1910 



GLEANINGS JN BEE CULTURE 



535 



Our Homes 



By A. I. Root 



I am a jealous (iod, visitiug the iniquity of the 

 fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth 

 generation of them that hate me. — Ex. 20:5. 



In California ami Florida, and many 

 other places where the i)eople have been in 

 the habit of iBakinii: footi^aths through the 

 woods and fields, it is often customary, 

 wlien one buys a i)iece of property, to run a 

 fence across the highways and thoroughfares 

 — that is, where no street has been properly 

 laid out. While Mrs. Root and I were in 

 California several years ago we started home 

 crosslots after dark by a well-known path. 

 As it was late, and I was in a hurry, I was 

 pushing ahead rather rai)idly in the dark; 

 but as I was familiar with the well-trodden 

 path I did not expect any obstruction. It 

 seems, however, that somebody had bought 

 a piece of land, and run a fence right 

 through, to start a chicken-ranch ; and the 

 frail poviltrj'-netting was so invisible that I 

 did not see or think of what had been put 

 right across the pathway since I had been 

 along in that direction. Before I knew it I 

 had plunged into the netting with such 

 force that it threw me back into the dirt 

 like a ball. Of course, I was more aston- 

 ished than hurt; but the bruises were suffi- 

 cient to vex me as it was; and I was still 

 more vexed to see Mrs. Root shaking with 

 laughter. I think I asked her, somewhat 

 im])atiently, if she proposed to indulge in 

 such merriment if I broke my bones or got 

 killed. I think she declared she did not 

 laugh until she saw me stand up and was 

 apparently all right. Recently down in our 

 Florida home I walked off our porch in the 

 dark, and almost went down on my head 

 on the hard cement pavement I had recently 

 made. And she laughed at that. Now, do 

 not imagine that I am putting up a co7n- 

 plamf against Mrs. Root after .11 the good 

 things I have said about her in years past. 

 I simply wish to illustrate her fashion of 

 laughing at accidents similar to these I 

 have mentioned. If anybody is really hurt 

 she is not only the readiest person in the 

 world to help relieve sufTering, but she 

 knows what to do about as well a«! any- 

 body I know of to ease the pains and trials 

 of life. 



.lust one more illustration, and then I am 

 ready for my moral. 



I have several times mentioned our good 

 neighbor, the Rev. Mr. Ten Broek. Now, 

 neighbor T. is an old man like myself, but 

 he is an Episcopal minister. Well, when 

 he came over to our house one day last win- 

 ter, slowly limping along, and announced 

 that he had fallen off the roof of his house, 

 Mrs. Root laughed again. It seems that 

 the roof of his cottage needed some shin- 

 gles; and as he was alone, the good man, 

 even if he is seventy years old, thought he 



could go up and fix it without troubling his 

 neighbors. If it had not been for the 

 growth of tropical grass, briers, etc. (such 

 as I have described in telling about his 

 Xorthey berry, on page o33, May 15), his 

 fall might have been something more than 

 a laughing-matter ; but his comical look 

 when he annoimced his mishap, together 

 with the idea of a 2>r€acher, and an Episco- 

 palian at that, roiling off the roof of the 

 hou.se into the briers, set Mrs. Root to laugh- 

 ing again and again. I think he protested 

 a little, and inquired something as follows; 



"My good woman, why do you laugh? 

 Suppose I had been killed — would you still 

 laitgh about it?" 



"Xo, no, Mr. T. I would not laugh if 

 you had been killed; but what I am laugh- 

 ing about is because you were not killed, 

 and apparently not very much hurt; and we 

 are all glad to see you able to come over 

 and tell us about it after it is all over." 



'•But I am bruised and hurt, even if I 

 was hot killed." 



And then we both busied ourselves in 

 offering him courtplaster, cuticura, and 

 every thing else. Let me now digress. 



There is one among our grandchildren 

 who has had, all his life, a fashion of laugh- 

 ing, sometimes uproariously, whenever any 

 sort of accident happens. If there is any 

 trouble with the automobile he laughs as if 

 it were great fun. even though it stops prog- 

 ress on the journey ; and although his 

 parents have often reproved him for his 

 fashion, or for his queer ability to see the 

 ludicrous or ridiculous part of every occur- 

 rence, it does not seem to be of much use. 

 The other night in coming home from 

 church we had to make a long trip through 

 a patch of woods after dark. I told Leland 

 that, without the experience I had had in 

 times past in following that path through 

 the darkness, I should not be able to do it 

 So I took the lead. We came through all 

 right and in sight of our home; but just as 

 we were rejoicing almost at the very thresh- 

 old of the door, we got out of the path and 

 into a thick underbrush, and had quite a 

 time in climbing over rotten logs and into 

 the thicket until we gained our home. Le- 

 land got tangled up away out in the woods 

 until I feared he would get beyond my 

 hearing. He said /was wrong, and I said 

 he was wrong; and it was really the blind 

 leading the blind, and we were both "in the 

 ditch," or at least almost hopelessly tangled 

 in the brush and among the rotten logs of 

 our wild wood around the cabin. Well, Ice- 

 land laughed as usual. With his boyish 

 strength to surmount obstacles it was more 

 of a laughing-matter to him than to me. 

 We finally reached the cabin door. Then it 

 occurred to me that the key I had in my 

 pocket would not work in the door before 

 us. I had to get in by going round to the 

 door on the other side. In order to get 

 there I had to pass, in the darkness, the 

 stump of one of my beautiful apricot-trees. 

 After it had just begun to bear, all of a sud- 

 den it died: and in chopping it do"WTi and 



