Harriet the Hardworking Honeybee
Story by Sheila Plank. Illustrations by Oksana Matiikiv.
Once upon a time there was a clearing in the woods called Pleasant Meadow. It was full of flowers and tall grasses, and it had many grasshoppers, ladybugs, anthills, and buzzing bees all around.
Every day when the sun shined, all of the hardworking honeybees flew out the keyhole, which was the entrance to their hive. They busied themselves drinking nectar from flowers and collecting pollen in their pollen sacs. Then they brought their pollen back to the hive, which pleased Betsy the Queen Bee and made for a harmonious home.
Harriet was the smallest and hardest working honeybee of them all. She had to work harder than anyone else to collect the same amount of pollen because her pollen sacs were so much smaller than everyone else’s. She didn’t mind, though. She just worked harder and harder to make Betsy the Queen Bee happy. This, she knew, helped to maintain the peace and harmony inside the hive.
Then there were days when Harriet worked so hard that she felt like she might fall over. She would get dizzy and hot in the bright, bright sunshine. On those days, she would drink a little extra nectar and push herself even harder to bring back more pollen.
It was on one such day when Harriet the hard working honeybee met Jack the caterpillar, who wore a top hat. Jack listened to Harriet’s story and told her that if she wanted to fix her problem, all she needed to do was find a blue darling flower and drink its nectar. He said it would make her pollen sacs grow to be double their normal size. Then she could carry enough pollen back to the hive and wouldn’t have to make so many trips that she wore herself out.
Harriet thought that sounded like good advice. She got so excited thinking about how happy it would make Betsy the Queen Bee when she returned with more pollen than any of the other bees that she could barely wait to set out searching for the blue darling flower.
“Just follow the stream up to the waterfall,” said Jack. There you will find a strange-looking pink rock, and out of the edges of that rock will be growing the blue darling flowers. You’ll know when you see them because they grow nowhere else in Pleasant Meadow.
Harriet was so happy that she hugged and kissed Jack the caterpillar, knocking his top hat askew. He seemed to be bothered by this but only because, as a dignified caterpillar, he was unaccustomed to hugs and kisses.
Harriet took off toward the stream at the edge of Pleasant Meadow. She followed it all the way up until she came to a beautiful waterfall. Sure enough, there by the waterfall was a strange-looking pink rock. And out of that rock were growing several tufts of blue, bell-shaped flowers. Harriet had never seen such flowers before – not anywhere in Pleasant Meadow, and she had lived there all her life!
She buzzed over to the blue darling tufts and straight into one of the little blue bell flowers. She perched on one of its petals. Bending to reach the single drop of nectar inside, she slurped up the shiny liquid.
Suddenly, she realized that Jack had not told her how much to drink. Since it was such a small amount in one flower, she decided she’d better try two. Then after she’d drunk the second drop, she thought maybe three would be best. So she sipped up her third drop of blue darling nectar and turned to go on her way.
She couldn’t help noticing that, on her way back to Pleasant Meadow, her legs grew longer and her pollen sacs grew larger and larger.
“It’s working!” Harriet was so excited that she double-flipped in the air and buzzed around noisily. She could hardly wait to go back and find Jack to thank him. But first, Harriet thought, she had work to do. She needed to collect the pollen and take it back with her to the hive.
So she stopped at the first red flower she saw. Harriet noticed as she landed that she had grown bigger and heavier because the petals that normally held her body weight quite easily were now bowed under with the effort. She went on her way, however, gathering as much pollen as would fit in her pollen sacs first from one flower, then two flowers, then three, and then more flowers!
Harriet could not believe how much pollen she could suddenly carry, and it didn’t make her feel tired at all! She simply buzzed around from flower to flower until her pollen sacs were quite full. Then she buzzed right on back to the keyhole entrance to the beehive.
At first she tried flying straight in as she always had done, but she didn’t fit.
“Oh dear,” she said, “I must have grown too big.”
So she flew backwards a little ways and lined herself up with the largest part of the keyhole’s opening. She tried again to fly straight into the entrance to the hive, but for the second time, she found that she was too big.
Harriet realized she needed another strategy. So she landed at the edge of the keyhole and tried to enter through the opening one leg at a time, but she still could not get through. She sucked in a breath and squeezed her body as much as she could to try to make it smaller, but all she managed to do was to get herself stuck. Now none of the bees could get in or out of the keyhole.
