492 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15. 



wonderful grace and skill. This time the 

 waves were still higher, and it seemed as if she 

 were really in danger as she threw up her bag 

 of mail, caught th?. other in return, and pitched 

 her tish into the pail that was let down to re- 

 ceive them. She evidently seemed to think she 

 had better finish business as speedily as possi- 

 ble and get hold of her oars. When a bicyclist 

 gets even one foot on his pedal he is master of 

 the situation; and it is so with a boatman, only 

 he wants to get his hands on the oars, to be 

 able to defy the winds and waves that seem 

 ready to work his destruction. Our little post- 

 mistress made things fly right lively. She 

 tossed the money into the bottotn of the boat, 

 catching with the other hand her hat, which 

 the wind seemed determined to take away, then 

 grasped an oar. settled herself back, and, when 

 the wild winds made sport with her brown 

 curly hair, she by sheer strength and skill made 

 her boat spring almost as if it were a thing of 

 life, and had wings. I was thinking about 

 making mention of her wonderful ability, here 

 in these pages, and inquired of the passengers 

 how old she was. No one could tell. I did not 

 dare disturb her with questions until she had 

 her boat well under control, and then I ven- 

 tured: 



" Please, sis, how old are you ? " 



As the boat prepared to shoot off across the 

 foamy crest of the waves, she threw her head 

 back, looked in the direction whence the in- 

 quiry came, and for one brief moment I caught 

 a full glance of her dark lustrous eyes. She 

 wore a jaunty sailors" cap: and for convenience 

 (probably more than any other reason) the 

 sleeves of her dress were such as to show her 

 beautifully rounded arms that handled the oars 

 with such strength and skill. Her complexion 

 was, of course, brown, from the sun and wind, 

 and there was not a bit of paint used to make 

 her whiter than God had seen fit. Oh, yes I I 

 have quite an eye for feminine beauty, even if 

 I am toward sixty; but, dear friends, there 

 never was a painted woman, old or young, who 

 could, in my estimation, approach this girl, 

 grown up, as it were, with the winds and waves. 

 Before she opened her mouth to make a reply I 

 saw that for once in the world I had blundered. 

 I called her "sis." thinking she was perhaps 

 twelve or may be a little more. Instead of a 

 "sis" she was a miss of sixteen or perhaps 

 eighteen. She looked me full in the face, with 

 a saucy twinkle in her dark eyes, and with a 

 little bit, perhaps, of natural pride (and. by the 

 way, she has about as much to be proud of as 

 any woman I know of), she replied — well, what 

 do you think she did say. anv way? Only this: 



" It isn't any of your busmess, sir, how old I 

 am." 



It was now ray turn to feel hurt, and I colored 

 up a little. But as she disappeared— or, per- 

 haps I should say, as the distance between us 

 widened — she vouchsafed to me a bewitching 

 smile that allayed any slight wound I may have 

 felt in the words she used. The smile said to 

 me, '"Oh! you need not feel hurt, my good 

 friend; I feel pleasant and neighborly toward 

 you all the same, even if I do not choose just 

 now to tell you that I am not quite so much of 

 a little girl, after all. as some people think." 



The passengers banterea mn some, good- 

 naturedly, and one of them told me that he felt 

 sure she had no thought of being uncourteous. 

 She naturally attracted considerable attention, 

 and was used to banter with the passengers, 

 and had gradually fallen into a way of being 

 perhaps a trifle saucy, or into a way of speak- 

 ing that might appear so. May God be praised 

 that women are at this stage and age of the 

 world making themselves useful and indepen- 

 dent in honest and praiseworthy callings, even 



if their calling does sometimes bring them not 

 only out into the open air, before the curious 

 gaze of mankind; and may God help 7/Ja7ikind 

 at large to regard all such women as they would 

 their own sisters and their own daughters; and 

 may we rejoice that it is our privilege to stand 

 before them to protect them, and to defend 

 them, if need be, from every thing that is evil 

 or unholy. 



My next visit was at Thonototassa. Unless 

 you have had a little practice in pronouncing 

 this name you will have a good deal of dil^cul- 

 ty in speaking it as the Florida people do. But 

 our good friend Mrs. W. H. Stacey helped me 

 to learn it by suggesting that I pronounce the 

 first two syllables — thono — as one syllable; 

 then pronounce the rest of the word as it is 

 spelled, and then you have it— Th'7io-to-tas-sa. 



To introduce friend Stacey and his wife I 

 shall have to tell you that, when O. O. Popple- 

 ton first spent a winter in Florida, he made his 

 stopping place with these good people. Now, 

 friend P. could not be anywhere very long with- 

 out talking bees; and he not only taJ/ced bees, 

 but he made a bee-hive, then a honey-extractor, 

 and finally a foot-power buzz saw, without 

 even a carpenter shop or tinshop to aid him; 

 and the very extractor and buzz-saw were 

 shown to me. 



The Staceys are great poultry-keepers. Be- 

 fore I had hardly set foot in the dooryard I 

 was charmed by beautiful flocks of White Leg- 

 horns. Each flock has its appropriate yard. 

 Before I left I was permitted to assist in gath- 

 ing the eggs. I have had all my life visions of 

 a model poultry - establishment, with every 

 thing so neat and tidy that it would be an un- 

 mixed pleasure to tend the " biddies " and gath- 

 er the eggs. And here I found my dream al- 

 most realized. Mrs. Stacey suggested that, 

 before I said too much about their poultry- 

 establishment. I should pay a visit to their 

 neighbor, Rev. J. H. Waddell. When we ar- 

 rived, the pastor himself was absent; but his 

 good wife very soon enlisted not only my whole 

 attention but my enthusiasm by their beautiful 

 home and their poultry-appliances. Why, the 

 whole estahlishnicnt looked as if it had been 

 swept and dusted that very morning. The 

 nests and the roosts, and every thing pertaining 

 to Mrs. W.'s White Leghorns, was so unique and 

 tidy that I turned to her and inquired whether 

 she had really taught her fowls to wipe their 

 feet on the doormat before they got into the 

 nests. Now. there is 7iot a very large amount 

 of money laid out around the Waddell establish- 

 ment. When I made some inquiries as to how 

 many men they employed, our hostess replied 

 she believed the pastor himself was the only 

 hired man they had about the premises at that 

 time. Pretty soon we found him coming along 

 with a cartload of old brush and rubbish that 

 he had been gathering up. Do you know, dear 

 readers, that some people have a knack of keep- 

 ing things neat and tidy, without paying out 

 any money of any account? Others will keep 

 a lot of help, and even then seem often worried 

 with many cares and anxieties. I am afraid I 

 belong to the latter class. 



Now, ever since that pleasant visit I have 

 been afraid that, in writing up this pastor's 

 home away back in the Florida wilderness, I 

 should make too long a story of it; so I am 

 going to stop right here by simply saying that 

 it was the pleasantest home I ever saw, either 

 in California. Arizona, down south, up north, 

 and I will not except even any thing I saw 

 away down east in Boston. I have never seen 

 any thing anywhere that so satisfied and re- 

 freshed my longings for a model home as this 

 one of which I have been telling. Perhaps one 

 secret of it is, the clean white sand that nature 



