau epan of warm water on the mantelpie e. The baby was asleep in its arry. ot on the sofa. At twenty minutes to six it woke up and started s reaming its head off. There you are2 Mrs Taylor ried. She"s asking for the bottle. (i k her up #ui k, Albert, and hand her to me here. 8i$e me the bottle first. 4e ga$e her the bottle, then pla ed the baby on the woman"s lap. &autiously, she tou hed the baby"s lips with the end of the nipple. The baby sei)ed the nipple between its gums and began to su k ra$enously with a rapid powerful a tion. +h, Albert, isn"t it wonderful5 she said, laughing. It"s terrifi , Mabel. In se$en or eight minutes, the entire ontents of the bottle had disappeared down the baby"s throat. %ou le$er girl, Mrs Taylor said. :our oun es again. Albert Taylor was leaning forward in his hair, peering intently into the baby"s fa e. %ou know what5 he said. She e$en seems as though she"s put on a tou h of weight already. 'hat do you think5 The mother looked down at the hild. /on"t she seem bigger and fatter to you, Mabel, than she was yesterday5 Maybe she does, Albert. I"m not sure. Although a tually there ouldn"t be any real gain in su h a short time as this. The important thing is that she"s eating normally.

She"s turned the orner, Albert said. I don"t think you need worry about her any more. I ertainly won"t. %ou want me to go up and fet h the radle ba k into our own bedroom, Mabel5 %es, please, she said. Albert went upstairs and mo$ed the radle. The woman followed with the baby, and after hanging its nappy, she laid it gently down on its bed. Then she o$ered it with sheet and blanket. /oesn"t she look lo$ely, Albert5 she whispered. Isn"t that the most beautiful baby you"$e e$er seen in your entire life5 1ea$e her be now, Mabel, he said. &ome on downstairs and ook us a bit of supper. 'e both deser$e it. After they had finished eating, the parents settled themsel$es in arm hairs in the li$ing.room, Albert with his maga)ine and his pipe, Mrs Taylor with her knitting. *ut this was a $ery different s ene from the one of the night before. Suddenly, all tensions had $anished. Mrs Taylor"s handsome o$al fa e was glowing with pleasure, her heeks were pink, her eyes were sparkling bright, and her mouth was fixed in a little dreamy smile of pure ontent. 6$ery now and again she would glan e up from her knitting and ga)e affe tionately at her husband. + asionally, she would stop the li king of her needles altogether for a few se onds and sit #uite still, looking at the eiling, listening for a ry or a whimper from upstairs. *ut all was #uiet. Albert, she said after a while. %es, dear5 'hat was it you were going to tell me last night when you ame rushing up to the bedroom5 %ou said you had an idea for the baby. Albert Taylor lowered the maga)ine on to his lap and ga$e her a long sly look. /id I5 he said. %es. She waited for him to go on, but he didn"t. 'hat"s the big !oke5 she asked. 'hy are you grinning like that5 It"s a !oke all right, he said. Tell it to me, dear. I"m not sure I ought to, he said. %ou might all me a liar. She had seldom seen him looking so pleased with himself as he was now, and she smiled ba k at him, egging him on. I"d !ust like to see your fa e when you hear it, Mabel, that"s all. Albert, what is all this5 4e paused, refusing to be hurried. %ou do think the baby"s better, don"t you5 he asked. +f ourse I do. %ou agree with me that all of a sudden she"s feeding mar$ellously and looking one.hundred.per. ent different5 I do, Albert, yes. That"s good, he said, the grin widening. %ou see, it"s me that did it. /id what5 I ured the baby. %es, dear, I"m sure you did. Mrs Taylor went right on with her knitting. %ou don"t belie$e me, do you5 +f ourse I belie$e you, Albert. I gi$e you all the redit, e$ery bit of it. Then how did I do it5 'ell, she said, pausing a moment to think. I suppose it"s simply that you"re a

brilliant feed.mixer. 6$er sin e you started mixing the feeds she"s got better and better. %ou mean there"s some sort of an art in mixing the feeds5 Apparently there is. She was knitting away and smiling #uietly to herself, thinking how funny men were. I"ll tell you a se ret, he said. %ou"re absolutely right. Although, mind you, it isn"t so mu h how you mix it that ounts. It"s what you put in. %ou realise that, don"t you, Mabel5 Mrs Taylor stopped knitting and looked up sharply at her husband. Albert, she said, don"t tell me you"$e been putting things into that hild"s milk5 4e sat there grinning. 'ell, ha$e you or ha$en"t you5 It"s possible, he said. I don"t belie$e it. 4e had a strange fier e way of grinning that showed his teeth. Albert, she said. Stop playing with me like this. %es, dear, all right. %ou ha$en"t really put anything into her milk, ha$e you5 Answer me properly, Albert. This ould be serious with su h a tiny baby. The answer is yes, Mabel. Albert Taylor! 