18'.)3 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



715 



out too, unless you want some of those sweet 

 ones;" and he pointed his thumb at the glass 

 cases containing crackor-i upon the shelf. Now, 

 I never liked sweet crackers, and here was a 

 dilemma. Pretty soon my eyes rested on a case 

 that was labeled " PretzeN;" and there, sure 

 enough, were the crooked things right up 

 against the glass. When I recovered from that 

 spell of fever, one of the first things the doctor 

 prescribed for me was pretzels and cold coffee, 

 half milk. They allowed me to have these five 

 times a day, and I used to think them the most 

 delicious food in the world when I was so 

 hungry. I instantly replied, "Oh! you have got 

 some pretzels — hand them down.'" Next I 

 espied some ten-cent boxes of sardines; and 

 with the help of the good appetite given me by 

 my brisk riding. I made a very satisfactory din- 

 ner on the pretzels and sardines. There is a 

 moral right here, and I guess I will whisper the 

 moral to the good housewives who may happen 

 to read these pages. If your husbands are in 

 the habit of finding fault, and complaining of 

 the bill of fare, just get them to riding a wheel, 

 and then you will see them thankful and happy 

 — yes. in a frame of mind to give thanks to God. 

 even if they should not happen to have any 

 thing better for dinner than crackers and 

 sardines. This matter of going to the expense 

 of purchasing a wheel confronts me constantly; 

 but a great many timi'S a wheel will take the 

 place of a horse, or a horse and buggy both; 

 and when we consider that the expense of keep- 

 ing a whnel is nothing to that of keeping a 

 horse, it may not be such a piece of extrava- 

 gance after all; and when tho women-folks get 

 to riding, as they are here in Medina, one wheel 

 belonging to a family, and so arranged that it 

 can be used for men and women both, it seems 

 to me such a wheel might many times be a sav- 

 ing of expense instead of biMng considered an 

 extravaffance. 



I pulled out some money, and asked the store- 

 keeper how much I owed him. 



"Just 23 cents." 



I gave a whistle, and said, " Why, didn't you 

 forget to charge me for my bed ?" 



" Why, I didn't expect to charge any thing 

 for that; but if you have a mind to, you may 

 make it an even quarter." 



Now. who will say this is a hard world to get 

 along in? This man had not even learned my 

 name: and yet. after having shown himself so 

 neighborly, and bidden me make myself at 

 home in his bachelor quarters, he consented to 

 accept the twu coits odd change for the ac- 

 commodation I If I had gone on four miles 

 further, and asked permission to lie down, even 

 on a lounge, in one of the large hotels of the 

 city, the charge would have been .50 cents. 

 Give me the country, or little town, even if the 

 postoffice. store, and grocery are all in one. 



I passed through the beautiful city of Wooster. 

 stopping again and again to admire that grand- 

 looking pile of buildings called the Wooster 

 University, which is Sft upon the hillside so 

 that it is not only a conspicuous object, but a 

 thing of such beauty that it is a joy to the be- 

 holder for miles and miles in every direction. 

 When I was half way up one of those longest 

 hills south of the city I decided to wait till the 

 man who was before me slioild come up, so as to 

 inquire of him where E. ('. or VV. ,1. (ireen lived. 

 Did you ever! It was E. C. Cueen himself! 

 That was one of the hiippy surprises that I 

 blunder into now and then. I was tired enough 

 to accept his invitation to load my wheel into 

 the back end of his buggy, and then he turned 

 around and \v9.ninp hill in-^tead of down. lie 

 evidently divined that I would want to visit 

 their new greenhouses first. There are four of 

 them, and they are something over 100 feet 



long, and perhaps 20 wide. They are built with 

 the intention of testing every thing belonging 

 to greenhouses, evidently. For instance, one 

 house has the glass lap; another butted, and so 

 on; one house has the "meat-saw" ventilator; 

 another the Hibbard. and the other some other; 

 and I was greatly pleased to be able to put my 

 hand on the cranks, and raise the sashes by all 

 of the modern methods of raising and lowering 

 sash. The heating is to be done on a similar 

 plan; also the watering; and I saw beds made 

 expressly for sub-irrigation, others for sprink- 

 ling, etc. Finally I heard something said about 

 the Rider hot-water engine that pumps the 

 water from a deep well into the tank elevated 

 above the buildings. A brand-new machine 

 has been recently set up in the basement, and 

 the courteous and obliging engineer fired it up 

 expressly for my benefit. It will pump ten bar- 

 rels of water an hour, elevating the water 

 something like 100 feet, and the expense is only 

 2K cts. per hour, even when run by kerosene 

 oil. Now, here is a triumph of genius. A six- 

 horse-power engine can be run at only 2,1.2 cts. 

 an hour (cheaper still, I suppose, if coal is used 

 instead of oil), and yet there is no boiler nor 

 steam — nothing to explode nor blow up; no 

 water gauge, safety-valve, nor any thing of the 

 sort. I believe these engines are mostly used 

 for pumping, or for something where no great 

 amount of power is required. One of them is 

 used. I am told, in Wooster, for running a print- 

 ing press. When you want to start it, you take 

 hold of the fly-wheel and set it going. When 

 you want to control the power or stop it, turn 

 off the oil. After the apparatus is fully heated 

 up. however, it will run for fifteen or twenty 

 minutes after the fuel is cut oft' entirely. It is 

 very simple, clean, and neat. I was not able to 

 learn the cost. Finally some one came in to 

 say that the engineer was to keep on pumping, 

 for ihi'V wanted considerable water for the 

 steanidilcher. 



" Steam-ditcher, did the man say? Why, 

 friend Green, have you really got a steam- 

 ditcher at work on your grounds?" 



'■ Why. yes; and that is one of the tliinss. Mr. 

 Root, that you want to see." and so we started 

 off across the fields. But this paper is getting 

 to be so long I think I shall have to tell you 

 about it in our next. 



Ourselves and Our neighbors. 



For the Lord thy God brhigeth thee into a good 

 hind, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and 

 depths that spring out of vallej'B and hills.— Deut. 

 8:7. 



And Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and 

 found there a well of springing water.— Gen. 26:19. 



And the Lord shall guide tbee cO!itinnally, and 

 satist'x liiy soul in droutli, and mal<e fat thy bones; 

 and tliou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a 

 spring of water, wliose waters fail not.— Isa. .'iS:!!. 



Perhaps it is the present severe drouth that 

 still prevails that has set my mind to running so 

 much on springs of water; and very likely it is 

 owing to the fact that I have be.n somewhat 

 out of health, and find it difticnlt to drink to 

 my heart's conK'Ut unless I can find very pure 

 water. This latter has induced nie to rejoice 

 when I have found springs an I wells of pure 

 soft \s ater in my various trips on the wheel. 

 There is on(> locality in M(>dina Co.. about ten 

 miles from my home, where I especially love to 

 go. It is in the vicinity of a natural curiosity 

 called Spruce Run. A few weciks ago two of 

 our Sunday-schools here in the village held a 

 picnic in that vicinity. I had told the boys in 



