142 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



brought to his very door ? Uncle Billy was 

 a man who did not stop long to coax one 

 who was afraid of frost or cold weather. 



The work was over on tlie hill near their 

 home. Mr. Jones did as he was bid, and 

 asked no further questions. J^efore night, 

 rough blocks of stone were got out, and in 

 rough sheds, hastily built of boards, masons 

 were getting ready to cut them into shape. 

 Mr. Jones was called on in a good many 

 ways at once ; and because the business was 

 new to him, he got some very unkind, harsh 

 words; but he remembered the prayer of the 

 night before, and also the kind words of 

 Uncle Billy, and he someway felt sure Uncle 

 Billy would interfere if the abuse went too 

 far. For his part, he decided to do the best 

 he knew how, quietly, and trust — yes, trust 

 God to take care of him. 



Many surmises were made as to what 

 Uncle Billy wanted of such stone ; but to all 

 inquiries he only replied he thought they 

 "might come handy some day;" but the 

 question was. Why should he take such a 

 sudden notion to commence such work, right 

 in the middle of winter? As they were 

 gathering up the tools at night, he said,— 



" Mr. Jones, you have had it a little hard 

 to-day; but alter the men know you, and 

 you know them, I guess it will be all right." 

 That was all, but it did him a great deal of 

 good. 



As the weather moderated so the stone 

 could be handled and worked, the new stone- 

 quarry began to be quite a busy place ; and 

 as most of the hands from both the quarry 

 and sawmill passed the little house beside 

 the watering-trough, going to and from their 

 meals, quite a little trade started up in tin 

 cups, pails, honey, maple-sugar candy, etc. 

 While John was at school, his mother was 

 obliged to sell the things; and, to make it 

 more convenient for her, John and his father 

 arranged a kind of stand each side of their 

 front door, for the utensils, so they would be 

 in sight from the road. This stand was 

 such as you sometimes see for flower-pots,— 

 a sort of steps, as it were, one above the 

 other. Besides the 2o-cent pails for honey, 

 John had made some i-lb. pails, to be sold 

 full of honey, for only a dime. These he 

 made one Saturday ; and as they seemed 

 just right for a lunch, the workmen who 

 carried their dinners took them off in no 

 time. 



While Mr. Merry banks was one day wait- 

 ing in the tity, he came across a stock of 

 small jelly tumblers, holding just about ^ lb. 

 of honey. By purchasing the lot, he got 

 them for 2-1 cents per dozen. John soon 

 made tin caps for these, at a cost of i cent, 

 and there they had a glass package for honey, 

 that could be sold at a profit for 3 cents. 

 The whole neighborhood made a run on 

 them, until every family had one or more of 

 these pretty little tumblers ; and after that 

 they allowed 3 cents each for all that were 

 returned. Well, friend M. also found in the 

 city some little tin pie-plates, inches across, 

 that he got so John could sell them for 3 

 cents, and a larger size for 5 cents. John's 

 mother was an adept in making pies, and it 

 was not very long before a brisk trade had 

 started up on 5-cent pies, and this paved the 



way for some beautiful light gems, to go 

 with the honey, that the workmen always 

 found smoking hot, just at dinner time, at 

 the house beside the spring. Two gems and 

 a dish of honey were only 5 cents. Did I 

 tell you they had a line crop of beautiful 

 white beans, where that old slop-hole once 

 used to be V Well, they did ; and as there 

 had been no good offer for them, they had 

 not been sold. Well, altogether they some 

 way contrived to fix up some most tempting- 

 looking little tin dishes of baked beans, each 

 one having a tiny piece of nice pork in it, 

 that just captivated the quarry-workers ; 

 and when hot coffee (for only 3c) was put on 

 the little bills of fare that Tom printed, the 

 workmen, almost in a body, decided to have 

 dinner down at the " Temperance Hotel," 

 instead of either carrying tlieir dinners or 

 going to town. When they got tired of 

 beans and pork, Mrs. Jones gave them 

 " hulled corn " in such good-sized dishes, 

 and so daintily cooked and served, that 

 some of her customers told her she would 

 lose money in furnishing a dish like that for 

 5 cents. 



After some talk on the matter, the man 

 told her he had quite a family, and they had 

 hard work to make both ends meet. He had 

 told his wife he could get a good dinner of 

 corn and beans for 10 cents, and they could 

 not understand how it could be done. Mrs. 

 J. told liim, smilingly, to buy a bushel each 

 of corn, beans, and wheat, and she would 

 show him how to cook them so that 10 cents 

 would come pretty near paying for the ma- 

 terials for his whole family. 



Just here friend Mtrrybanks came in, 

 with samples of maple sugar and molasses 

 that he had been making during the month 

 of February. 



"• Surely," said Mrs. J., " this is honey." 



" No, it isn't honey. Taste it." 



A small glass dish of it was given to all 

 present, and the exclamations of surprise 

 and pleasure were satisfying. Each one de- 

 clared it was the most beautifully flavored 

 sweet that had ever passed their lips. The 

 sugar cakes were about as white as cream, 

 and had this same wonderfully fine flavor, 

 reminding one of buds and blossoms, and 

 possibly of their earlier days, away back in 

 the woods on the old farm . 



" Now," said our friend, " I have long had 

 the idea, that as much or more progress is 

 possible in making maple sugar and syrup, 

 as in getting nice honey, and a nice price for 

 it. This cost me a good deal, it is true ; but 

 I just wish to leave these samples here, and 

 let your customers taste of them. The 

 syrup you are to sell the same as you do 

 honey, which will be about SI. 50 per gallon, 

 and these little two-ounce cakes, for 5 cents, 

 which will come to about 40 cents ]ier lb., 

 you are to have one-third for selling.'' 



I need hardly say, that, even in that com- 

 munity, both sold readily, whilethe ordinary 

 dark sugar and syrup sold slow, at usual 

 prices. 



It was Saturday, toward evening, after a 

 mild day, very near the first of March. 

 They had stoijped work at the quarry early, 

 as they usually did Saturday, and, at John's 

 urgent request, his father and mother were 