4ow ould you5 ,ow don"t get ex ited, he said. I"ll tell you all about it if you really want me to, but for hea$en"s sake keep your hair on. It was beer2 she ried. I !ust know it was beer2 /on"t be so daft, Mabel, please. Then what was it5 Albert laid his pipe down arefully on the table beside him and leaned ba k in his hair. Tell me, he said, did you e$er by any han e happen to hear me mentioning something alled royal !elly5 I did not. It"s magi , he said. (ure magi . And last night I suddenly got the idea that if I was to put some of this into the baby"s milk . . . 4ow dare you2 ,ow, Mabel, you don"t e$en know what it is yet. I don"t are what it is, she said. %ou an"t go putting foreign bodies like that into a tiny baby"s milk. %ou must be mad. It"s perfe tly harmless, Mabel, otherwise I wouldn"t ha$e done it. It omes from bees. I might ha$e guessed that. And it"s so pre ious that pra ti ally no one an afford to take it. 'hen they do, it"s only one little drop at a time. And how mu h did you gi$e to our baby, might I ask5 Ah, he said, that"s the whole point. That"s where the differen e lies. I re kon that our baby, !ust in the last four feeds, has already swallowed about fifty times as mu h royal !elly as anyone else in the world has e$er swallowed before. 4ow about that5 Albert, stop pulling my leg. I swear it, he said proudly. She sat there staring at him, her brow wrinkled, her mouth slightly open. %ou know what this stuff a tually osts, Mabel, if you want to buy it5 There"s a

pla e in Ameri a ad$ertising it for sale at this $ery moment for something like fi$e hundred dollars a pound !ar2 Five hundred dollars! That"s more than gold, you know2 She hadn"t the faintest idea what he was talking about. I"ll pro$e it, he said, and he !umped up and went a ross to the large book ase where he kept all his literature about bees. +n the top shelf, the ba k numbers of The American Bee Journal were neatly sta ked alongside those of The British Bee Journal, Beecraft, and other maga)ines. 4e took down the last issue of The American Bee Journal and turned to a page of small lassified ad$ertisements at the ba k. 4ere you are, he said. 6xa tly as I told you. >'e sell royal !elly-?@AB per lb. !ar wholesale." 4e handed her the maga)ine so she ould read it herself. ,ow do you belie$e me5 This is an a tual shop in ,ew %ork, Mabel. It says so. It doesn"t say you an go stirring it into the milk of a pra ti ally new.born baby, she said. I don"t know what"s ome o$er you, Albert, I really don"t. It"s uring her, isn"t it5 I"m not so sure about that, now. /on"t be so damn silly, Mabel. %ou know it is. Then why ha$en"t other people done it with their babies5 I keep telling you, he said. It"s too expensi$e. (ra ti ally nobody in the world an afford to buy royal !elly !ust for eating ex ept maybe one or two multimillionaires. The people who buy it are the big ompanies that make women"s fa e reams and things like that. They"re using it as a stunt. They mix a tiny pin h of it into a big !ar of fa e ream and it"s selling like hot akes for absolutely enormous pri es. They laim it takes out the wrinkles. And does it5 ,ow how on earth would I know that, Mabel5 Anyway, he said, returning to his hair, that"s not the point. The point is this. It"s done so mu h good to our little baby !ust in the last few hours that I think we ought to go right on gi$ing it to her. ,ow don"t interrupt, Mabel. 1et me finish. I"$e got two hundred and forty hi$es out there and if I turn o$er maybe a hundred of them to making royal !elly, we ought to be able to supply her with all she wants. Albert Taylor, the woman said, stret hing her eyes wide and staring at him. 4a$e you gone out of your mind5 3ust hear me through, will you please5 I forbid it, she said, absolutely. %ou"re not to gi$e my baby another drop of that horrid !elly, you understand5 ,ow, Mabel . . . And #uite apart from that, we had a sho king honey rop last year, and if you go fooling around with those hi$es now, there"s no telling what might not happen. There"s nothing wrong with my hi$es, Mabel. %ou know $ery well we had only half the normal rop last year. /o me a fa$our, will you5 he said. 1et me explain some of the mar$ellous things this stuff does. %ou ha$en"t e$en told me what it is yet. All right, Mabel. I"ll do that too. 'ill you listen5 'ill you gi$e me a han e to explain it5 She sighed and pi ked up her knitting on e more. I suppose you might as well get it off your hest, Albert. 8o on and tell me. 4e paused, a bit un ertain now how to begin. It wasn"t going to be easy to explain something like this to a person with no detailed knowledge of api ulture at all.

