1885 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



860 



CHAPTER VI. 



In the sweat of thy face shalt thou cat bread.— Gex. 3:19. 



This book, you know, is to tell you what 

 to do when you are out of work, and also 

 how to be happy in doing it. Now, I think 

 a good many people spoil their chance of 

 happiness by being too ready to give up to 

 bad weather, a slight indisposition, and 

 other like difficulties in the way of making 

 every day count a good day's work. Last 

 night we made all plans for excavating dirt 

 at a rapid rate ])y the use of a team early 

 this morning. In fact, I asked the hands to 

 be ready, if they could, as soon as it should 

 be light enough to see. We were making 

 an outdoor cellar for fruits and vegetables. 

 Remember, it is now the .5th day of Decem- 

 ber. Well, in the night T was awakened by 

 the fierce howling of the wind, and was not 

 surprised when I went out before diiylight 

 to find the ground partly covered with snow, 

 and a fierce storm of wind and snow from 

 the north-west. Everybody shivered, and 

 told how dreadful the weather was. 1 ran 

 over my help mentally, and decided which 

 ones would be likely to be willing to go out 

 in the storm. 1 did not expect any of them 

 before daylight. I5at I did go out and work 

 half an hour myself with pick and shovel, 

 to see how much the ground was frozen, and 

 to see, also, how disagreeable it might be to 

 work out such a day. I want to explain 

 further, that I have been lately feeling a 

 touch of my old malady ; and when it was 

 time to get up in the morning, my joints felt 

 stiff and sore, my thro.it warned me of the 

 approach of the hard cold that for a year 

 back has been some way hanging al>out me 

 much of the time, and I had a sort of feeling 

 that may be has oftentimes tempted other 

 people, even before they are fifty, to think, 

 " Well, I am fast getting to be an old man, 

 and it would be nothing strange if my best 

 powers, both of mind and body, were passed 

 by. Probably ten years more and I sliall be 

 all gone to pieces, or laid in my grave." Did 

 you ever have such a feeling ? What did I 

 do ? Get up late, and drag around after I 

 got up, with a kind of long-faced, mournful 

 air and gait ? No, sir ; I did nothing of the 

 sort. I went and shoveled dirt until I felt 

 perfectly well, had a big appetite, and it was 

 breakfast time. When I got over to break- 

 fast, the baby bad the earache, and the oth- 



ers were so long in getting up, on account 

 of the cold, I was informed that breakfast 

 would not be ready for fifteen minutes. I 

 went back, and found one or two of the 

 most enterprising of the men, and made ar- 

 rangements to have the team and plow and 

 scraper start at once. I was told we had 

 no scraper suitable for the work to be done, 

 and borrowing one vras suggested. I do 

 hate the very thought of borrowing tools — 

 especially such tools. Our neighbor across 

 the way had just such a scraper as we want- 

 ed, but he loaned it to Mr. A., and Mr. A. 

 loaned it to Mr. B.. and Mr. B. said Mr. A. 

 took it home; but Mr. A. said Mr. B. took it 

 home, while my neighbor across the way 

 said it had not been brought home at all, 

 although it was loaned months ago. 



'' No, boys, don't borrow any scraper at 

 all. We will take that old one that we used 

 to fill underdrains with, and try to make it 

 work for to-day." 



They felt pretty sure it would all come to 

 pieces ; but I told them we would plow the 

 ground up very mellow, and take small 

 loads, and thus avoid not only breaking the 

 scraper, Init fretting the horses. It is now 

 half-past nine, and the scraper, in the hands 

 of careful men, is doing splendidly, even 

 though the thermometer is only 19 above 

 zero, with the wind blowing almost a gale. 

 The dirt moves beautifully, and the hands, 

 after being once warmed up to their work, 

 1 don't find it disagreeable. When I went to 

 put on my stockings in the morning, I found 

 one of them wet, on account of a hole in my 

 boot, and that accounted for the bad feeling 

 , in my throat, and rheumatic twinges in my 

 I joints. I put on some dry stockings, a pair 

 of overshoes, an old overcoat, and a pair of 

 ! woolen mittens that my good mother knit for 

 , me last winter, and I enjoyed working in 

 ; the dirt so much that I feel like laughing at 

 my feelings of the morning. I have not on- 

 ly all my natural energy, but I feel stronger 

 this morning than I did when I was twenty- 

 five or thirty years old ; that is, I feel more 

 like shoveling dirt and holding a scraper 

 now than I did then. More than all the rest, 

 my heart is full of thanks toward God that 

 I am permitted to work outdoors when I 

 know my health is suffering from too little 



