894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1. 



anticipation was far worse than the realization? 

 When we set about doing right for Christ's 

 sake, even though it brought us away down into 

 the valley of humiliation, we have found some 

 pleasant and comforting things In the valley, 

 after all. A year or two ago I wondered how 

 people could bear it to be kept long weeks on 

 beds of sickness: and yet. after chafing over it 

 for a few days, after I had accepted the situa- 

 tion, and bowed my head in obedience to the 

 hand that laid me low, five weeks on a sick-bed 

 gave me a new experience of peace and tran- 

 quillity. In another column I have told ynu 

 how I undertook a very disagreeable and diffi- 

 cult journey through the night, and I did it 

 that I might remember the Sabbath day, to 

 keep it holy. Very soon after undertaking the 

 tasi< a wonderful experience of peace and real 

 enjoyment came to me, and stood by me the 

 whole journey through. 



Are there no foes for me to face ? 



Must I not stem the flood ? 

 Is this vile world a friend to grace, 



To help me on to God ? 



Since I must fight if I would reigei, 



Increase my coui'Mge, Lord; 

 I'll bear the toil, endure the pain. 



Supported by thy word. 



Notes of Travel 



On Saturday. Nov. 11. I started on another 

 trip for Summit Co. You may remember that, 

 on page .'■)34, I spoke of a commodious barn be- 

 longing to my cousin, D. E. Fenn, of Tallmadge, 

 O. It was built even before Terry made his 

 covered barnyard and large new barn. He is 

 the one who decided he did not want his straw, 

 his cattle, nor anything else, out during winter. 

 Well, a brief notice in the papers said this barn 

 was burned. It was scarcely a week previous 

 that I had looked over the barn, and had notic- 

 ed how he had got every thing prudently put 

 away, even to his Sunday buggy, which was 

 neatly covered with canvas. By the way. I 

 shall have to give you a hint, of how he manag- 

 ed this. The canvas covering was supported 

 by means of a frame just over the buggy, with- 

 out touching it, the front side being "loose so 

 that the buggy could be backed right into its 

 case, letting the curtain drop down again in 

 front. In fact, one could put it in its shell 

 again, and take it out so quickly, that it seemed 

 almost like sleight of hand. 



Well, a little before noon I came into the lit- 

 tle village of Tallmadge. As I turned first this 

 way and then that, hurrying to get around the 

 hill so I could get a glimpse of the premises, 

 hoping after all it was a newspaper blunder, 

 and that the great barn would be seen just as it 

 was the week before— if it were not for my 

 Home talk on another page I might almost 

 have wished it was the barn of somebody cJse 

 that was burned rather than one belonging to 

 my relative. It was but too true. The sight 

 that met my eye was the smoking ruins and 

 only a few pieces of old iron and a pile of ashes. 

 The barn burned just about 13 o'clock, in the 

 middle of the day. No one can tell just how it 

 got on fire; but the most probable cause points 

 a good moral to us all, and so I want to tell you 

 about it. 



Some weeks ago. two or three tramps or 

 gipsies camped under a bridge in the neighbor- 

 hood. The weather has been so dry that, under 

 bridges of late, one often finds very comfortable 

 quarters. Well, one morning cousin E"'eun notic- 

 ed bits of hay dragged along as though some- 



body had scattered them in carrying hay out of 

 his barn; but as well-to-do farmers do not usu- 

 ally make a fuss about an armful of hay. he let 

 the matter pass. A day or two later, in walk- 

 ing across his barn floor he stepped on a match. 

 Being in a hurry he thought he would go ahead 

 and investigate in regard to the matches at 

 some other time; but as he looked over his 

 shoulder, lo and heholdl the chaff and straw 

 were burning already; and he said that, by the 

 time he got there to stamp it out, there was a 

 place burned nearly as large as his hat. As 

 neither he nor his hired man. nor anybody else 

 ever carries matches about the barn, they con- 

 cluded they must have been dropped by these 

 stragglers that came after the hay. A search 

 among the straw revealed one more match. 

 Well, <^ven if matches were dropped on the 

 barn floor, it is hard to tell what should have 

 ignited one of them when both men and teams 

 were off at work in the fields. We might sug- 

 gest rats and mice; but neither Fenn. Terry, 

 nor other people along that line, have rats and 

 mice. Of course, the barn was not locked. Lil<e 

 most of us. Mr. Fenn has found it too much 

 botlier to fuss with padlocks and keys. His 

 good wife, however, assured me that, after the 

 new barn is built, it is going to be kept locked! 

 up nights any way. That new buggy and a 

 scoop-shovel were all that was saved. Mrs. 

 Fenn ran out and got hold of the buggy, and 

 started to pull it out; but it was too much for 

 her strength. Two neighbors undertook it; 

 but not understanding the kink of the cloth 

 cover, and the way in which the thills were 

 held up out of the way, they also failed. Just 

 at this time, however, the owner had got in 

 from the field by running his horses at the top 

 of their speed. He pulled the buggy out and 

 saved it; but the iron work on the thills was so 

 hot that the palms of both of his hands were 

 blistered. 



There have been a great many barns burned 

 during the past dry season; and a good deal of 

 the work, if I am correct, has come about, di- 

 rectly or indirectly from tramps. Just here I 

 want to tell you of another little incident that 

 does not belong to ivheel experience, but it 

 comes to my mind. Neighbor H. had some men 

 thrashing clover for him. The machine got 

 "out of kilter.'" and the men were poking their 

 heads inside of the separator, prying out the 

 trouble, and remedying it as best they could. 

 While they were at dinner the clover-stack 

 burned up. and several bags of high-priced 

 seed, including the expensive machinery. The 

 owners decided that some juveniles who were 

 out in the woods after hickorynuts must have 

 been the cause of the mischief, for the engine 

 was located on the windward side, and such a 

 distance away that sparks of fire from that 

 was out of the question. Where is the point ta 

 this story? you may inquire. Well, my friend, 

 I will tell you. These thrashing-men all smok- 

 ed pipes; and when the machine broke down 

 they needed their pipes if ever a man did — at 

 least, so they thought; and while they investi- 

 gated, with the dry clover chaff and dust all 

 about them, each one sinoked liis pipe. When 

 Neighbor H. told them it was not juveniles at 

 all. who probably had not been within several 

 rods of th«! stack, but tlieir nasty old pipes and 

 tobacco that did the mischief, they were offend- 

 ed. 



Nov. 8 I received a brief note reading as fol- 

 lows: 



Friend Root :— Can't you come over and see my 

 two and a qunrter miles of drainage while it is in 

 progress ? Write me what day, and I will be at 

 home sure. W. I. Chamberlain. 



Hudson, O., Nov. 4. 



So you see a part of my wheeling trip to-day 