%ou know, don"t you, he said, that ea h olony has only one #ueen5 %es. And that this #ueen lays all the eggs5 %es, dear. That mu h I know. All right. ,ow the #ueen an a tually lay two different kinds of eggs. %ou didn"t know that, but she an. It"s what we all one of the mira les of the hi$e. She an lay eggs that produ e drones, and she an lay eggs that produ e workers. ,ow if that isn"t a mira le, Mabel, I don"t know what is. %es, Albert, all right. The drones are the males. 'e don"t ha$e to worry about them. The workers are all females. So is the #ueen, of ourse. *ut the workers are unsexed females, if you see what I mean. Their organs are ompletely unde$eloped, whereas the #ueen is tremendously sexy. She an a tually lay her own weight in eggs in a single day. 4e hesitated, marshalling his thoughts. ,ow what happens is this. The #ueen rawls around on the omb and lays her eggs in what we all ells. %ou know all those hundreds of little holes you see in a honey omb5 'ell, a brood omb is !ust about the same ex ept the ells don"t ha$e honey in them, they ha$e eggs. She lays one egg to ea h ell, and in three days ea h of these eggs hat hes out into a tiny grub. 'e all it a lar$a. ,ow, as soon as this lar$a appears, the nurse bees-they"re young workers-all rowd round and start feeding it like mad. And you know what they feed it on5 0oyal !elly, Mabel answered patiently. 0ight2 he ried. That"s exa tly what they do feed it on. They get this stuff out of a gland in their heads and they start pumping it into the ell to feed the lar$a. And what happens then5 4e paused dramati ally, blinking at her with his small watery.grey eyes. Then he turned slowly in his hair and rea hed for the maga)ine that he had been reading the night before. %ou want to know what happens then5 he asked, wetting his lips. I an hardly wait. >0oyal !elly," he read aloud, >must be a substan e of tremendous nourishing power, for on this diet alone, the honey.bee lar$a in reases in weight fifteen hundred times in fi$e days2" 4ow mu h5 Fifteen hundred times, Mabel. And you know what that means if you put it in terms of a human being5 It means, he said, lowering his $oi e, leaning forward, fixing her with those small pale eyes, it means that in fi$e days a baby weighing se$en and a half pounds to start off with would in rease in weight to five tons2 :or the se ond time, Mrs Taylor stopped knitting. ,ow you mustn"t take that too literally, Mabel. 'ho says I mustn"t5 It"s !ust a s ientifi way of putting it, that"s all. Cery well, Albert. 8o on. *ut that"s only half the story, he said. There"s more to ome. The really ama)ing thing about royal !elly, I ha$en"t told you yet. I"m going to show you now how it an transform a plain dull.looking little worker bee with pra ti ally no sex organs at all into a great big beautiful fertile #ueen. Are you saying our baby is dull.looking and plain5 she asked sharply. ,ow don"t go putting words into my mouth, Mabel, please. 3ust listen to this. /id you know that the #ueen bee and the worker bee, although they are ompletely different

when they grow up, are both hat hed out of exa tly the same kind of egg5 I don"t belie$e that, she said. It"s true as I"m sitting here, Mabel, honest it is. Any time the bees want a #ueen to hat h out of the egg instead of a worker, they an do it. 4ow5 Ah, he said, shaking a thi k forefinger in her dire tion. That"s !ust what I"m oming to. That"s the se ret of the whole thing. ,ow-what do you think it is, Mabel, that makes this mira le happen5 0oyal !elly, she answered. %ou already told me. 0oyal !elly it is2 he ried, lapping his hands and boun ing up on his seat. 4is big round fa e was glowing with ex itement now, and two $i$id pat hes of s arlet had appeared high up on ea h heek. 4ere"s how it works. I"ll put it $ery simply for you. The bees want a new #ueen. So they build an extra.large ell, a #ueen ell we all it, and they get the old #ueen to lay one of her eggs in there. The other one thousand nine hundred and ninety.nine eggs she lays in ordinary worker ells. ,ow. As soon as these eggs hat h into lar$ae, the nurse bees rally round and start pumping in the royal !elly. All of them get it, workers as well as #ueen. *ut here"s the $ital thing, Mabel, so listen arefully. 