80 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



JAN. 



"The hands doubtless need it; pay them 

 an." 



Before we went to bed at night, I told my 

 wife all about it. I confess I had begun to 

 suspect it might be possible that some of my 

 friends feared, if they did not crowd me a 

 little and get their money pretty soon, that 

 perhaps they might not get it at all. Sup- 

 pose they should all hand in their bills, as 

 did the brick man, and say they must have 

 it immediately. It might make trouble, 

 without question. Said my wife, 



"What will you do, if they should?" 



"Ask God to send the money, or tell us 

 how to get it, as we have before. 1- ' 



"But, perhaps you are not doing right. I 

 cannot think that it is your duty to keep so 

 many boys at work, when you could get 

 along very well without them. You are 

 doing them little, if any, good. They ram- 

 ble about on Sunday, smoke and swear al- 

 most as much as if you had never tried to 

 have them do better. You are wasting your 

 energies, time, and money for them, and yet 

 they worry you almost to death, by scatter- 

 ing' things about in such disorder, breaking 

 the tools, etc. I do not believe you ought 

 to get in debt so, and I fear God' does not 

 wish you to keep on in this way. 1 ' 



These may not have been her exact words, 

 but they are the substance of them, and if 

 she did the boys injustice,' the fault was all 

 mine, for I have always told her all my cares 

 and trials, and she doubtless thought her 

 husband was all right, and the boys all 

 wrong. I see now, that a great part of the 

 fault may have been mine. 



"All to leave and follow thee," came into 

 my mind, and I told her we would kneel 

 down and ask God if it was his will that I 

 should keep these boys at work, and keep 

 trying to have them become Christians, even 

 though it did so little good. Still farther, 

 I asked him to give me a plain evidence of 

 his approval, by sending the money to pay 

 those bills, if it is his wish that I should go 

 on as I have been doing. This was ou the 

 12th day of Dec. 



Next morning, a visitor from quite a dis- 

 tance came in, and my work, writing espe- 

 cially, was so much behind, although I had 

 been up and at work long before daylight, 

 that I almost felt like refusing to stop very 

 long, but "All to leave and follow thee" 

 rang in my ears again, and I made up my 

 mind I would make it as pleasant as I could 

 for him, even if things did cross and vex me 

 exceedingly that day. lie was a very kind, 

 pleasant man, and, indeed, these friends al- 

 ways are. I like to show visitors around, 

 when the work is done with order and neat- 

 ness, but when I go into a room and find 

 dirt and disorder, it tries me exceedingly. 

 He wished to see how fdn. was made, and I 

 told the boys to start up; as it takes several 

 hours to get the wax melted, they had abun- 

 dant time to have their room in order; but, 

 on going in with our visitor, I was very 

 much vexed indeed, to find one side of the 

 room covered with dust and litter, and 

 worst of all, evidence all over the room, and 

 even all through the starch with which the 

 fdn. is rolled, of the presence of mice, in 

 great numbers. I presume the boys sat 



down on the boxes and waited for the wax 

 to melt, instead of sweeping and brushing 

 up. Again and again, have I urged that the 

 traps set for the mice be examined every 

 day, but they had been forgotten and neg- 

 lected. When I asked one of them, why the 

 room had not been cleaned up, I believe he 

 replied that he did not know I wanted it 

 done. I looked at those filthy black specks 

 scattered over the implements and in the 

 starch, and smelled the disgusting smell, 

 then I looked at a place in the rolls where 

 some body had rolled a piece of candy 

 through, and marred the rolls, and I was 

 discouraged and cross. I will not have such 

 work. I did not say it but I thought it, with 

 some pretty big resolves. It is well to think 

 so, but it is very wrong for me to say it out 

 loud. "All to leave, and follow thee." Yes, 

 with God's help, I will try and have no more 

 such work. 



As we walked down to the factory, I tried 

 to talk cheerfully, but it was only assumed. 

 Finally said I, 



"My friend, I am cross to-day. I was 

 going to take considerable pride in showing 

 you how we make fdn., but I have been aw- 

 fully humbled.' 1 It seems that this point 

 blank telling of the truth, even though he 

 was a stranger, was the surest way of mak- 

 ing the conversation interesting," although 

 I had no idea he would care about my trials. 



"I have had the same troubles, my friend, 

 and I would not bother with boys who are 

 so heedless. 11 



"But if I do not, who will? These boys 

 can all be taught neatness, I know by expe- 

 rience." 



"I dare not advise, 11 said he. "Go on in 

 your own way; if you have the patience to 

 do it, it is your work.' 1 



He was anxious to see a swarm of bees 

 transferred, and as Will was off on a visit, I 

 finally decided to have the engraver do it. 

 The transferred colony was put in the stone 

 bee hive over my office; he did it nicely and 

 every scrap was brushed up and put away. 

 He is an expensive hand, audi knew he 

 would do it well. Do you see the point, 

 boys? We pay him high wages just because 

 he is neat and looks after specks of wax not 

 larger than a pin's head, that they do not 

 get tramped down under foot. 



We started to go over to the apiary. Said 

 my visitor, 



'"Mr. Root, 1 wish to take a little liberty. 11 



"Anything you wish." 



"But I may'ask you questions you do not 

 care to answer? 11 



"I have no secrets in the world; ask any- 

 thing you like." 



"How much are you in debt? 11 



I told him as nearly as 1 could without 

 going to the books. 



"How much interest do you pay?" 



I told him. 



"Are others connected with you in any 

 way that would involve them, if you should 

 have bad luck?" 



"Only two people have undersigned me, 

 and they are well secured by mortgages, as 

 well as by an insurance on my life." 



"Can you not get money lower?" 



"Yes, but I should have to get signers. 



