26 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1. 



The next day was Sunday, so I could not do 

 very mucli in the way of investigating the 

 quiver surroundings of my relatives: but I was 

 so full of questions, and some of them that 

 would hardly l<eep over night, that I am afraid 

 I did a little investigating, even on Sunday. 

 We found a Congregational church, and a very 

 bright, wide-awake Sunday-school. The pas- 

 tor and the superintendent were on the lookout 

 for strangers; and, in fact, the latter person, 

 after the services were over, kindly took our 

 horse by the bits and waylaid Mrs." Root and 

 myself and our relatives. They took us over to 

 his own house for dinner, in spite of the protests 

 of the women-folks that their own dinner was 

 awaiting them at home. Then they gave us 

 the wunderful electric water to drink. I was 

 thirsty enough, after my week of wheeling, to 

 enjoy it to its fullest extent. Judge Wallis, our 

 host, gave me much information in regard to 

 Lebanon and its people. We finally got back 

 home, and I was very anxious to attend a Sun- 

 day-school, about a mile away in the woods; 

 but they told me it was too late, and that we 

 should have to give it up. A few minutes later 

 I caught a glimpse of some feminine apparel 

 belonging to somebody who was evidently 

 slipping away and in haste to get out of sight. 

 They did not answer my questions very prompt- 

 ly and squarely; but I soon guessed that Mrs. 

 H — by the way, when we were boys and girls 

 together we used to call her " Mary," for short, 

 and I think I shall call her Mary now. Well, 

 Mary had slipped away and started off through 

 the woods, to that Sunday-school. It seems 

 she had the lesson-papers, etc., that they would 

 need. The foot-path through the woods was a 

 much nearer way than around the wagon -road. 

 As soon as I could make a little change in my 

 apparel I started after her in spite of protests. 

 Just as I was disappearing down the lane, the 

 young lady whom I met first the evening be- 

 fore, and whom I shall call May, called out and 

 gave me some hasty directions in regard to the 

 footpath through the woods. I smiled at their 

 directions, thinking I was smart enough to 

 catch up with any woman on foot before she 

 could get out of sight. Well, I shall have to 

 acknowledge that a Missouri woman was a 

 little too much for me. Had I not listened to 

 May's directions I might have been wandering 

 in the wilderness up to this time for aught I 

 know. I finally caught a glimpse of Mary just 

 before we came out into the clearing. The 

 schoolhouse is in the center of a circular spot 

 right in the widerness, and the dwarf-oaks are 

 so dense that one looks around the circle in 

 vain to find the way out. Judge Wallis and 

 the minister were there before me, with a 

 double buggy, and 1 laughingly asked them 

 where in the world they got inside. The judge 

 said he could hardly tell; but when they went 

 home they were going to drive clear around 

 the outside until they should come to a vacan- 

 cy in the trees where they could squeeze 

 through. 



The country schoolhouse was pretty well 

 packed with people. Mary did not know that 

 the minister and the judge would be present, 

 and so she felt anxious about having somebody 

 on hand to look after the young people in case 

 the regular leaders did not appear. The most 

 of the gathering consisted of boys and girls, 

 such as you might find in any neighborhood. 

 As the pastor from town was present, we had a 



short preaching service after the lesson. The 

 discourse was taken from the forest-leaves that 

 had just been nicely decorated by the first frost 



autumn. 



In almost every country neighborhood, es- 

 pecially where they are a little off from town, 

 the boys and girls are always wanting to "go 

 somewhere," especially during a Sunday after- 

 noon in the fall of the year. Now, can any 

 better place be devised than a Sunday-school ia 

 the schoolnouse, with a good sober spiritual 

 man or woman to look after the young people? 



1 often think of that pleasant walk through 

 the woods on our return home. Thirty years 

 ago both Mary and myself were quite intimate- 

 ly acquainted. But while in our teens, neither 

 one of us, I fear, thought very much of spiritual 

 things. What changes time had wroughtl In 

 those days gone by, a Sunday-school in the 

 country would have been the last thing to at- 

 tract my attention, unless, indeed, 1 went to 

 have some fun. ^lay God forgive me, as my 

 memory goes back to those old times, to think: 

 that once or twice my principal motive in go- 

 ing was, pretty nearly, only to create disturb- 

 ance. It may be well for me to think of thia 

 when 1 feel inclined to criticise too severely 

 some of the young people of the present day. 



Monday morning I was wide awake for in- 

 vestigations. The view of that great spring 

 impressed me with the idea that the locality 

 was cavernous, like the region around Mam- 

 moth Cave; and even before breakfast I found 

 a low place, right in front of the house, where 

 the waters during a heavy rain went down and 

 out of sight. There was originally a sort of 

 cave there; but in working the road it had 

 gradually filled up. Futhermore, in one of 

 Rob's fields, during harvest time one of the 

 horses broke through and went down into an 

 underground pit, and they had to stop work and 

 get it out. As this pit was quite a nuisance in 

 the middle of the Held, they had filled it up 

 with trash. When 1 protested, Robert told me 

 that we should find caverns before 1 left, with- 

 out going to the trouble of digging. Judge 

 Wallis told me that, in drilling for that beauti- 

 ful water in Lebanon, the drill several times 

 passed through cavities, and they were obliged 

 to tube the well through these to prevent los- 

 ing the water. 



Right here perhaps I may say a word in re- 

 gard to the wonderful "electric water," as they 

 terra it. In the first place, if you hold a knife- 

 blade in the stream of water as it comes out of 

 the iron tube it will become magnetized, show- 

 ing the wonderful electric properties of the 

 water. Secondly, when this water is used for 

 making steam, if you hold your hand in the jet 

 of steam as it issues from a pipe, electric 

 lights or stars will be seen on the ends of your 

 fingers. These facts are vouchsafed for by the 

 judge himself, for he had seen them with his 

 own eyes. As it was Sunday, and I was his 

 guest, I did not feel like taking him to task 

 just then and there for the superstition; but, 

 dear reader, let me say to you that all these 

 stories about magnetic water are right along in 

 line with the Electropoise swindle. The man 

 who puts the knife-blade into the stream of 

 water from the medical well, takes pains to 

 draw the blade across the top of the iron tube; 

 and it is this iron tube and not the water that 

 makes the knife magnetic. Any iron tube or 

 iron bar that has been standing awhile upright 

 in the ground is quite sure to become mag- 

 netized. Men who drill wells are familar with 

 this fact. In fact, iron tubes sometimes be- 

 come so strongly magnetic that they will pick 

 up a small-sized adjustable wrench. A friend 

 once told me that the water in a glass bottle 

 taken from a magnetic well would magnetize a 