4ere"s where the differen e omes. The worker lar$ae only re ei$e this spe ial mar$ellous food for the first three days of their lar$al life. After that they ha$e a omplete hange of diet. 'hat really happens is they get weaned, ex ept that it"s not like an ordinary weaning be ause it"s so sudden. After the third day they"re put straight away on to more or less routine bees" food-a mixture of honey and pollen-and then about two weeks later they emerge from the ells as workers. *ut not so the lar$a in the #ueen ell2 This one gets royal !elly all the way through its larval life. The nurse bees simply pour it into the ell, so mu h so in fa t that the little lar$a is literally floating in it. And that"s what makes it into a #ueen2 %ou an"t pro$e it, she said. /on"t talk so damn silly, Mabel, please. Thousands of people ha$e pro$ed it time and time again, famous s ientists in e$ery ountry in the world. All you ha$e to do is take a lar$a out of a worker ell and put it in a #ueen ell-that"s what we all grafting -and !ust so long as the nurse bees keep it well supplied with royal !elly, then presto2 -it"ll grow up into a #ueen2 And what makes it more mar$ellous still is the absolutely enormous differen e between a #ueen and a worker when they grow up. The abdomen is a different shape. The sting is different. The legs are different. The . . . In what way are the legs different5 she asked, testing him. The legs5 'ell, the workers ha$e little pollen baskets on their legs for arrying the pollen. The #ueen has none. ,ow here"s another thing. The #ueen has fully de$eloped sex organs. The workers don"t. And most ama)ing of all, Mabel, the #ueen li$es for an a$erage of four to six years. The worker hardly li$es that many months. And all this differen e simply be ause one of them got royal !elly and the other didn"t2 It"s pretty hard to belie$e,she said, that a food an do all that. +f ourse it"s hard to belie$e. It"s another of the mira les of the hi$e. In fa t it"s the biggest ruddy mira le of them all. It"s su h a hell of a big mira le that it"s baffled the greatest men of s ien e for hundreds of years. 'ait a moment. Stay there. /on"t mo$e. Again he !umped up and went o$er to the book ase and started rummaging among the books and maga)ines. I"m going to find you a few of the reports. 4ere we are. 4ere"s one of them. 1isten to this. 4e started reading aloud from a opy of the American Bee Journal7

>1i$ing in Toronto at the head of a fine resear h laboratory gi$en to him by the people of &anada in re ognition of his truly great ontribution to humanity in the dis o$ery of insulin, /r :rederi k A. *anting be ame urious about royal !elly. 4e re#uested his staff to do a basi fra tional analysis . . ." 4e paused. 'ell, there"s no need to read it all, but here"s what happened. /r *anting and his people took some royal !elly from #ueen ells that ontained two.day.old lar$ae, and then they started analysing it. And what d"you think they found5 They found, he said, that royal !elly ontained phenols, sterols, gly erils, dextrose, and-now here it omes-and eighty to eighty.fi$e per ent unidentified a ids2 4e stood beside the book ase with the maga)ine in his hand, smiling a funny little furti$e smile of triumph, and his wife wat hed him, bewildered. 4e was not a tall man= he had a thi k plump pulpy.looking body that was built lose to the ground on abbre$iated legs. The legs were slightly bowed. The head was huge and round, o$ered with bristly short. ut hair, and the greater part of the fa enow that he had gi$en up sha$ing altogether-was hidden by a brownish yellow fu)) about an in h long. In one way and another, he was rather grotes#ue to look at, there was no denying that. 6ighty to eighty.fi$e per ent, he said, unidentified a ids. Isn"t that fantasti 5 4e turned ba k to the bookshelf and began hunting through the other maga)ines. 