This caused an incredible buzzing in the hive, as all of the bees told the story about Harriet, the smallest bee in the hive, coming back from Pleasant Meadow and being too big to fit through the keyhole.
It was not long before Betsy the Queen Bee was alerted to the problem. She made a royal appearance in the Great Hall near the entrance to the hive and addressed Harriet directly.
“Harriet, my dear, Harriet. So the stories are true. You used to be the smallest bee in the hive. But now look at you! You are so big you cannot even fit through the keyhole. Whatever shall I do with you?”
Harriet was sad and embarrassed. She was only trying to help, but she’d always had trouble keeping up with everyone else. She told her whole story to Betsy the Queen Bee, including the part about the blue darling flowers and how their nectar had made her grow bigger.
“Harriet, don’t you know that your value is not in how much work you can do? I know you are the smallest bee in the hive and don’t expect you to bring in as much pollen as the other bees. I only expect you to do your best, as indeed you always have.”
Harriet felt even more embarrassed now that she had created such a scene, especially because Betsy the Queen Bee would have understood if only she had taken her problem directly to her in the first place.
However, she also felt a small sense of relief somewhere deep inside her heart, knowing that who she was – the smallest bee in the hive – was already good enough. She wondered what to do now, though, since she had caused such a problem for the hive.
Betsy the Queen Bee had a solution in mind and was already beginning to put it into action. She had some of the worker bees both inside and outside the keyhole slather the opening with beeswax, and then she spoke to Harriet.
“Go back to Jack the Caterpillar and tell him you need to be your old self again. Ask him what to do and then follow his advice. Come back as soon as you can!”
“Goodbye! Goodbye!” called all the other bees as Harriet’s overgrown body finally popped out from the keyhole entrance to the hive. As soon as she was free, Harriet set off to find Jack, who was enjoying the last few rays of sunshine on a lovely day in Pleasant Meadow.
“Harriet, I see you are fine and well! Goodness gracious, but you have grown to be so big, I almost didn’t recognize you!”
“Hello Jack! It’s good to see you, old friend. But the blue darling nectar has worked too well. I can no longer fit through the entrance to the hive!
“What’s more, Betsy the Queen Bee has made me realize that I was already just right – exactly as I was. She never expected me to bring in as much pollen as the bigger bees. She only wanted me to do my best.
“The problem was just that I was comparing myself to the others and expecting too much from myself. That’s why I wanted to change. But I see now that it’s not important that I be bigger. I just need to be myself. Can you help me change back to the way I was before?”
Jack rubbed his chin momentarily as he gave it some thought.
“Well, the waters of the Salty Spring will usually reverse the effects of any kind of magic, but are you sure you want to do that?
“Oh, yes – yes, I am! Can you tell me where to find the Salty Spring?”
“Well, if you’re really certain you don’t want to be big anymore, you must follow the sun until it starts to set and the long shadows fall across the grass. In the light of the setting sun, turn around and have a look at Pleasant Meadow. Then you will see the glinting waters of the Salty Spring. You must bathe in its waters until the effects wear off. But mind you, this is a permanent solution. You will never again be able to get bigger by drinking the blue darling nectar. So you’d better be sure.”
Harriet gave the matter one last thought.
“I’m sure,” she said. “Thank you, Jack!”
“Good luck!” Jack tilted his top hat as Harriet buzzed away.
She followed the sun until it began to cast long shadows on the ground. Then she turned around and looked all across Pleasant Meadow for the waters of Salty Spring.
“There!” Harriet spotted the glinting waters. She buzzed over to the spring and dove right in. The water was warm and came straight out of the earth. Harriet rolled over and over, letting her whole body be cleansed by the water in the little pool.
As the light of the setting sun waned, she started to notice the pool getting bigger – or rather, her body getting smaller! She was so excited that she could hardly wait to get back to the hive and show everyone.
She got out of the water and shook her body to dry off. As soon as she was dry, she buzzed away to the hive. Harriet was so eager to get back home that she didn’t even stop to fill up her pollen sacs.
When she buzzed in through the keyhole, nobody seemed to mind that she hadn’t brought any any pollen. They were just so happy to have their Harriet back – exactly the way she was supposed to be.
Even Betsy the Queen Bee came to congratulate her on finding a way to get back to her old self, and Harriet never again tried to be anything other than what she’d always been, a hardworking honeybee, the smallest bee in the hive.