tSE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



was pulled out. Father scolded and said the 

 buildings would be tumbling down if I did 

 not stop it. By the way, the cow stable was 

 put together with wooden pins, because of 

 the difficulty in getting nails. One day 

 when sent to a neighboring town with some 

 eggs to buy some groceries, I remember 

 buying two pounds of nails and secreting 

 them in a log heap near home. But when I 

 went to using them my conscience smote me 

 so that I had to go to mother and confess. 

 After that she often said : " You may get a 

 few nails if you need them." 



Speaking of the market-trip to a neighbor- 

 ing town reminds me how I enjoyed those 

 trips. The distance was five miles and my 

 brother usually went with me. To reach the 

 town before the summer heat should melt 

 the butter that we usually carried, we had to 

 start early. A part of the way we followed 

 an old lumbering road that wound about 

 among the trunks of great pines that stood 

 so close together that through their ever- 

 green tops there seemed to struggle down 

 only a "dim religious light." Occasionally 

 through an opening there would shoot in a 

 flood of sunshine bringing out in such strong 

 relief the gray-brown of the rough bark on 

 the great trunks of the trees. Now near, 

 now distant, could be heard the muflled 

 drumming of partridges. Overhead could 

 be heard the " voices of the pines." I did 

 not know that poets had sung of all these 

 beauties in the woods. I simply knew that 

 my heart was filled with a sort of subdued, 

 quiet, mysterious happiness. 



When a boy, I think I never longed for 

 any one thing so much as for a gun. When 

 twelve years old, father told me to wait un- 

 til I was fourteen and he would get me one. 

 It seemed as though those two years would 

 never pass away. When visiting my line of 

 traps along the Butternut creek, it was so 

 aggravating to see so much game and not 

 have a gun. I was finally allowed to cut five 

 cords of wood and draw it to market with 

 the "steers" and use the proceeds in buying a 

 small shotgun. When I got the gun I start- 

 ed out into a " slashing " where I was fortu- 

 nate enough to soon see a lot of nine quails 

 sitting all bunched up together under a log. 

 I fired and killed six. I was back home in 

 twenty minutes with those quails. Proud ? 

 Well, I should say so. Oh, the long tramps 

 I have taken with gun on my shoulder, com- 

 ing home so tired that it seemed as though I 

 could not put one foot ahead of the other, 



yet, in three days, I would be off on another 

 "hunt." 



One great difficulty in my youth was the 

 lack of opportunities to earn money. The 

 first money that I earned to amount to any- 

 thing was earned trapping. As soon as I 

 had money to use I began buying books. 

 This was after I had reached my teens. I al- 

 ways had a great desire to know the reason 

 of things, to delve into mysteries, to know 

 something about common things that every- 

 body did not know, hence I had books on 

 swimming, on trapping, on phrenology, 

 physiogomy, mesmerism, physiology, etc., 

 etc., etc. Of all the old books that mother 

 had, I think none were studied with more in- 

 terest than two on natural philosophy. It 

 was this trait of mine that led me into learn- 

 ing shorthand. 



At seventeen I began teaching school. I 

 taught seven terms. I liked teaching very 

 well but it was too trying on my " nerves." 

 From the time I was eighteen until I was 

 twenty-five I did a great deal of canvassing. 

 I worked mostly at selling picture frames. I 

 started out one day to try and take subscrip- 

 tions for a paper that offered three splendid 

 oil paintings as premiums. I worked hard 

 all day without taking a subscription. 

 Everybody said : " We have got more pic- 

 tures now than we know what to do with. 

 We will get some of those framed before we 

 get any more." I took the hint. The next 

 day I went to Flint and got some samples of 

 mouldings and went over the same ground 

 soliciting orders for frames to be delivered. 

 The first day I took orders for .^1.5.00 worth 

 of work. I worked at this for three years. 

 I doubt if there is a road in this county 

 that I have not traveled. This kind of work 

 is a great school for a young man. 



When nineteen I was teaching school one 

 winter and "boarding round." I came 

 across King's Bee-Keepers'' Text Book. Here 

 was a new mystery — one of those things that 

 I delighted to revel in. Upon inquiry I 

 learned that the owner had bees down cel- 

 lar. We went right down to see how they 

 were wintering. The next summer I passed 

 three days, while on a canvassing tour, at 

 the house of this friend. It was in swarming 

 time. The enthusiastic part of my nature 

 was roused to a pitch that I think it never 

 before had reached. I began studying bee- 

 keeping in real earnest. Every bee-keeper 

 was questioned ; every scrap of information 

 that could be found in papers was pasted in- 

 to a scrap book. 