'hat does it mean, unidentified a ids5 That"s the whole point2 ,o one knows2 ,ot e$en *anting ould find out. %ou"$e heard of *anting5 ,o. 4e !ust happens to be about the most famous li$ing do tor in the world today, that"s all. 1ooking at him now as he bu))ed around in front of the book ase with his bristly head and his hairy fa e and his plump pulpy body, she ouldn"t help thinking that somehow, in some urious way, there was a tou h of the bee about this man. She had often seen women grow to look like the horses that they rode, and she had noti ed that people who bred birds or bull terriers or pomeranians fre#uently resembled in some small but startling manner the reature of their hoi e. *ut up until now it had ne$er o urred to her that her husband might look like a bee. It sho ked her a bit. And did *anting e$er try to eat it, she asked, this royal !elly5 +f ourse he didn"t eat it, Mabel. 4e didn"t ha$e enough for that. It"s too pre ious. %ou know something5 she said, staring at him but smiling a little all the same. %ou"re getting to look !ust a teeny bit like a bee yourself, did you know that5 4e turned and looked at her. I suppose it"s the beard mostly, she said. I do wish you"d stop wearing it. 6$en the olour is sort of bee.ish, don"t you think5 'hat the hell are you talking about, Mabel5 Albert, she said. %our language. /o you want to hear any more of this or don"t you5 %es, dear, I"m sorry. I was only !oking. /o go on. 4e turned away again and pulled another maga)ine out of the book ase and began leafing through the pages. ,ow !ust listen to this, Mabel. >In DEFE, 4eyl experimented with twenty.one.day.old rats, in!e ting them with royal !elly in $arying amounts. As a result, he found a pre o ious folli ular de$elopment of the o$aries dire tly in proportion

to the #uantity of royal !elly in!e ted." There2 she ried. I knew it2 9new what5 I knew something terrible would happen. ,onsense. There"s nothing wrong with that. ,ow here"s another, Mabel. >Still and *urdett found that a male rat whi h hitherto had been unable to breed, upon re ei$ing a minute daily dose of royal !elly, be ame a father many times o$er." Albert, she ried, this stuff is much too strong to gi$e to a baby2 I don"t like it at all. ,onsense, Mabel. Then why do they only try it out on rats, tell me that5 'hy don"t some of these famous s ientists take it themsel$es5 They"re too le$er, that"s why. /o you think /r *anting is going to risk finishing up with pre ious o$aries5 ,ot him. *ut they ha$e gi$en it to people, Mabel. 4ere"s a whole arti le about it. 1isten. 4e turned the page and again began reading from the maga)ine. >In Mexi o, in DEGF, a group of enlightened physi ians began pres ribing minute doses of royal !elly for su h things as erebral neuritis, arthritis, diabetes, autointoxi ation from toba o, impoten e in men, asthma, roup, and gout. . . . There are sta ks of signed testimonials . . . A elebrated sto kbroker in Mexi o &ity ontra ted a parti ularly stubborn ase of psoriasis. 4e be ame physi ally unattra ti$e. 4is lients began to forsake him. 4is business began to suffer. In desperation he turned to royal !elly-one drop with e$ery meal-and presto2-he was ured in a fortnight. A waiter in the &afH 3ena, also in Mexi o &ity, reported that his father, after taking minute doses of this wonder substan e in apsule form, sired a healthy boy hild at the age of ninety. A bullfight promoter in A apul o, finding himself landed with a rather lethargi .looking bull, in!e ted it with one gramme of royal !elly Ian ex essi$e doseJ !ust before it entered the arena. Thereupon, the beast be ame so swift and sa$age that it promptly dispat hed two pi adors, three horses, and a matador, and finally . . ." 