CJ LEANINGS IN JJEE CULTURE. 



635 



came into my heart, not because the way 

 was open to me to go on with my experimental 

 farm of ten acres. Init because one more of 

 the Bible texts and promises liad been tested 

 and tried. The spirit that Christ enjoins 

 had come out once more triumphant. 



The wagon came along a few minutes 

 later, and he looked pleasantly toward the 

 boys who had it in charge. As I rode along 

 home with tliem I told them how it had 

 turned out. 



" Now, boys," said I, '' don't ever any of 

 you say a word disparagingly of neighbor 

 or of his i)roducts. If his boys are sell- 

 ing tilings to any of our customers, let them 

 have the tia(h% and don't call tliere; and 

 buy llieir stuff of them whenever tliey have 

 any tiling that you need, even if you sell it 

 without any pioht." 



Oh. what a very, very pleasnnt thing it is 

 to lend assistance to a neighbor who is in 

 the same business as yourself, and to let 

 liim see that >ou are glad to help liim, and 

 glad to see Jiim prosperl Why, it is worth 

 moie than all the prolitable ventures any man 

 ever ma(h'! 'J'heie is one tiling i am feeling 

 a little badly about; and that is, that no op- 

 portunity has i»resented itself as yet for me 

 to show mygiatitude to my neighbor for the 

 kind way in which he has given way in this 

 matter of comi)elition. I have prayed for 

 him and for his motherless boys, for the 

 mothei- is now, while I write, no more. Ihit 

 such a multitude of cares press upon me, 

 especially since my absence of tliree days at 

 the State Fair, that many a thing 1 had 

 Itlanned to do has to be i)iissed by, as out of 

 The question ; but yet, amid all these cares a 

 bright gleam of sunsiiine seems to break 

 forth whenever 1 think of those words of 

 tliat old patriarch when he said, " Let tliere 

 be no strife. 1 pray thee, lietween me and 

 thee, . . . for \ve be brethren." In my 

 case, it is not exactly lirethren by lies of 

 l)lood, but it is an old neighbor: and what 

 term conies iieaicr to the title of "liielhren" 

 than the one of " neiglil(or"V How very, 

 very pleasant it is to be able to say," Notliing 

 but love and kindness exists, so far as I 

 know, between niij^ilf ainlmy neighbors"! 



A LETTER PROM W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



SHAI.r< OUU CHII.DItKN HAVE HAMMKUSANI) NAU.S 

 TO LOSE ANI> WASTK'.-' 



UlEND HOOT:— K' you arc busy now, don't 

 stop to reivil tliis letter. It isn't a business 

 letter; it is only, as our little girls say, ".Just 

 a 'jibber jabber' letter." Put it in your pock- 

 et, and read it at your leisure, or to Mrs. U. 

 this eveniiiK'. 



I was much pleased at what you said in reply to 

 one of the juvenile letters; i. e., let the little boy 

 use the nails; they are not wasted. Perhaps these 

 are not the e.vact words used, lait that is the mean- 

 ing'- It carried me back to my lioj hood days when 

 nails were .so hard to get. Just above our place, on 

 the Butternut Creek, was a saw-mill, and a great 

 many pieces ol' boards tioated down the stream and 

 lodged against logs. From this "flood-wood" we, 

 brother and I, used to pull out pieces of boards, 



"edgings" and the like, let them dry upon the 

 bank, and then drag them home to "make things," 

 to build dams, make water-wheels, wind-mills, saw- 

 ing-machines, etc. But, oh the struggle for nails! 

 Everj' old board and building was ransacked for 

 them; and if we didn't "find" enough, and took 

 some of father's, then how he wmiM "scold." 



I remember one time when brother and I had 

 carried some butter and eggs to a store about five 

 miles distant, and exchanged them for groceries, 

 and some tobacco for father, I bought two pounds 

 of nails, paying for them out of the butter and eggs, 

 and hid them in a log-heap when we got home. But 

 after we had gotten them in this way we couldn't 

 take any comfort in using them, and Anally went 

 and told mother all about it. After that she quite 

 often used to let us have a dozen eggs " to buy nails 

 with." I have not yet forgotten how firmly I re- 

 solved, if ever I had any cliildren, they should hare 

 all the >ir(i7.s- they wauted. 



Father was a pretty good father, but s<'ldoni took 

 nuich interest in our boyish plans and projects. He 

 had a chest of tools, and allowed us free access to 

 them, for which we have always been thankful. 



Well, at last I have children of my own, and they 

 use ten nails where I used one, even if they are 

 girls. In the shop are two large bo.xes in which are 

 thrown all the odds and ends, and the girls under- 

 stand that they can have any thing they find in 

 those lioxes. If they want any thing else they al- 

 ways come with a " Pa, can I have this':^ " They are 

 at lilierty to use the hammers, nails, and saw; and 

 so i>roticient have they Itecome, that when I hear 

 them sawing or pounding I sometimes think it is 

 someliody else, and go o\-er to see wlio it is. Their 

 latest production is a little bee-hive, aliout eight 

 inches long, fashioned after the Heddon hive. They 

 "got stuck" on the frames, couldn't make them, 

 and felt so l)adly over it tliat I eiune tf) the rescue; 

 and when the hive was finished, then they wanted 

 some t)ees in it, and teased so much about it that 

 finally I transferred a nucleus to it. The nucleus 

 had a laying queen. The bees were some of those 

 gentle Italiiuis from Cyula Linswik, and the little 

 girls go down and oi>en the hive several times a day 

 and " find the (Hieeii," sometimes without smoke, 

 and sometimes they light the smoker and use it so 

 tluty can be doing "just as pa does." 



How ownership does awaken interest in any thing, 

 doesn't it, friend U.'f I thought the girls had asked 

 me about all the questions alio\it bees that they 

 could think ol ; but when they became the happy 

 possessors of a little colony of their own, when 

 they could take their little chairs and sit down by 

 it and see their bees going out and in the hive, 

 */(('»i the questions came thicker and fastei-. I got 

 along very well until this one came: "Pa, what 

 shall we do with them so they won't die next win- 

 ter?" I said, " / am going to leed mine sugar, and 

 put them in a warm cellar." They guessed they 

 " would too." The twins are seven this fall, and Ivy 

 is nineteen months younger. 



What a pleasure it is to give pleasure, and espe- 

 cially so to give pleasure to those we lovel I won- 

 der if parents realize how much they might add to 

 their children's happiness liy taking a little interest 

 in their childish pleasures. 



I don't know, old friend, why I have written like 

 this to you. I just " felt like it," and that's all there 

 is to it. W. Z. Hutchinson. 



Kogersvillc, Mich. 



