1885 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



.59 



or cause me to withhold the right hand of friend- 

 ship from my comrades; buttlie pride that raises me 

 above all that is little, mean, and low. I live in a 

 free country, and am a free man, and I will not be a 

 slave to drink. I have a good wife and two little 

 ones; we are poor, but are trying to save money to 

 buy a home, and di-ink won't help me to do that. I 

 want to merit the respect of those around me; will 

 drink help me there? 1 will not have my wife pitied, 

 and sneered at as the wife of a drunkard, and my 

 little boys spoken of as drunkard's children. I do 

 not want any man on his death-bed to say to me, 

 'I am lost; you are the cause of it; you set me 

 the example; you gave me my first drink; I am lost 

 through you.' There is a curse pronounced upon 

 the drunkard. I am afraid! in the fear and lo\c of 

 God, I dare not drink. " 



And as he finished and stood there with folded 

 arms, and the fire of truth in his eyes, though his 

 garments were coarse and his hands brown with 

 toil, he was as noble as a king, and as brave as 

 famous warriors; one of whom the whole communi- 

 ty should be proud. 



There is a good and tender chord in the heart of 

 every man, if we only know how to touch it; and 

 now the saloon rang with the ciy, " He is right! he 

 is right! three cheers for Tom Denton." And he 

 who possessed the courage to brave the sneers and 

 ridicule of his companions, rather than yield his 

 firm convictions of ri^:ht, (r ((i\intenancu an evil 

 his whole soul loathed and condemned, liad i)rob- 

 ably that night sown sonic good seed which might 

 spring up and bear fruit in after days. With a firm 

 tread he left the saloon, ami walked down the street 

 to the humble happy home awaiting him, while 

 out on the night air rang again and again the tril)- 

 ute to true biinery, "Tliree cheers for Tom 

 Denton." Miis. D. T.vckeu. 



Now, little friends, whose slices would 

 you rather stand in— jxx*!- Tom's, as he went 

 off home that iiisiit, or in those of the men 

 whom lie left liehind liimV 



A GOOD HONEST REPORT FROM A 

 BEE-KEEPER'S DAUGHTER. 



W.VITING U.VTll, AITKU SW.\KMI.\(i, IIKKOUK IMT- 

 TINO ON THE SURPLUS RKCEPTACr.ES. 



fATHEK says he had no report to send in this 

 year; but I think every bee-keeper ought to 

 send in his report every year, whether it is a 

 good or a bad one. So I write to tell you wc 

 are not quite ready to go into Blasted Hopes 

 yet. The honey crop was almost an entire failure 

 here. We got only about 10(»0 lbs. Sold S^O lbs., 12',; 

 cts. per lb. There were only three others, that we 

 know of, in all the country around, that got even a 

 taste of honey, and some got only a few jwunds. 

 ■ We started the spring of 1884 with 51 colonies; in- 

 creased to only (i9, as we worked after the plan of 

 Prof. Cook (see June (J leanings, page 876, 1884). 

 Others waited till their bees were done swarming, 

 before they put section bo.xeson; and by the time 

 they were done swarming there was nothing for 

 them to make honey of. All the honey we got was 

 made before the 4th of July. This fall we doubled 

 up some of ours; fed some, and went into winter 

 quarters with 58 colonies. Louisa C. Kenneuv. 

 Farmingdale, 111., Dec. 2'.t, 1881. 



Thank you, friend Louisa. 1 naiQe with 



you, that reports should be sent in. even if 

 not encouraging. You bring out one very 

 important point ; and since you mention it, 

 I remember that a great many old-style bee- 

 keepers used to say that if you put on boxes 

 too soon the bees would not swarm, and so 

 they waited until the bees were done swarm- 

 ing, and the result was often just about as 

 vou state it. 



MINNIE'S TRIALS. 



J- WONDER if any of the other little girls who 

 - read Gleanings have as many trials as our 

 " Minnie. I hope not; but if you do, perhaps her 

 ■ experience will cheer you|up. Last week we 

 went [up to school, and one of the girls met 

 Minnie with "It's examination to-day," and Minnie, 

 sighing from the very soles of her shoes, said, "Is 

 that so?" And all that day she wrote and wrote, 

 working one example after another, eating no din- 

 ner, taking a two-minutes' walk by way of exercise, 

 and when 1 went for her at four o'clock she came 

 out and said she would not be through for an hour 

 yet, and I left her and came home alone. Minnie 

 wrote as long as she could see, then went home 

 with a schoolmate, and they wrote and recited to 

 each other till nine o'clock, and all next day it was 

 write, write, write, till after four. That night she 

 sang all night in her sleep, sang hymns and 

 snatches of comic songs, all night long. Ne.xt day 

 was Thanksgiving,' and I had put the turkey to 

 roast, and I wanted to lease it to do other work, so I 

 went in the parlor (where Minnie had been working 

 all the morning on an example in algebra) and 

 asked her to sit by the kitchen stove and baste the 

 turkey. She seemed stunned at first. " Why," said 

 she, "I've been working all the morning on this 

 example, gi\ ing my whole mind to it, and I can't 

 get it; how) could I do any thing with a turkey to 

 mind':'" I told her I thought she was giving too 

 much of her mind to it, that i)erhaps she could get 

 the answer sooner if she gave half of her attention 

 to the turkey. She went with a downin-t he-mouth, 

 dejected look, and in about half an hour she came 

 bounding back. " I've got it, mamma; I've got it! 

 and it was the very smallest thing that ailed it all 

 along; I wish you'.had set'me to basting the turkey 

 long ago." Then she flew to the organ and played 

 " Captain Jinks " and " Yankee Doodle," and ended 

 with " Hail Columbia." 



I was glad that her mind.was relieved, for I had 

 made up my m Iml. made it up as the laws of the Medes 

 were made, that if she sang in her sleep another night, 

 she should not go another day to that school. I 

 don't care if it is the best school in the county, and 

 sends out;the best teachers; I wont have one of my 

 children made crazy with these everlasting exam- 

 inations. Three studies to be gone oxer in one day, 

 and ICO questions in each, and every pupil must an- 

 swer 75 of them or be put back in a lower class. It 

 is murder most foul, murder of the brain. Physiol- 

 ogists say that 4 hours of steady brain work is as 

 much as one can stand with impunity; but these 

 girls wrote, and thought up what to write, a con- 

 stant strain on the mind for 8 hours. I'll have no 

 more of it. If Minnie can go along calmly and 

 quietly, and graduate, I am perfectly willing; but 

 any more of this sleep-talking and song-singing I 

 won't have. Mahala H. (iiAnnocK. 



Vci-mont, III. 