1isten2 Mrs Taylor said, interrupting him. I think the baby"s rying. Albert glan ed up from his reading. Sure enough, a lusty yelling noise was oming from the bedroom abo$e. She must be hungry, he said. 4is wife looked at the lo k. 8ood gra ious me2 she ried, !umping up. It"s past her time again already2 %ou mix the feed, Albert, #ui kly, while I bring her down2 *ut hurry2 I don"t want to keep her waiting. In half a minute, Mrs Taylor was ba k, arrying the s reaming infant in her arms. She was flustered now, still #uite una ustomed to the ghastly nonstop ra ket that a healthy baby makes when it wants its food. /o be #ui k, Albert2 she alled, settling herself in the arm hair and arranging the hild on her lap. (lease hurry2 Albert entered from the kit hen and handed her the bottle of warm milk. It"s !ust right, he said. %ou don"t ha$e to test it. She hit hed the baby"s head a little higher in the rook of her arm, then pushed the rubber teat straight into the wide.open yelling mouth. The baby grabbed the teat and began to su k. The yelling stopped. Mrs Taylor relaxed. +h, Albert, isn"t she lo$ely5 She"s terrifi , Mabel-thanks to royal !elly. ,ow, dear, I don"t want to hear another word about that nasty stuff. It frightens me to death. %ou"re making a big mistake, he said. 'e"ll see about that.

The baby went on su king the bottle. I do belie$e she"s going to finish the whole lot again, Albert. I"m sure she is, he said. And a few minutes later, the milk was all gone. +h, what a good girl you are2 Mrs Taylor ried, as $ery gently she started to withdraw the nipple. The baby sensed what she was doing and su ked harder, trying to hold on. The woman ga$e a #ui k little tug, and plop, out it ame. 'aa2 'aa2 'aa2 'aa2 'aa2 the baby yelled. ,asty old wind, Mrs Taylor said, hoisting the hild on to her shoulder and patting its ba k. It bel hed twi e in #ui k su ession. There you are, my darling, you"ll be all right now. :or a few se onds, the yelling stopped. Then it started again. 9eep bel hing her, Albert said. She"s drunk it too #ui k. 4is wife lifted the baby ba k on to her shoulder. She rubbed its spine. She hanged it from one shoulder to the other. She lay it on its stoma h on her lap. She sat it up on her knee. *ut it didn"t bel h again, and the yelling be ame louder and more insistent e$ery minute. 8ood for the lungs, Albert Taylor said, grinning. That"s the way they exer ise their lungs, Mabel, did you know that5 There, there, there, the wife said, kissing it all o$er the fa e. There, there, there. They waited another fi$e minutes, but not for one moment did the s reaming stop. &hange the nappy, Albert said. It"s got a wet nappy, that"s all it is. 4e fet hed a lean one from the kit hen, and Mrs Taylor took the old one off and put the new one on. This made no differen e at all. 'aa2 'aa2 'aa2 'aa2 'aa2 the baby yelled. %ou didn"t sti k the safety pin through the skin, did you, Mabel5 +f ourse I didn"t, she said, feeling under the nappy with her fingers to make sure. The parents sat opposite one another in their arm hairs, smiling ner$ously, wat hing the baby on the mother"s lap, waiting for it to tire and stop s reaming. %ou know what5 Albert Taylor said at last. 'hat5 I"ll bet she"s still hungry. I"ll bet all she wants is another swig at that bottle. 4ow about me fet hing her an extra lot5 I don"t think we ought to do that, Albert. It"ll do her good, he said, getting up from his hair. I"m going to warm her up a se ond helping. 4e went into the kit hen, and was away se$eral minutes. 'hen he returned he was holding a bottle brimful of milk. I made her a double, he announ ed. 6ight oun es. 3ust in ase. Albert2 Are you mad2 /on"t you know it"s !ust as bad to o$erfeed as it is to underfeed5 %ou don"t ha$e to gi$e her the lot, Mabel. %ou an stop any time you like. 8o on, he said, standing o$er her. 8i$e her a drink. Mrs Taylor began to tease the baby"s upper lip with the end of the nipple. The tiny mouth losed like a trap o$er the rubber teat and suddenly there was silen e in the room. The baby"s whole body relaxed and a look of absolute bliss ame o$er its fa e as it

