344 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 



ant, cheerful smile and ways, made us all 

 feel a warm friendship for her. One day, in 

 making a purchase, she seemed a little em- 

 barrassed and finally suggested, half inquir- 

 ingly, that she would pay for it "some other 

 day," intimating that she had unexpectedly 

 run short of funds. I felt only too glad to 

 accommodate her, and after that she often 

 left little accounts unsettled for several days 

 or weeks. The book-keeper one day re- 

 marked that her account had run longer 

 than usual, and asked if Caroline should be 

 dunned. "By no means," I replied, for I 

 felt that Caroline was the very soul of honor, 

 and that all would surely be all right with- 

 out any reminder ; and so it proved. 



Time passed, and she one day came in 

 with a fine looking man who spoke English 

 quite brokenly, whom she introduced, 

 with a most becoming color on her fresh 

 rosy face, as her husband. How happy they 

 two always seemed when they came in to- 

 gether, and how plainly one could notice 

 that each one was bent on making the other 

 happy. Still later, a new baby was brought 

 along, and as he grew older, little trinkets 

 were selected for him from the contents of 

 our counters. As he got able to walk alone, 

 he became a favorite every where, for the 

 reason that he inherited his mother's bright 

 eye, and her peculiar, frank, friendly smile, 

 if for no other reason, and I often watched 

 the bright curly haired boy, as he looked at 

 the different things in the store with a child- 

 ish fancy and delight. Happy, innocent, 

 joyous childhood! O that angels might 

 guard you and preserve that innocence, all 

 along through this, so often, thorny path of 

 life ! 



Shut your eyes, dear reader, and when you 

 open them again, imagine a dozen years to 

 have passed. It was the close of a warm 

 day a year ago, that a boy came to me ask- 

 ing me to come and see a young man whom 

 he had found lying across the railroad track, 

 in the cut above, m a state of insensibility 

 from the effects of drink. There had been a 

 political speech that day, and the town had 

 been full of people. 1 found him scarcely 

 able to stand, but pretending to be very bus- 

 ily engaged in writing in a book, although 

 it was too dark to see a single letter. I 

 spoke to him, but he would not answer. I 

 tried all the plans I knew of, to get him to 

 tell me who he was, and where he belonged. 

 lie dropped his papers, and I gathered them 

 up, as he could not, but only got curses for 

 my pains. 



As he had evidently been going up the 

 track, I took him by the arm, and got him 

 to walk along, hoping the air and the walk 

 would somewhat revive him. lie soon be- 

 gan to show that he knew me, for he began 

 swearing about my Abbeyville Sabbath 

 school ; and finally from the words he quot- 

 ed I knew he had been with us, and had 

 heard my talks to the boys. Satan, speak- 

 ing through him, seemed angered and in a 

 rage, that I should interfere at all. We 

 came to a cattle guard, and when I wished 

 to assist him across he declared he could get 

 along better without any help ; being al- 

 lowed to have his own way, he tried foolish- 

 ly to run across the sharp edged sticks, with- 



out any care or regard as to where he placed 

 his feet. lie soon went down through, with 

 a crash that seemed as if bones must be 

 broken. As I lifted him out with expres- 

 sions of pity, he only laughed, and declared 

 that nothing can hurt a man when he is "full." 



"But you will know to-morrow, that you 

 have been hurt?" 



"Yes," he said hesitatingly. 



"What were you doing when lying across 

 the track?" 



"If you had let me alone I should never 

 have seen 'to-morrow.' " 



"Do you mean that you lay down there 

 purposely, that the train might run over 

 you?" 



"Yes, sir; and it is the very best thing I 

 can do as you yourself will admit. I have 

 listened to your talk in the Sunday school, 

 and I have wanted to be a good boy and 

 stop drinking, but I have sworn off so many 

 times, when it did no good that I made up 

 my mind I would make a sure thing of it 

 this time." 



"You would make a sure thing of not 

 drinking any more, but how about that life 

 beyond?" 



"I should go right to Heaven, for trying 

 to do right. God wants me to stop drinking, 

 and breaking my mother's heart, and this is 

 the only way I can stop." Do you see what 

 subtle crafty reasoning Satan employs with 

 the slave in his toils? 



"My friend, did you ever see a man who 

 had the delirium tremens?" 



"Yes." 



"If you lie on this track to-night, and are 

 killed, you will go straight to the abode of 

 demons such as that man saw, and you will 

 be tormented with them forever and forever. 

 The Devil has now got you in his hands, 

 and it is he who is persuading you to lie down 

 here, that you may be ever more his, and 

 lost to God and all that is good in this great 

 universe." I talked with him until he be- 

 gan to cry, and finally, in anguish, he began 

 to say, 



"O? what shall I do? what shall I do? I 

 thought this morning I should never get 

 drunk again, but the boys came around me, 

 and said they must have me to make fun for 

 them, and called me "Schumocher," 



"What did you say? Is your name ?" 



"It is." 



God, look down in pity and help. Help, 

 we pray thee, this poor misguided youth to 

 realize that there is indeed a God and a Sa- 

 vior above. Help thy servant to show him, 

 and make him realize, even while his poor 

 mind is clouded and blinded with the effects 

 of sin, that there is pardon, and freedom too, 

 for this galling bondage which has been 

 thrown thus early about his young life. 

 Thou who didst create this bright moon 

 above us, these green fields, and this bright 

 broad land of liberty, once. more, O Lord, as 

 thou hast in times past, grant us thy aid. 



1 took him on his way home far enough 

 from the track that seemed to have such a 

 fatal charm for him, so that I thought he 

 would not get back. You need not say he 

 was in no danger of being run over and mu- 

 tilated by the cars; for, from the daily papers, 