started to drink. There you are, Mabel2 'hat did I tell you5 The woman didn"t answer. She"s ra$enous, that"s what she is. 3ust look at her su k. Mrs Taylor was wat hing the le$el of the milk in the bottle. It was dropping fast, and before long three or four oun es out of the eight had disappeared. There, she said. That"ll do. %ou an"t pull it away now, Mabel. %es, dear. I must. 8o on, woman. 8i$e her the rest and stop fussing. *ut Albert . . . She"s famished, an"t you see that5 8o on, my beauty, he said. %ou finish that bottle. I don"t like it, Albert, the wife said, but she didn"t pull the bottle away. She"s making up for lost time, Mabel, that"s all she"s doing. :i$e minutes later the bottle was empty. Slowly, Mrs Taylor withdrew the nipple, and this time there was no protest from the baby, no sound at all. It lay pea efully on the mother"s lap, the eyes gla)ed with ontentment, the mouth half open, the lips smeared with milk. Twel$e whole oun es, Mabel2 Albert Taylor said. Three times the normal amount2 Isn"t that ama)ing2 The woman was staring down at the baby. And now the old anxious tight.lipped look of the frightened mother was slowly returning to her fa e. 'hat"s the matter with you5 Albert asked. %ou"re not worried by that, are you5 %ou an"t expe t her to get ba k to normal on a lousy four oun es, don"t be ridi ulous. &ome here, Albert, she said. 'hat5 I said ome here. 4e went o$er and stood beside her. Take a good look and tell me if you see anything different. 4e peered losely at the baby. She seems bigger, Mabel, if that"s what you mean. *igger and fatter. 4old her, she ordered. 8o on, pi k her up. 4e rea hed out and lifted the baby up off the mother"s lap. 8ood 8od2 he ried. She weighs a ton2 6xa tly. ,ow isn"t that mar$ellous2 he ried, beaming. I"ll bet she must be ba k to normal already2 It frightens me, Albert. It"s too #ui k. ,onsense, woman. It"s that disgusting !elly that"s done it, she said. I hate the stuff. There"s nothing disgusting about royal !elly, he answered, indignant. /on"t be a fool, Albert2 %ou think it"s normal for a hild to start putting on weight at this speed5 %ou"re ne$er satisfied2 he ried. %ou"re s ared stiff when she"s losing and now you"re absolutely terrified be ause she"s gaining2 'hat"s the matter with you, Mabel5 The woman got up from her hair with the baby in her arms and started towards the door. All I an say is, she said, it"s lu ky I"m here to see you don"t gi$e her any more of it, that"s all I an say. She went out, and Albert wat hed her through the open door as she rossed the hall to the foot of the stairs and started to as end, and when she

rea hed the third or fourth step she suddenly stopped and stood #uite still for se$eral se onds as though remembering something. Then she turned and ame down again rather #ui kly and re.entered the room. Albert, she said. %es5 I assume there wasn"t any royal !elly in this last feed we"$e !ust gi$en her5 I don"t see why you should assume that, Mabel. Albert2 'hat"s wrong5 he asked, soft and inno ent. 4ow dare you2 she ried. Albert Taylor"s great bearded fa e took on a pained and pu))led look. I think you ought to be $ery glad she"s got another big dose of it inside her, he said. 4onest I do. And this is a big dose, Mabel, belie$e you me. The woman was standing !ust inside the doorway lasping the sleeping baby in her arms and staring at her husband with huge eyes. She stood $ery ere t, her body absolutely stiff with fury, her fa e paler, more tight.lipped than e$er. %ou mark my words, Albert was saying, you"re going to ha$e a nipper there soon that"ll win first pri)e in any baby show in the entire ountry. 4ey, why don"t you weigh her now and see what she is5 %ou want me to get the s ales, Mabel, so you an weigh her5 The woman walked straight o$er to the large table in the entre of the room and laid the baby down and #ui kly started taking off its lothes. %es2 she snapped. 8et the s ales2 +ff ame the little nightgown, then the under$est. Then she unpinned the nappy and she drew it away and the baby lay naked on the table. *ut Mabel2 Albert ried. It"s a mira le2 She"s fat as a puppy2 Indeed, the amount of flesh the hild had put on sin e the day before was astounding. The small sunken hest with the rib bones showing all o$er it was now plump and round as a barrel, and the belly was bulging high in the air. &uriously, though, the arms and legs did not seem to ha$e grown in proportion. Still short and skinny, they looked like little sti ks protruding from a ball of fat. 1ook2 Albert said. She"s e$en beginning to get a bit of fu)) on the tummy to keep her warm2 4e put out a hand and was about to run the tips of his fingers o$er the powdering of silky yellowy.brown hairs that had suddenly appeared on the baby"s stoma h. Don t you touch her! the woman ried. She turned and fa ed him, her eyes bla)ing, and she looked suddenly like some kind of a little fighting bird with her ne k ar hed o$er towards him as though she were about to fly at his fa e and pe k his eyes out. ,ow wait a minute, he said, retreating. %ou must be mad2 she ried. ,ow wait !ust one minute, Mabel, will you please, be ause if you"re still thinking this stuff is dangerous . . . That is what you"re thinking, isn"t it5 All right, then. 1isten arefully. I shall now pro eed to prove to you on e and for all, Mabel, that royal !elly is absolutely harmless to human beings, e$en in enormous doses. :or example-why do you think we had only half the usual honey rop last summer5 Tell me that. 4is retreat, walking ba kwards, had taken him three or four yards away from her, where he seemed to feel more omfortable. The reason we had only half the usual rop last summer, he said slowly, lowering his $oi e, was be ause I turned one hundred of my hi$es o$er to the produ tion of

royal !elly. %ou what Ah, he whispered. I thought that might surprise you a bit. And I"$e been making it e$er sin e right under your $ery nose. 4is small eyes were glinting at her, and a slow sly smile was reeping around the orners of his mouth. %ou"ll ne$er guess the reason, either, he said. I"$e been afraid to mention it up to now be ause I thought it might . . . well . . . sort of embarrass you. There was a slight pause. 4e had his hands lasped high in front of him, le$el with his hest, and he was rubbing one palm against the other, making a soft s raping noise. %ou remember that bit I read you out of the maga)ine5 That bit about the rat5 1et me see now, how does it go5 >Still and *urdett found that a male rat whi h hitherto had been unable to breed . . ." 4e hesitated, the grin widening, showing his teeth. %ou get the message, Mabel5 She stood #uite still, fa ing him. The $ery first time I e$er read that senten e, Mabel, I !umped straight out of my hair and I said to myself if it"ll work with a lousy rat, I said, then there"s no reason on earth why it shouldn"t work with Albert Taylor. 4e paused again, raning his head forward and turning one ear slightly in his wife"s dire tion, waiting for her to say something. *ut she didn"t. And here"s another thing, he went on. It made me feel so absolutely mar$ellous, Mabel, and so sort of ompletely different to what I was before that I went right on taking it e$en after you"d announ ed the !oyful tidings. Buckets of it I must ha$e swallowed during the last twel$e months. The big hea$y haunted.looking eyes of the woman were mo$ing intently o$er the man"s fa e and ne k. There was no skin showing at all on the ne k, not e$en at the sides below the ears. The whole of it, to a point where it disappeared into the ollar of the shirt, was o$ered all the way around with those shortish silky hairs, yellowy bla k. Mind you, he said, turning away from her, ga)ing lo$ingly now at the baby, it"s going to work far better on a tiny infant than on a fully de$eloped man like me. %ou"$e only got to look at her to see that, don"t you agree5 The woman"s eyes tra$elled slowly downward and settled on the baby. The baby was lying naked on the table, fat and white and omatose, like some giganti grub that was approa hing the end of its lar$al life and would soon emerge into the world omplete with mandibles and wings. 'hy don"t you o$er her up, Mabel5 he said. 'e don"t want our little #ueen to at h a old.

You might also like